Oh Christmas Tree...

The girls were fantastic on Saturday evening, helping to decorate the tree. Bob erected the tree whilst we sorted everything on the coffee table, into groups: round, wooden, soft, china, big, tiny, bells, angels etc.  Rosie stood on the sofa, I stood on the stool, and Jess handed us items to hang. Then Bob put the angel on top. We have three new decorations this year: The tiny bead angel  I made at craft group, a keyring which Ro and Liz bought back from Copenhagen in the spring, and a red plastic star. 

I think I may change the gilt chain on the Little Mermaid for some pretty ribbon. 

The star is just a red plastic one about 4cm across. It came from Wastesmiths in Great Yarmouth.  It is made from recycled plastic. Do check out their website. I was very impressed with their team I when met them in October. We cannot realistically expect to live in a world without plastic-  but we can do our best to deal with it responsibly. Rosie told me on Saturday that only 10%  of plastic which could be recycled is recycled. She also asked me to explain why I have a plastic Christmas tree, and not a real one! We do have a couple of real trees [OK, shrubs] outside the front door. We've decorated them with red "berry" lights. [Saved from the staircase garland - which went to a CS when we moved to a bungalow]

They look very festive, don't you think? When do you dec9rate your tree?

Reflecting On The Past Year...

December is a time for reflection, as the old year comes to an end, and we look towards the new one.
For many of us there have been times of deep sadness, as well as glorious flashes of joy. 
Sometimes it is enough to say 'I may not have got far, but at least I am moving in the right direction' 
And sometimes it is important to stop focussing on our own struggles, and encourage and help somebody else.
I'm not sure why, but the three creatures travelling together on this month's calendar picture reminded me of the Journey of the Magi. Here's TSEliot's poem, written a hundred years ago

A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

There must have been moments when they wondered if it was all worth it...but in the end, I am sure they knew it was

What Do They Mean?

I have come across various explanations for the Advent Candles. I am choosing to go with the Roman Catholic/Church of England pattern* this year [my Grandsons' school is RC, so I want to make sure we are all in harmony!]

1. hope
2. peace
3. joy
4. love

This helpful graphic explains in more detail [sorry, I do not have time to correct its spelling mistakes]

The third candle, also called the Gaudete candle is pink because that is a joyful colour, after the solemn, reflective nature of the previous two Sundays. 

* other church groups may have a different order. I'm a Baptist so utterly nonconformist.

If you missed last Sunday's post, that was all about hope so I am not repeating it!

I always wanted to make a Blue Peter Advent Crown, but my mother wouldn't hear of it. The idea of lit candles, swinging in the draughts and dropping wax on the rug, or maybe even burning the house down meant it was definitely verboten! 

May your 2025 Advent be one of helpful reflection and may you be kept safe from molten wax and conflagration!

Back To The Swinging Sixties!

Yesterday morning I went off for my Volunteer Visiting at the Hospital. One patient had a fairly uncommon first name, and I asked about pronunciation. Then I said "was your surname previously.....?" "Yes!" she said. "We were at school together, I used to be Angela Hall"  We spent ages reminiscing about old friends from Primary School and High School. Both of us left Norfolk for university and then returned four decades later. It was great to catch up. I came home full of memories of those school years we shared [1965-1973] She's hoping to go home from hospital soon, but we will keep in touch.

In the afternoon I tidied the back bedroom, and listened to the weirdest programme on BBC I-player. It was called The strange parallel world of Christian pop.

If you're my sort of age, and spent your teens involved with church youth groups, names like The Joystrings, Out of Darkness, Parchment and The Fisherfolk may sound familiar. If they do, you might find the programme interesting. In the evening, Bob and I watched an Australian series - Ms Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries on Prime. Also set in the 60s

Much muttering by me of "I had a dress like that!""That hat is all wrong"

The granddaughters had an inset day today, so the family are up for the weekend. Hot chocolate with marshmallows plus arts and crafts at Cornerstones. Grandad Bob was practising his Santa voice "Have you been good little children?" I said it was too deep and scary. Rosie pointed out that if his voice was too high, nobody would believe he was Santa. She told Bob he needed a "warm voice" 

As i said to my friend in the morning, in 1965 at Primary School, we would never have imagined where we'd be at 70 - retired and back in Norfolk!

Flash! Bang! Wallop!...What A Picture!

 

Nothing like a bit of Tommy Steele and his Cockney mates to brighten a cold wet November morning. You will remember we had our own Flash! Bang! Wallop! just five weeks ago with the spectacular demise of the microwave [Video here] John Lewis promptly supplied a replacement. And on Monday, that one went bang too! This time we asked for our money back. We suspect there was a batch of defective magnetics, and research online shows other people have had similar problems. We now have a similar Hyundai. 

What a Picture? Here's one to amuse you...

Bob has been asked to give out the gifts at the Chapel next week at the Toddler Group Christmas Party. Santa #1, who has done this for years, is just out of hospital, with a broken leg. Santa #2, who helped out last year, is about to go into hospital for an op. So Bob is stepping up as Santa #3. Except the costume was bought for #1. A small, slight man, it is Size L. Bob takes size XXL! Furthermore the beard and wig are a massive of  horrible static nylon curls.

Here he is in the unaltered outfit and itchy beard. I spent Thursday making a new beard using some white fur fabric from The Stash. I sewed fur and black gaiters to the bottom of the trousers legs, and let in some elastic into the hat so it would fit better. 

I hope there will a photo later of Santa in full costume, so we can "stick it in the family album"

Top Tips for working with fur fabric

• On the back of the fabric, mark the nap [direction] of the fur with a few arrows, so the pile runs in the right direction
• Use glass headed pins so they are easy to find and retrieve, and don't disappear into the fluff.

Teatowels, Dressing Gowns, Old Pillowcases - And A Nativity Costume Tutorial

When I was a child, I'm sure that costumes for Nativity Plays were just cobbled together from existing garments. Someone cut a head hole and armholes from a white pillowcase, and once you had a circlet of tinsel, that was your Angel's robe. And the innkeeper, Joseph, and shepherds wore their dressing gowns, with a check tea-towel tied on their head with Dad's black bootlace. Traditionally Mary had a blue shawl. Kings had cardboard crowns or Grandma's scarf wound into a turban.
Nowadays, it feels like even the preschool event requires hiring an outfit from the Royal Shakespeare Company! God bless all those teaching assistants and overworked teachers, who have assembled a class set of Nativity costumes which can be fetched out each winter and assigned to the cast. I checked back to 2014. I made 7 angel costumes, 7 shepherd outfits - and "camel humps and bodies" to go with the heads which the TAs had retrieved from the cupboard.
If you are handy with a machine, it doesn't take long to knock up an outfit though.

I found an ancient, much mended duvet cover in the loft. Bought in 1995 as a cover for a futon mattress, and patched with an old check duvet cover in 2011, and again in 2020. The fabric is so thin in parts, it is not fit for a bed anymore!

Rather than use my usual 'three rectangles' pattern I just cut out a front and back T shape with sloping shoulders. 

The neckline is a simple oval with a slit. And I put one belt loop in a side seam.  The side seams end in 10cm slits for easy movement. I used the check patch to cut two rectangles for the head-cloths and two long straps as tie belts. The waistcoat is a 45x90cm rectangle. Fold it in half at the shoulders. Cut a centre slit and curved neckline, and sew side seams to the armhole.

Finally stitch a loop of elastic or stretchy fabric 55cm long, and attach to front centre of the head cloth [75x45 - like a teatowel!] Tutorial HERE. All done and dusted. Ready to go off to Manchester

TOP TIPs

1. Aim to make costumes easy to put on, and generously sized to fit over regular clothes. If it is cold, children may want to wear tshirt and jogging bottoms underneath.
2. Are you dressing the child, or will the TA have half a dozen tots to get sorted? Make it easier for the dressers - the loop means you can ensure belt doesn't get separated from the robe, and Leo doesn't get Theo's sash. 
3. Likewise, the attached strap makes the headcloth easy to pull on, and shouldn't come adrift mid production
4. Shepherds are pretty rustic characters- so don't fuss too much about hemming and use non fray jersey
5. If anybody complains that your angel does not have wings, explain politely that in the Bible they are never mentioned as having wings - it is cherubim and seraphim who have them. [Exodus 25, Isaiah 6] 

THANK YOU to everyone who has made a donation to our Cornerstones Christmas Tableau-  either cash in the pink pot hanging by the display, or online. We have raised around £200 thus far, which is truly wonderful!

Goodbye, And Godspeed

This is Bob's birthday lunch three werks ago, when we went to Gem, the restaurant by Norwich Station. We are with our good friends Peter and Wendy [Peter is a week younger than Bob]

I am posting the picture now because today they are leaving Norfolk to go and live in Cyprus. I shall really miss them. When they moved to our area almost 4 years ago, they came to the Chapel. I discovered we had mutual friends in other parts of the country and we hit it off immediately.

Both Peter and Wendy have contributed so much to the life of our little fellowship.

Wendy and I have lots in common. But at least we have WhatsApp and can keep in touch. And who knows, maybe we will fly out for a holiday, and stay in their sunny new home...God bless you both