She Had Us In Stitches!

Last night's group was brilliant - Ann displayed dozens [literally] of her beautiful handmade quilts- many of which she laid on a sheet in the middle of the floor. Smaller items she passed round for us to look at in detail. She covered the piano with a blue sheet and pinned lots of quilted Christmas decorations to it. I took lots of photos - and for some reason, sadly, only two have come out!

They show the audience listening intently, and the quilt Ann is making for her grand-daughter's Christmas present [it's OK - she has already seen it] Ann's talk was interspersed with poetry and humour - and we were a very full house. Altogether an enjoyable evening with much laughter - and more mince pies.

I went off to school very early - simply to retrieve the Palm Tree [the Nativity Plays have happened, and the Hall is being cleared for another Christmas Fete] On the journey I was listening to Jonathan Sacks on 'Thought for the Day' - and excellent piece about the upcoming meetings in Copenhagen, and the Bible's advice about caring for the environment.

No sign, as yet, of the man with the new windows. Which is a pain [pane?] because until that is sorted, I cannot really start putting up decorations. My good friend Helen, who has just started writing a blog, has posted a thoughtful quote from Jack Hayford on the subject of Christmas finery...

"Decorating the house at Christmas is neither a surrender to pagan traditions not a capitulation to commercialism. Listen:

If God commissioned angels to roll back the night and fill it with
blazing light,

if God provided a celestial choir to serenade a few startled shepherds and graced the heavens with a miracle star,

if God went to all this trouble to open our eyes to His entry into our world, then we needn't apologise for festooning our home with a few seasonal reminders!"