PS

...but I have missed Tim (and timbo, as you're just about the only person who reads this, I thought I had better give you a mention, see you soon pal x

Christmas 08

..had probably been my best yet

My family are awesome and spending time with them is a joy (mostly). Sadly Dad has spent most of Christmas ill in bed with flu but the last couple of days he's been up a bit more and it's been lovely to spend a bit of time with him. Its hitting me a little how much I will miss them while Im away,so time together has been especially precious. There has been lots of laughing while we've been together and they're great.

I also got a few lovely christmas presents. I didnt really want much this year, but got a lovely watch, and some money so i've been able to get a few bits and pieces for my travels (for my travels??new clothes lol, hardly for travelling, just for me lol)



I also went to a lovely Christmas eve service at Portsmouth, and a freeeezing sunday morning service at Hedge End this morning. It is nice to do church with my family.

I may just be converted to liking Christmas...

My weekend in Pictures

Sweaty For Jesus

My favourite video, as per the debate over lunch on Thursday

freakin' awesome, even if I do look like a man

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2777985

LOL

Much as this is not in the spirit of my last post, it did make me laugh aLOT


(I have no clue how to embed it, dont judge)



http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kX8A6IaLRT0

It's Christmas....apparently

Im not a big fan of Christmas, as anyone close to me knows. Mum and Dad worked every Christmas day til I was 17, and I often resented it. I rarely resented Mum and Dad devoting so much of their time to helping people, but as a kid, I resented Christmas day. I have since repented for this LOL.

However, we do have certain family traditions that make Christmas special. On Christmas eve, we always share a Cheese fondue which has become one of the most important events of the year for me. Then we all settle in for a Christmas film. This is more important to me than Christmas day, and especially as I will be away for a good chunk of next year, Im VERY excited about this years fondue.

I have not been carolling at all this year. This has been most peculiar and a little sad. It made me miss the hotch potch band at Wetherby that always had a good giggle in the market square.Even last year I managed to carol with them, but this year I havent managed a trip up north.

I have done some nice Christmas things, I went to the Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park briefly in the rain, I went to the army's big do at the Albet Hall (my thoughts on that could be a whole blog in itself, but probs too political), I went to a carol concert (well, half of it) at the Royal Festival Hall with Hannah Piper, I went to the THQ carol service, and today I went to the social services department Christmas lunch which was super.

One thing that has happened while I've been working in social services, is that, almost hourly, we get phone calls from people saying things like "I'll be sleeping on the streets this Christmas, do you have any beds?" or "I've just got no money, and my kids are asking for presents for Christmas, and I can't even afford to put food on the table" or a hundred other heartbreaking stories. It is so hard to hear, and even though we do all we can and in some situations we're really able to help, it puts something of a different slant on Christmas for me. In the current financial climate, more families than ever are dreading Christmas rather than relishing the thought, and it makes me ask more and more questions about how we celebrate and what it's really all about.

The challenge for churches is always how to put the Christmas message in a new and clever way, and some do it brilliantly...others not so much LOL. I always remember Ira Thomas putting this in a christmas letter to the Singing Company YEARS ago, and I hope I will keep this in mind this Christmas...

“The omnipotent, in one instant, made himself breakable.

He who had been spirit became pierceable.

He who was larger than the universe became an embryo.

And he who sustains the world with a word chose to be dependent upon the nourishment of a young girl.


God as a foetus.

Holiness sleeping in a womb.

The creator of life being created.


God was given eyebrows, elbows, two kidneys, and a spleen.

He stretched against the walls and floated in the amniotic fluids of his mother.


God had come near.


He came, not as a flash of light or as an unapproachable conqueror, but as one whose first cries were heard by a peasant girl and a sleepy carpenter.

The hands that first held him were unmanicured, calloused, and dirty.


No silk. No ivory. No hype. No party. No hoopla.


Were it not for the shepherds, there would have been no reception. And were it not for a group of stargazers, there would have been no gifts.”~Max Lucado

Things I dont like at the moment

• Never seeing sunlight...arriving at work in the dark, leaving work in the dark, sitting in a building with tinted windows that is so hot we have the fans on...so confusing.
• The effects of crazy heating system in THQ on my skin
• Having no decent shoes
• being cold
• people talking about Christmas all the FLIPPIN time (im so not a christmas fan)
• The animals running down the outside walls of my house all hours of the day and night
• The smell of my house
• my inability to say no to anything containing cocoa
• arguing with people I love
• my hair, its peculiar at the moment
• working somewhere where I come into contact with SO many people in genuine need and not being able to do anything to help them.
• Pasta, i have gone RIGHT off pasta...

Things I love at the moment

• Greys anatomy and Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey)
• www.watchtvsitcoms.com where I can watch Greys Anatomy
• Bryn Christopher
• Sara Groves
• www.lastminute.com and my cheap nights out with Ben and Sarah as a result of their crazy theatre deals atm
• Porridge for breakfast
• comparing the temperature between London and Melbourne, watching one go down and the other go up and getting excited for 6 weeks and 4 days (eeee)
• Counting down to Melbourne (did i mention it's 6 weeks and 4 days?)
• My family (I always love them, but im taking them for granted less lately)
• My new dior foundation (ImI's influence)
• My new purple "pants to poverty" pants
• My oyster card (it took a looooong time to convince me)
• the fact that Im going to Melbourne in 6 weeks and 4 days
• bumping into Tim Stone at work, this is a nice thing, i usually get a hug out of it. Tim is lovely.