Friday 22nd December - A Christmas Card to all my Blog-friends

 

I'm hoping that this will actually work, and that if you can print this out you will be able to create your own Christmas card from me to you...

It's the booklet from the Advent 2 Papercraft. 

Here is a summary of the blog post instructions that I've been emailing out to my family; 

1 print the image

2.fold it in half long sides together and crease, open out.

3. Fold it in half short sides together and crease, open out,

4. fold the short sides to meet at the middle crease, crease the fold and open out. Hopefully each picture should be inside its own frame of creases.

5. fold it in half short sides together so you can see the pictures. 

6. Cut a slit starting at the fold, just as far as across the top of the angel (or the bird). Open out

7. Take the angel and the dove and fold together, and at the same time fold the candles to the Happy Christmas greeting together, and at the same time push up so the slit opens and you can make the angel back onto the greeting and dove back onto the candles.     

Flatten it into a small booklet.

Ta-da!

Thursday 21st December - nearly all wrapped!

 One of my pet hates used to be wrapping presents after coming home from the midnight Christmas eve service. 

Every year would end in craziness and I would completely run out of tine.

There could be as many as a dozen school concerts right up to the end of term, and when I was the church organist there would be the Nativity service, Christingle, Carol Service, Midnight service, Christmas Day and and Sundays in between.

Come Christmas Day I would crawl home to get down to the business of opening Christmas presents and burning the Christmas Dinner....

This is the first year when all the cards (except the email ones), and all the presents (except for a few) are wrapped and ready and it's still 4 days before Christmas.  How can this be?

Perhaps retirement has something to do with state of affairs?

Piles of wrapped presents, and a steady accumulation under the tree...

I may yet resort to Jacquie Lawson cards for the email ones. I'm currently trying to create one that I can scan and email round for people to print out of they would like. I'm using the booklet format from one of the Advent crafts, which means 6 little pictures to paint and then the greeting to add.

One picture to go.

The actual card is under the protective sheet of paper I'm using to test paint colours and try out the angel. I've set myself the deadline of tomorrow to finish it.... fingers crossed...

Wednesday 20th December - snowdrops

 They snowdrops under the apple tree have flowered in time for Christmas Day every year for decades. 

Today we went out to look for them, and there they were, under a thick blanket of apple and oak leaves. We took the opportunity to move a couple of plastic garden chairs to somewhere out of sight. Once Himself  had cleared the leaves we found a goodly number of green spears and a couple of buds already showing a promise of the flower within.

Then the sun went in, and so did we, so no photograph today.

Tuesday 19th December - nothing to declare

 It's been a very quiet day.

I saw

a score of starlings descend upon my suet bird feeder and clea it1 in a matter of minutes

the ancient and battered cherry tree planted in the verge when these houses were built back in the fifties has come out all over in little white flowers like snowflakes,

an apricot cockapoo type dog being taken for a walk wearing sort a of four-legged neon yellow onesie. Its bottom was completely bare, well, furry, but not covered by the onesie. I did wonder if it felt chilly in the tail area, and how you went about dressing it in its knitted suit, and whether the dog felt sper smart/ or ridiculous wearing it, and if suit had to be washed every time...

Monday 18th December - Ordering online and knitting a bunny rabbit

 I've reached the moment that arrives every Christmas when I can no longer remember what I've ordered, what has been delivered, and what is still to arrive. 

Every knock at the door, and there have been several today, brings someone bearing brown card packages and boxes. It's like an early Christmas Day! I used to do most of my present buying from catalogues in pre-internet days, partly for the joy of unwrapping the presents before re-wrapping them and sending them on.

Inbetween the deliveries I finished off a little bunny rabbit. This was going to be a 4th Advent Sunday craft. I think I'm going to have to think of them as 'post-Christmas' crafts as Christmas Day is right after the 4th Sunday this year.

But here's the bunny as a super-quick little present.

Choose a nice soft yarn; I used a 'baby' dk and 4mm needles . You also need a bit of toy stuffing, a pom pom tail, and if you want to add eyes and nose, suitable yarn.

cast on 22 stirches and knit all rows until you have a square. Cast off.

Run a row of stitches along the blue lines, and put a little wad of stuffing in the centre of the triangle like this;

Pull up the ends of your stitching, pushing the the stuffing into the sort of pouch, and adding a little more if you need to.

Ears and a head appear. Secure the ends firmly and sew the back and base, inserting a tail as you go. My bunny has an ENORMOUS tail - it was all I could find!

Sunday 17th December - Pause in Advent 3 - Joy

 

First candle - Hope, second candle - Peace, today's candle - Joy

The collect for the third Sunday in Advent is very austere - like all the others. I think that religion in the time of the 1662 prayer book (originally written in 1549) was a pretty serious matter and mostly concerned with living a 'sober and godly life' in order to avoid the torments of hell.

I've seen enough medieval wall paintings of The Last Judgement when visiting ancient churches to give me nightmares were I to be faced with them at every weekly service back in pre-reformation days. 

Did the Christians of this time go in for joy? It seems a comparatively recent idea to me that we need not worry about being 'good enough' to be a Christian. The Law, summarised by Jesus, is this;

'“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself”' (Mt 22.37-39)

God is fully aware of how frail our attempts are to manage to 'love the Lord your God' in this way. Which is not to say we need not try to do so, but we needn't be completely fearful of the consequences of missing the mark.    

The Joy of Christmas, in my view, is that we can be forgiven our faults, and instead of being punished by God. He will forgive us and give us another chance - and another and another - if we are sincerely repentant and genuine in wanting to try. 

How shall we prepare and make ready for the coming of Christ? Like this? with joy and excitement?

Like this? With solemn awe and expectation?

Both!