Christmas 2018

We have seen various members of the family over Christmas. Son number three and his wife arrived the Friday before last and stayed until the following Thursday before heading to Yorkshire. Number two and his wife could not come until Christmas Eve. We were a modest seven for Christmas lunch then. Boxing Day the Aberystwyth family arrived (five) plus Eleri's youngest sister and family from Cardiff (five) and her other sister and family from Wiltshire (three) and her father and his wife. So we were an amazing 22 before the end of Boxing Day. The Aber Bradys stayed longest (right up until today).

We had a service on Christmas day and it was gratifying to see 40 there altogether. There were visitors, a family from the Korean church that uses our building, some neighbours, etc. We sang a capella as none of pour musicians were around but that was fine. I preached on Luke 2:19,a  good choice. The sermon wasn't short but as we sung only three hymns and had no collection or children''s talk, it was all over in under the hour.
There were lots of presents at home, spread over several days. I'll report on the books later. We enjoyed games (Chameleon was the main one - quite satisfying; also Chain reaction), chatting, quizzes, an almost completed jigsaw, lots of food, not much TV (although I've managed to keep up with University Challenge bit by bit), etc.
On the Thursday we had a long walk along the South Bank and then on the Friday on the Heath, taking in a house where D H Lawrence once lived. So there was some exercise.
We missed Gwion over in the USA, of course. In the midst of that I was preparing for the Lord's Day, which I hope to report on soon.