Christmas Day.

A Happy Christmas to you all.

Yesterday evening we both went to the Midnight Service at our local church. As we walked through the mild night air admiring people's Christmas lights we could hear the muted sounds of the church bells. Out in the country the bells rang loud and clear but in town there has to be consideration for all the people hoping for a peaceful night. With the same thought in mind my friend Janet had got permission to bring her dog to church. Misty is elderly and currently unwell and also possibly due to her earlier experiences (she's a rescue Jack Russell) she now barks when left alone in the house. Janet was reading one of the lessons at the service so I volunteered to look after Misty when needed. Misty was well behaved and once I let her peer out of the pew she was fine. The church, St Mary the Virgin is 13thC and the seating is still the old fashioned wooden pews. As expected the hymns were traditional carols which I find very high and difficult to sing. Instead I dropped an octave to tenor? range and with Peter - bass on one side of me and Janet - soprano on the other we did our best to represent the community choir. English main-stream church congregations tend to be very diffident in their singing, unlike the Fellowship Church we attended for a long time. Pilton Church is large and last night there were about 50 of us in the congregation. Janet remembers, as we did at the village churches, that the church used to be jam packed for the Midnight Service with late comers having to stand. For the last hymn of the service we all lit the candles we had been issued with and the electric lights turned off. A reminder of past times. With chatting to people in the church and then in the street as we made our way home we didn't get back until 1.00. 

I'm glad we had planned a quiet day as although I slept until 9.30 halfway through the morning I was overcome with intense tiredness. A rest on the sofa with a mug of fresh coffee and a croissant and telephone chats with both the boys saw the tiredness clear thank goodness. The rest of the day has been spent quietly watching episodes of Cadfael which I had taped. Despite being made in the late 90's they are well acted with reasonable story lines, and enjoying some of the goodies sent by family and friends. Having begun the day with fudge, Roly's of course, I don't think I could have eaten a full Christmas dinner without either falling asleep or indigestion or both.

The lovely felted mouse which stands about 6 inches high was made by one of our choir members. I had oohed and aahed over it at the craft sales evening at choir so Peter had secretly arranged to buy it for me. It fits in nicely with the other decorations which were presents from the youngsters and I hope one day will hang from a homemade driftwood Christmas tree. Once I'd taken the photo I had to put them away as Speedy, who had ignored his various cat toys, decided that they were perfect to play with.