It was always going to be hard to return to Mum & Dad’s after such a lovely time with friends. Friends who made us feel so very welcome, let us use their washing machine and tumble drier, fed us and generally enjoyed having us to stay. That Babs and Chris have been amazing to us this year 🙂
Our run back south was a nice straightforward one. Just 30 miles from home we ground to a halt on the M23 and fire engines screamed past us but we were within sight of the car on fire which was causing the delay so were able to watch the emergency services swing into action, prompting discussions about how such incidents are managed, how they already have planned responses to such things and how every person deployed will have a very specific role with someone clearly in charge making it all happen smoothly. It was an interesting example for the kids of how stuff like that can all happen.
We arrived back around 4pm and after unloading the car we all had baths. I had first bath and then nipped up to Sainsburys for emergency quick dinner food for Davies and Scarlett along with ingredients for a curry for the rest of us later. We have all been eating together but I was very conscious of the need for an earlier night for the kids, not to mention catering for them as they were really hungry having woken late for a 10am breakfast, then traveling through lunchtime sustained only by apples, a handful of twiglets and some sherbert lemons which were all we had in the car.
Mum arrived home from work and I brushed Scarlett’s hair which was possibly the most tangled it has ever been. I was not sure why but have discovered today she has started twirling it which tangles it into knots. I fiddle with my hair too, but not close to the roots as she is doing. I’m slightly concerned that she is developing a few nervous type habits although she seems otherwise content and okay. Maybe it’s simply tiredness rather than anything concerning.
The kids went off to bed and we sat down to curry. Ady was chatting to Mum and watched that dancing program final with her while Dad and I sat in the kitchen and chatted. He has clearly missed us while we’ve been away and it was nice to have a good talk with him. We straightened out a few things about our future plans which feels positive to have done. I know he is far from convinced but I hope I have at least allayed his fears a little about the whole thing. I suspect every step we take closer makes it more real to him, neither of them said much about the newspaper article, although they did love the video clip of Davies doing Jake the Peg so they are not totally without emotion ;).
I had full intentions of blogging but by the time I got into bed I was really tired, it all having caught up with me so I went to sleep instead.
Sunday This morning we all got up late, my sleep pattern and certainly the kids too are totally screwed up. I can’t decide if this is a problem or not really… I’ve spent some time flickring through out the day and finally blogged camp too although there is so much resistance to me being on my laptop that I struggled to get it done. Not sure why it is perfectly fine and acceptable to sit infront of the TV for hours but less okay to be on the internet, I’d have thought the laptop was actually more interactive than the TV…
Mum and I went to Sainsburys for dinner for tonight and tomorrow. I’d decided in the car yesterday that I wanted to go to a carol concert this year and proper googled to find one near to here, turning up the big walking distance church having a carols by candlelight service tonight at 630pm, which Davies and Scarlett had said they wanted to come to with me. Mum had originally said she’d come too but changed her mind at the last minute. Scarlett said she thought maybe she had upset her by saying ‘we’re going to the carol concert at the church, you can come too if you want’ as she’d gotten a sarcastic reply. Scarlett also said to me ‘I think Granny might despise Christmas. It must have been hard being a little girl at Christmas with Granny and Grandad.’ Perseptive child 🙂
So I cooked dinner for 4pm so we could eat before we went and very nice it was too, roast beef etc. I also spent time watching a film with the kids eating popcorn as I’ve not spent nearly enough time just hanging out with them lately. They were so pleased when I appeared in their bedroom and said ‘shall we watch a film then?’. We snuggled up all together and watched Fox and the Child with me just nipping out every so often to check dinner. Ady and Dad watched a football match on TV and I’m not sure what Mum was doing. We’re planning to watch something festive every day now til Christmas.
After dinner we donned coats and gloves and walked along to the church, about 15 minutes walk away. We detoured to walk past as many houses as possible to look at people’s Christmas lights. It was a gorgeous clear, starry night, crisp and frosty and very Christmassy. The church was already packed when we arrived, half an hour before the service started. There was an adult choir singing and then the service which was a very interesting and challenging one. The readings from the bible were all about men doing dreadful things and women being badly treated. They were all relations of Jesus and included things like prostitution, double crossing and general sinning. It felt very strange to be listening to all that in what had been billed as a family service. All interspersed with carols, songs by the choir and for all to join in with. Finally the vicar spoke, using his apple mac laptop with it’s shining apple logo to read from – an ibible 😆 He started with a fairly conventional Christmas reading and then asked how we’d all felt when the service had strayed from the path we’d been expecting, how we had felt when tales of sin and highlights of humanity’s worst had been put before us. He talked about Richard Dawkins and how challenging religion and faith is right and necessary and how God isn’t really there for the people who go along thinking they are mostly doing alright, but for the people who are not doing at all alright. He then said he would pray and if we felt we could join with him in prayer, in accepting God’s invitation to be saved then we should stand and pray with him. He stood with eyes closed praying aloud while a few people stood straight away. He then asked again for people to stand if they joined with him and only about a quarter of the congregation stood. It was slightly akward with people glancing at each other and clearly not sure what to do. There was a feeling that if you were not there to answer that invitation then what were you there for and I guess that is a pretty good question really… I know we were there for the singing and the pretty lights. Scarlett whispered to me to ask if we were supposed to stand up now and I said only if we wanted to.
On the way home we talked about it all at length, what Christmas means to us, what beliefs we have and whether we should have been there. It was a very interesting service.
Back at Mum and Dad’s the kids got ready for bed while we sat and watched various things on TV and had some pate on toast. It’s even feeling festive here and Mum put their tree up while we were away. I am trying not to feel aggreived that she did it without the kids who I know would have loved to have been involved but it’s all very tasteful and understated which isn’t really what the kids would have pulled off :).
And now it would appear I have sat up too late again….