Wreaths, bands and fire alarms.

I hardly know where to start. Life moves at such pace!

Something gentle (and perhaps a little sad?) to start with. Having an abundance of garden, and a BBC Gardeners' World magazine for inspiration, I figured I'd make a Christmas wreath. "How hard can it be?", I thought to myself. Turns out it's not hard at all. Time-consuming, yes, but not particularly difficult. So here's a picture of the finished wreath. For those of you who are interested, here's the recipe:
Lots of willow,
Some holly,
Some evergreen branches.
Some baubles.
Some ivy.

Take the willow and twist it into a circle. Add more willow. Add more willow. Keep adding willow until you have lots of willow in a big twisted circle thing.
Jam some little bits of evergreen (nordman fir, in my case) into the willow. Add some more, because it doesn't look very good. Take half of them out, to see if that looks any better. Conclude the evergreen isn't really working out, remove it all and discard.
Hang some baubles on the willow.
Decide the baubles look naff and discard.
Twist the ivy around the willow.
Go and steal some holly from a neighbour (I know I said we have loads of garden, but our holly's not as nice as theirs, and we know them, so it's not really stealing)
Jam the holly into the willow and twist it round a bit. (Similar to the evergreen, but it's in longer bits, so is twistier-able)
Look at your creation and declare it to be fit for display.
Show everyone who's interested (not many, in my case) what a clever person you are.
Hang it on the door.
Take photos to put on your blog, and show friends on the underground (though my sister-in-law was lacking the appropriate level of awe at my genius)
Await compliments from all those who behold its loveliness.
Still waiting ...



Then there was the concert. Fabulous. Delirious (the band, not a description of my mood).
Hammersmith Apollo. The last ever (short of any comebacks...) concert they will do. It was kinda poignant to be fair. And loud, really loud. Great fun too - they've had a great ministry over the last 17 years, and are clearly greatly appreciated. The audience was good too. I guess you're gonna get a fair number of die-hards at a thing like that! The guys were really grateful to God and to all those who'd supported them. I'm guessing the feeling's pretty mutual. Not sure who's going to step up the the plate now that Delirious are leaving the scene, but I hope they're good and well-focused, whoever they are.

The only downside was getting into bed at half two this morning, which is really a little late. Especially when the fire alarm then goes off at 6.20. About as far from ideal as you can get :(

Our swim this morning was a no-show, so Joshua was a bit disappointed with that. But when I then took him to school for the nativity rehearsal, he sort of dismissed me with a kiss - I guess he's settling in! I was going to hang around an wait for him, but his teacher and I decided I may as well come home again and pick him up later, given how settled he was. I'm sure there will be more to say about the nativity in future.