Merry Christmas

A very special welcome to everyone who is visiting after receiving our annual newsletter and wondering what the Derbyshire household are up to over Christmas. Well we have been hanging items on our Jesse Tree for most of advent and it will soon be complete. This year Nettes did a brilliant job of painting some branches that she found and we have one or two new figures. Having just had the living room plastered and painted we are wondering where to stick our autumn leaf card holders and I am getting ready for one of the big food shops early tomorrow morning.

I think we will start our family tradition of our twelve days of Christmas on Sunday. We have twelve nice meals and exchange small gifts each day usually after the meal. Our most special meal we will have on Monday and this time it is a Thai Green Vegetable Curry. This year will be a bit different as Nettes is doing a spot of agency work and will be helping out in a care home on Tuesday and Wednesday (Christmas Day and Boxing Day) and maybe on a couple of days the following week. But we are happy with this and will no doubt enjoy all our twelve days equally well.

Ten Things I Did For Easter

1. On Palm Sunday, Nettes & I taught the kids in our Sunday school, using pictures around the room to illustrate the story.

2. As a couple we did Bible reading and prayer times each night throughout the week including an interesting activity.

3. On Good Friday we broke bread with Matzo crackers together round our coffee table with nibbles to remind us of the last supper.

4. On Saturday Callie and I helped build an Easter garden for a local parish church.

5. Then in the evening I went to their Easter vigil service – a very dramatic lighting of the Pascal candle in a darkened building.

6. On Sunday morning we boiled our eggs with dyes. The one tie-dyed with a red onion skin worked best.

7. I encouraged Callie to wear her Easter Bonnet to church – a hat she had decorated herself.

8. We enjoyed the Easter service at our church especially the talk aimed at the children.

9. For lunch I cooked a leg of lamb and Callie made the table decorations.

10. On Easter Monday a dozen or so of us played 'C is for Chocolate' - a murder mystery jigsaw puzzle game.