The thing I have enjoyed most about Christmas this year has been being with my family. All my three brothers with my sisters-in-law and their children, gathered at my parents' in Devon, our family home since I was 18. Great fun, if a little bit crazy. Probably what I missed the most Christmassing in Uganda...
But as well as that, I have loved...
Driving down a tiny country lane on Christmas morning to an ancient stone church stuffed to the brim with people young and old, for a short, child-friendly service, with carols, a simple talk and a candle stuck in an orange for each child to take away, and sweets given out at the door on the way out... driving back past sheep-filled fields and waving at a few people out walking their dogs...
Coming home to the log fire, and being all cosy and warm inside, then venturing out for a blast of fresh air, only to return to the fireside...(my Dad and my oldest brother, Nigel)
A traditional English Christmas lunch, including turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, bread sauce, roast potatoes, carrots, brussels sprouts, Christmas pudding, raspberries and meringue, mince pies, cheese and biscuits, ending with coffee and a selection of truffles, Turkish Delight, nuts and raisins, and of course a chocolate orange...
A tree stacked with presents, not particularly for me (!) but for all the family...
Seeing all the cousins together
... the freedom to drink alcohol (only little and often, as the doctor ordered, right?) - especially red wine, gin and tonic, sweet sherry, Baileys...
Down time with my family...
Watching the Queen's speech - an annual event at 3.00 pm on BBC 1 - and loving hearing her give a truly Christian message about Jesus coming into our lives at Christmas, about the need to forgive one another and help and support one another, it was really good...
And tomorrow we still have to fit in our Christmas hike on Dartmoor, carol singing around the piano, our annual game of charades... still a lot more fun to come!
I have also thought a lot about our friends in Uganda and wondered how all the families there have been, and whether they have had enough gas to cook on, and whether they killed their turkeys in time - and fed them enough first -, and hoping and praying that, even though far from home and extended family, and even in the heat and sunshine, they have been able to know the tingling excitement of remembering the Baby born in the stable all those years ago...
Welcome all wonders in one sight!
Eternity shut in a span.
Summer in winter, Day in night,
Heaven in earth, and God in man.
Great little one whose all-embracing birth
Brings earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth.
Richard Crashaw, 1613-1649
Eternity shut in a span.
Summer in winter, Day in night,
Heaven in earth, and God in man.
Great little one whose all-embracing birth
Brings earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth.
Richard Crashaw, 1613-1649
I hope this post doesn't serve to make those far from home homesick, but rather to pass on from my experience the encouragement that there will be traditional, home Christmases in the future for you too! And that the tradition, and the luxury, of a family Christmas (especially when it is laid on by a Mum and Dad!) is all the more lovely when one has missed it for a few years. And also the caveat that I have had to search for the meaning of Christmas, to cling to the story of the stable and all it held, all the more in the midst of the food and drink, talking, planning, reuniting and game-playing... And without the meaning (by my observation), it all seems so empty, extravagant, and, even, reckless...
Happy Christmas everyone!
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