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Archive for December, 2013

An Unexpected Christmas

Posted in Faith, tagged , , , , , , , , on 24 December, 2013| 4 Comments »

Great fun retelling of the Christmas story. And also cute.

They won’t be expecting THAT…

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Getting Festive in the Vicarage

Posted in Family, Fun, tagged , , , , , , , on 16 December, 2013| Leave a Comment »

We have our Jesse Tree up. And the Christmas tree. We’ve not quite managed to retrieve the card holder from the cellar yet. I have made my first batch of mince pies. Things are beginning to feel festive. And this weekend, the Queen has been practising her festive cookies for a competition in school. She made the cookie cutters from aluminium herself in the tech lab. In the slideshow below is a picture is of the ones she made and iced with pukka homemade royal icing as a practice run before making some more to take to school for the event today.

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Messy Winners!

Posted in Church, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on 16 December, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Morning all. I have drawn names from a bread basket this morning and am pleased to announce that the winners of a free copy of The Ministry of a Messy House are:

  • fabulouslyfreefrom
  • Dawn
  • Jenni Thompson
  • Liz Davis
  • Claire
  • Keith Bools

If you email your postal address to thevicarswifey AT gmail DOT com, I shall package your book and send it out asap. Probably tomorrow, as I am away for the day today. If you didn’t win but still want a copy, ThinkIVP (my publisher’s bookshop) has the best price, but you can also get the book at Amazon, 10ofthose and The Good Book Company if that’s more convenient for you. Also available as an e-book, including a Kindle version, if you want to start reading immediately!

MMH IVP marketing tweet

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Advent: Winters to Glorious Summers

Posted in Church, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 13 December, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Glen Scrivener has produced another great spoken word piece this Advent. Christmas in Dark Places reminds us that:

He took on our frailty, he took on all comers

To turn all our winters to glorious summers.

Such a fantastic reminder as I gaze out on our bleak and misty winter churchyard, looking like a scene from Great Expectations. You can download the mp4 for use too.

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The Cleaning Fairies

Posted in Church, Inner city, tagged , , , , , on 10 December, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Actually, this is about the lack of them. When I see kids dropping litter (a not irregular occurrence), I ask them to pick it up and explain that there are no cleaning fairies and that we all have to pay to have someone from the council to clear up after us on the street. Sadly, when stuff is dropped in our churchyard, it’s unlikely that the council will clear up, and so it’s left to our congregation. We often see bags of clothes dumped on the streets around here and then rifled through. I’m not sure who does it – but it’s jolly annoying. And here is this morning’s cleaning challenge – or opportunity, if you want a handbag, which is what this collection seemed to mainly consist of:

IMG-20131210-00275

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Messy Advent Giveaway

Posted in Church, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on 9 December, 2013| 30 Comments »

If you’re like me, you probably have one or two (= about a hundred) things left to do to prepare for Christmas. Here in the Vicarage, we have been reading a few of the Jesse Tree readings at teatime but have so far failed to actually get a suitable twig to hang the decorations from. We’ve been pulling the decorations from their tin as we read. And then popping them back, saying ‘We must get a twig to hang these from’. And failing. Are things a bit upside down in your house too? Maybe you even have a few (all the?) pressies still left to buy. Or you need some encouragement in the final flapping. So, in a spirit of festive helpfulness, I have six paper copies of The Ministry of a Messy House to give away in time for Christmas.

Tell me below the latest you’ve been up wrapping on Christmas Eve in the comment box below and on Sunday evening I’ll draw six names out and post your book out first thing next Monday.

MMH IVP marketing tweet

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Unusual Harmony in the Vicarage

Posted in Fun, tagged , , , , , , on 3 December, 2013| 1 Comment »

Alas, the harmony is not between the Vicarage children, but possibly more surprising than that. I’m not sure whether it’s due to the advanced age and slothfulness of the Vicarage cat or the generally winning personality of the Vicarage rodent. But the cat shows no inclination to make micemeat of the degu. In fact there are occasions where it looks like they are sharing a small kiss. I’ve not yet managed to capture that, but here is a sample of their chilled relationship from yesterday evening.

Not quite the lion laying down with the lamb but a start, eh?

Almost the lion laying down with the lamb…

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An Unexpected Advent Thought from the Vicar’s Wife

Posted in Church, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 2 December, 2013| Leave a Comment »

This morning I clicked through to read the Advent thought from my publisher. And guess whose book it came from? Happy First Monday of Advent everyone!

 

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