Author’s Note: I stopped blogging regularly in 2020, but now in 2024, I am using Google Photos, Google Maps timeline, and my old planners to recreate a post about what we were up to each month!
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I was so looking forward to the first Friday in November as I got to have really cool experience one can only have in the UK! Way back in 2019, I visited the New Room in Bristol - the oldest Methodist church in the world - for the very first time. On November 4, 2022 - I got to lead a service and preside over communion there! It was a lunchtime communion on a Friday and was not highly attended, but it was still an amazing experience to have as a lover of Methodist history. Joel took this photo of me from up in the balcony.
Here is my view of the communion table. There were still Covid precautions in place, thus the serving of communion wafers from a muffin tray! That’s not a British tradition, lol.
Outside of the New Room, the Christmas markets were in full swing! We enjoyed shopping the booths and then tried a food I had seen recently on Instagram - a yorkshire pudding wrap. They take all the trimmings of a Sunday lunch and wrap it up inside a giant yorkshire pudding like it’s a burrito, then everything gets smothered in gravy. It is as delicious and as messy as it sounds.
That also happened to be the day that we finally joined Costco, which was life changing in its own way, hahaha.
I didn’t take any pictures until the next week when we had a game night with Amy and Ben and Steve. Joel ran a role play game for us which was super fun and ended up with Ben’s character, Jeremy, turning into a talking poodle. [Author’s note: We still occasionally, affectionately, call him Jeremoodle!]
On Friday the 11th we took a trip to London, stopping in Windsor along the way. We didn’t go in Windsor Castle (it’s pricey) but we enjoyed wandering around the outside. It’s located pretty much in the heart of the town!
We ate lunch at a Chinese buffet (yum) and then had fun with this display outside one of the museums.
We were heading to London for a Eurovision event at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. Steve won tickets through his Eurovision fan club and invited me to go with him - Joel was our chauffeur.
I might have enjoyed the event if it weren’t for the absolute crush of people inside! It was like the idea of social distancing had never existed, I hadn’t been that close to people I’m not married to since my college days, lol. The one Eurovision star who was going to play wasn’t coming on till after midnight, and we ended up leaving before then. I think Steve learned I’m not a good companion for these things - I’m too old now, hahah.
Sunday the 13th was Remembrance Sunday and after the parade from the Shire Hall to the memorial, I helped lead the outdoor service in Monmouth, alongside all of the other town clergy.
In a charity shop earlier this year I found a poppy scarf that I was excited to wear as a makeshift stole for this service.
On the 15th, we got the keys to our new manse! Now, this might feel like it came out of nowhere, but we had been in discussions about this since August. Due to my commitments in caring for so many churches, and the extra responsibility of many funerals in the Caldicot area, we discerned with the circuit leadership and our new superintendent that it would make sense for Joel and I to move to Caldicot. So on this day we ate lunch on the floor of the Caldicot manse, though we wouldn’t move fully for another week.
As you can imagine, that next week was full of packing and planning and preparing so I have no pictures until the day the moving truck arrived! On the day before Thanksgiving, we loaded up the truck and said goodbye to the Monmouth manse…
…and hello to the Caldicot manse! I was very impressed with the movers who got it all done in one day, even with a slight rain delay at one point. There were efficient and helpful, even putting beds and other furniture back together for us.
Moving the day before Thanksgiving meant I wasn’t up for hosting or even cooking anything, so thankfully Rachel stepped up to host this year. We had a small gathering at their new house in Newport.
And then suddenly, though it was still November, all thoughts turned towards Christmas. That Saturday was the tree lighting in Caldicot and I was invited on stage to give the blessing. The lights were turned on and they even had fake snow!
The rest of the month passed in a blur of unpacking, shopping at Ikea, putting new furniture together (this house has almost no built-in closets so we had to buy wardrobes), cleaning, and all of the various assorted work that comes with moving into a new place. But we were excited to finally be in Caldicot!
XOXO, Bethany