As is tradition, we started off December with our Advent calendars. Thankfully, Advent actually started on the 1st this year! I had the 3rd year of my book club Advent calendar (that came with 2 books this year!) and Joel and I shared another Exit game calendar. This year the theme was movies and "The Missing Hollywood Star.” It was so much fun. On the day in the picture, we used a rubber band to make an instrument that could pluck out the tune to Jingle Bells!
On Sunday the 8th I finally led my first Christingle service. This is a popular tradition in the UK that I’ve heard about the past few years, and this year we did one at Caldicot. We did it as an “all-ages” service on a Sunday morning and even though we only had 5 kids I think the adults enjoyed it too. I also did a modified version of it at Penycamawr in the afternoon.
We used the rest of a Waitrose gift card to place our traditional Christmas cheese order, and I couldn’t resist adding in a few other festive foods as well. These bao buns were only okay taste-wise, but look how cute!
On Friday the 13th we took a random day trip to Milton Keynes for...reasons. This is a town that most British people think is terrible, but we like it! We went to a movie, checked out an amazing local game store, and ate dinner at a pub. Look how cool the game store is!
On that Saturday we decided to revive a Christmas tradition from my childhood - making gingerbread houses! We used a kit and Joel made a train, not a house, but it was so much fun. We used all the candy that came with and some we have had lying around the house for far too long (we don’t really eat candy but it comes in my book boxes often!) Look how cute they turned out!
When we went to Milton Keynes, we ended up getting a small crack in our windshield from a stone that popped up from the road. Getting it fixed turned out to be easier than we expected, it was both covered by our insurance and AutoGlass came out to the house to do it! It was so convenient to have them come fix it right in our driveway.
On Friday the 20th we celebrated Joel’s birthday early as this is when our friends were free. We started by going over Steve’s way to have lunch at a place that just opened called Meat Mafia. They serve American BBQ and it is the best place for that we’ve come across in the UK! The burnt ends were amazing, the brisket was delicious, the sauces were excellent, and the mac and cheese was wonderful. (I’m very picky about restaurant mac and cheese since I make a killer homemade version.) Perhaps the biggest surprise was their garlic bread that is the best I have ever had! It didn’t look like much but it was incredible. They refused to share the secret for how to make it, lol. After hanging out with Steve we headed over to Amy and Ben’s for a fun night of playing Magic.
On Sunday the 22nd, I led carol services at Caldicot and Gwehelog. Both went well and Gwehelog had the most amazing treats available after the service. Just look at these festive cupcakes!
We were planning to spend Joel’s actual birthday just chilling together at home, but at the last minute, Amy and Ben texted to say they were home after all and did we want to hang out. Of course, we did! So we drove up for more games, and they gave Joel a present, a balloon, and had a cake with some candles for him.
Christmas Eve is probably my favorite work day of the year, though this year I’m glad I only had 2 services instead of 4 like last year. At 4:00 I led the fully candlelight service at Penycaemawr, which is always beautiful. Then at 11:15 I led the midnight service at Caldicot and rang in the chimes of Christmas Day at precisely 12am. It was fairly well attended this year as one of the ladies who went last year talked all her friends into coming because she loved it so much!
I got to sleep around 2:00am, then was back up at 9:00 to go lead the Christmas Day service at Caldicot. I enjoyed it though I do miss getting to sleep in after a late-night Christmas Eve service! The rest of the day we spent eating cheese and watching our favorite Christmas movies - although we skipped Love Actually this year and watched the pitch meeting for it instead. We did watch Die Hard and Love Hard! We also opened this epic gift from Steve (the pillow) and I got my Christmas Day book from my book club Advent calendar. Oh, and we skipped the King’s speech this year in favor of a nap, I just don’t appreciate the King like I did the Queen.
I am a bit ashamed to admit I spent Boxing Day taking down the Christmas decorations. I know, I know, Christmas lasts until 6th January, but I was just ready for a clean slate this year. I snapped a pic of some of our Christmas cards on the kitchen cabinets to preserve the memories.
On the 27th Joel drove to London to pick up a visitor…Jacob came to visit for the 3rd time this year! We are so happy to have him here through the new year and we are playing tons of Dominion and Magic together. We were especially excited because he was able to courier some Magic cards we bought that were still in the US due to shipping costs. I was going to get them in January, but this way we got them that bit sooner!
At the last minute ordered a Christmas dress from Popsy on the 20th, so it didn’t come until the 27th. Luckily it’s still the Christmas season so I wore it to church on the 29th. I don’t have a photo of the whole dress but look how perfectly the fabric matches my NYE nails!
For NYE, we gathered Steve and Jacob and headed up to Amy and Ben’s to spend the day playing games and the evening ringing in the new year. I wore a new fabulous sparkly dress, and the best photo I have of it is a selfie I took with the dog, so here’s a photo of Merlin and me.
The 31st also happens to be Ben’s birthday so we had more cake and candles!
The bacon ranch cheese ball I made ended up being the star of the show as everyone raved over how delicious it was!
We played several rounds of The Worst Game Ever, Robot Rally, and Dominion to help keep us up till midnight. Then it was time for my annual sip of Prosecco while watching the London fireworks on TV!
This is a blurry picture from Steve’s phone, but I just had to include it. We were so blessed to ring in the new year with such a great set of friends!
Here’s to a fabulous end to 2024 and a great start to 2025!