Dessert - Christmas pudding, AND trifle AND ice-cream WITH cream - well, why not?

The culmination of the the Advent journey is, for all clergy, a day of extreme busyness, whatever 'flavour' they are, and whatever their church does, or does not do, as part of its traditions.

When I left home this morning, it was quiet and largely still.  A few dog walkers and runners, and, in a restaurant, tables were being prepared for festive diners.

Morning worship with a combined congregation from two (or three) churches, and a lot of visitors, some of them simply curious. At the close of the serivce a young man approached me and asked if I knew of anything happening that he could go to today because he was an overseas student with nowhere to go.  What a thrill that he joined us, joined in - and afterwards told us he was a Buddhist!

Lunch was its usual fun-filled self and thirty-odd of us sat down to enjoy a good feed! Alas the man referred by social services was unwell and didn't make it, but at least I knew he had someone with him.  As we were packing up at the end, someone observed to me that you could tell I was a Baptist because I was 'fully immersed' in everything from taking the service to playing carols to serving lunch.  It made me smile.

Yesterday an online friend told me she had been telling her niece about this woman she knew in Glasgow, and the church that opened its doors to give a meal to lonely people on Christmas Day... appparently this earned the response, 'that's proper Christianity'... I'll take that!

My day is not yet done, but it has been a good day, a day that expressed so much of what Christmas should be.

Tomorrow I will probably sleep a lot - but for now, it's just good to rest content for an hour or so before venturing out for the last task of the day.