Thank you Angela who awarded me this prize in the latest blog-tag game!

The rubrik of the tag-a-long runs thus:

This award is meant for people who are positive, show gratitude, and of course: make lemons out of lemonade!

The rules for this award are that you post the graphic for it, write a post that links back to the giver, and then pass it on to up to ten others. Leave a comment on the blogs that get the award, so they know what's happened

I'm not sure my alchemy skills run to making lemons from lemonade - but hey!

I'm not intending to add a load of links to other blogs - some people hate being tagged thinking it is not even vaguely fun, and all of us are way too busy to do so even if we think it is fun.

So, this prize goes to those who have stopped by over the last year, especially those who have left comments, emailed or phoned me, and been generally supportive and encouraging during the "ups and downs" of life at Dibley BC this year.  If I go for special mentions, by way of thanks, someone will get missed, so forgive me for not doing so.  Instead can I use the 'space' to 'pray out loud' for Lucy seeking settlement (happy birthday for tomorrow); Sean, Katherine, Sophia & Lucy (another one) off to Australia (hope you get over your lurgy quickly!); Steve soon to leave for Africa; Julie at the end of NAM (yeay!); and anyone I know who is faced by challenges and changes in church/vocational life.  All sounding like a radio 2 dedication slot now!

Still looking to spend some of the money I've recently been given, and seeking to plug another gap on my bookshelf, I am wondering what, beyond Bosch, which I have, I should read on missiology, specifically in a UK context?  Any suggestions?

Today I met up with my sister and her children for the traditional pre-Christmas gift swap.  A drive over to Cambridge, lunch at the children's favourite pasty shop and then a film.  All good fun.

It seems the URC minister's cold is running about 3 days behind the Baptist version - or the Cambridgeshire version to the Leicestershire version, which ever it is, anyway, I supplied her with throat sweets as we sniffled and sneezed our way through the film.

What really made me smile, just as I was about to leave, was her comment that, 'even after all these years people are STILL asking me if I'm Catriona's little sister.'  Seemingly in recent weeks two URC ministers have asked her this question.  I thought it was funny; she of course, did not.  Some things never change!  Not sure I can help knowing a fair smattering of URC ministers as well as Baptist ones though.

I was in town today, buying odds and ends, when I spotted a rare sight - a little girl of around six, striding through the rain, wearing a pink fire-fighter's helmet.  I was struck by how faintly ridiculous it was - and how great it was too.  A bit like a God who sneaks into earth as a newborn baby really.

I meet a lot of ministers who say that the idea that ministers are especially busy at Christmas is a myth.  I wonder what planet they live on!  Granted, I don't spend as much time writing carefully crafted, hopefully profound, sermons as at other times of year, but the sheer quantity of services, and all the intricacies of ecumenical negotiations for collaborative outreach mean one heck of a lot of work.

This morning I have been printing service leaflets -  fifty, on white with coloured bits, for Sing Christmas; 200 on pale green plus 10 gargantuan print for Sing Like an Angel (our tea-then-carol-service outreach); 150 on yellow - and do I need any gargantuan? - for the Christingle service.  Then there will a couple of dozen of Christmas Eve communion, and trust the Meths to sort the ones for Christmas Day which they are hosting...

In the coming days I also have the lunch club Christmas dinner and a trip to a 'living nativity' with the reception class at school as well as the usual round of hospital visits (I assume there are churches where no one spends Christmas on the NHS...?) meetings and administration.

What excites me is the potential to interact with anything up to 500 people in a week, sharing with them in some small measure what this season is, for Christians, celebrating.

Already I have the onset of the "ministers' Christmas cold" (obligatory in this community, it seems) but am looking forward to the coming few days. I am happy to have a Christmas rush, not unhappy to miss Christmas TV for hospital visits and ferrying lonely souls to and from lunch out at a restaurant.  As for those who see Christmas as a slow down time in their ministry - well that's fine; just maybe they miss out some of the delight as well?