The end of last night's festive meal - which I think went well, and I certainly enjoyed myself.

Berries with edible glitter - or are they glitterberries?

We had a lovely time, fusing oodles of cultures and customs, so that we had Yorkshire puddings and turkey, skirly and mashed potatoes, a rutabaga torte and onion gravy, nut roast and cauliflower... and much more.  And, even though I love them, not brussels sprout in sight!

I loved that in terms of nationality and parentage we were so multinational, multi-ethnic and multi-age... the youngest was 15... the oldest, well, it it wisnae me! All young at heart, eachwith stories of our own family customs.

I think B summed it up best for me.  Handing over a bowl of delicious skirly (an Aberdonian delicacy) she said, 'for me, this is always Christmas'.  R told us that her family always begin Christmas Day by singing 'happy birthday' to Jesus. For others the things that 'make' Christmas are different, and equally important.

We started our meal yesterday with a toast in 'fake Buck's Fizz' and concluded it (because we kept forgetting to do so) by linking hands 'Auld Lang Syne' style to pull our crackers.  The jokes were, as ever, corny - but it wouldn't be Christmas without them... or glitter, or a table groaning under the weight of food...

Thank you so much to F, R, B, L and A for sharing a fun night in.

There is a verse in the hymn 'Amazing Grace' that had (rightly) fallen out of use until Christ Tomlin decided to reinstate it when he 'updated' the hymn...

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow

The sun forebear to shine

But God who kept me here below

Shall be for ever mine

This is bad physics, and bad theology!

For a start, snow does not dissolve, it melts.  Were it to be able to dissolve, it would have to be immersed in a solvent - and given that snow is water, and water is a solvent...

Secondly, the idea that earth (and, for that matter, heaven) are dispensible is not good theology, and inconsistent with the sweep of scripture.

But then, as the study guide reminds us, we have the puzzling words of 2 Peter 3: 10 - 18:

"The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

 Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

 Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him,speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."

As the writer of the study guide notes, this passage has the potential to foster a consumerist attitude to our plant, that it is going to be destroyed anyway, so why bother caring for it.  Au contraire! As followers of Jesus, and as part of God's creation, being 'ready' includes caring for this beautiful planet , which is within God's plans for redemption and re-creation.

The prayer:

Holy God, moment by moment make me more and more like you. Increase the holiness and godliness within me.

In a two-year-old tradition, the Clepto Kitties decorated their 'Catmus' tree and created a 'Kittivity' of their toy mice, birds, fish and other creatures.

Yes, it is pretty devoid of taste, but it is fun.  Here the lion lies down with the spider, the turkeys greet the new-born mouse-child, fish swim in a blanket sea, and a choir of angelic mice announce good news of peace o earth, and good will to all mousies, birdies, fishies, other animals and humans.

A little bit of sillyness is surely part of what this season is about - it doesn't come much more silly than a deity born in obscurity and almost killed before his story began.

The humble swede/turnip/rutabaga before it was peeled, cooked, sliced and reassembled into a 'rutabaga torte' with creme fraiche and parmesan.  Something very simple, very ordinary, made special.  That probably sums up Advent and Christmas.

Looking forward to a yummy festive dinner with young adults this evening.

Three quarters of the way there! And today we are invited to think about the virtue of waiting, or perhaps more accurately, the perils of impatience and instant gratificaiton.  I was midly amused, as I am reading this book in digital form, that the writer used ebooks as an example of this lived impatience - there is surely some irony that they are happy to sell (and preusmably receive royalites for) a book in this format, whilst using it as an example of impatience.

If you are still reading these thoughts, and have strayed with it this far, you clearly do have patience - patience to wait to see what will appear here, and when; patience to stick at it even when some days it doesn't engage you much; patience to journey for forty days rather than the customary 24/5 (or even 22 in its shortest form) version.  Thank you for sticking at it - we are nearly there, only ten days left to go now... we can do it!

The prayer:

Ever-living God, God who is not restrained by time, grant me greater patience that I might wait on you - both in contemplation and stillness, but also to wait for your coming at the end of time.  Like the farmer waits patiently for the crops, may I wait patiently for you.  Amen.