The reason.....

If you haven't seen the Social Networking Christmas (click here !) then you MUST take a look!! Saw it last year and thought it was fab then.....forgot all about it until I saw it afresh this morning....it's really very good!!


Jesus rules and reigns, He rose from the grave, He is the saviour, the counsellor, the comforter, He is the rock, the fortress, He is our strength and our song and of course, He is the reason for the season....
Must dash - we have a mountain of presents to wrap !

Christmas Dinner !

For Christmas Dinner this year we have :-

Traditional Turkey
Pigs in blankets
Carrots...

Christmas Pudding

Holding hands...

This morning, like many other mornings, I awoke holding Ellie's hand. We often go to sleep at night holding each others hand....we seem to instinctively reach for each other as we drift off to sleep...partly we still don't believe that we really have one another (that we are in fact married!!)...partly it's because we've both held onto the hand of somebody we've deeply loved, and it's all been taken away. So we know that we need to make the most of our opportunities and cherish the moments that we have. One day it will all change again - it's very very real to us both.

Holding onto the hand of the one you love is so special....it speaks of companionship, friendship, confidence, security, trust, intimacy.....

Thankfully there is ONE who holds onto our hand through every stage of life, every day, every moment...HIS hand will never be taken away.

Isaiah 41:13 - For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.

Psalm 73:23 - Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand

The Quibbler !

So, we were volunteered for an article in the Christmas edition of "Woman" magazine...they wanted to interview a new step family heading into their first Christmas together, and Care for the Family Charity suggested us.

Apart from a couple of Rita Skeeter specials, the article reads generally ok....
Seems a bit strange though to be in a magazine as a new step family heading to Christmas - neither of us had ever expected to be here, and we don't really know what we're doing !!

The good news and the bad news....

The good news is that (amazingly) I have managed to get an entry into the Olympic Park run on 31 March next year...it's just 5 miles but finishes in the Olympic stadium....the first person across the line on the day, as I understand it, will be the first person ever to make it across the line at the stadium at a proper event! So I will be running alongside 4999 other lucky ballot winners....the bad news is that it's the day before the Reading Half Marathon which I also have a confirmed entry for (doh !)

Let's face it....I don't have a hope in heaven of winning but I might just step up the training a little bit in preparation !!

Other good news is that the house selling plans all seem to be going smoothly....draft contracts have been sent, survey has been completed....so today we're over to New Malden to do some packing !!

Last night....

Ellie and I went out last night to the Hexagon Theatre in Reading to listen to Rob Parsons from Care for the Family. They are the organisation that ran the bereavement course where we first met. He's such an inspirational speaker, has some brilliant insights into parenting and families and what's really important....as expected he gave us lots of food for thought.

At the end of the evening he asked us to all write the names of children that are important in our lives onto a paper cut-out of a hand...there were only 4 pre-printed lines available which made us both chuckle (we added an extra one !!).
On the bottom of the paper cut out are the words from Isaiah 49:16 :
"I have engraved you on the palms of my hands".

Rob prayed for our children. I cried. Ellie cried too. We held onto each other !

Fabulous evening....boy, do we know how to have a good time??!! :-)

One down, one to go....

Sold subject to contract.....hooray !
Have told purchasers that we want to exchange and complete in 6 weeks. Hopeful I know but there's no chain so we'll see.

Good news !