Friends

Well you've probably noticed the name change and the style change... that's because Beth is going to post here too which I'm thrilled about.
We have a few relaxing fun days watching movies and having lots of friends round. I managed to get some blurry photos of Mandy & Will & family who are very special friends, we love that Sam & her Mum have made driving up from Pembrokshire with chocolate cake & Christmas cake, part of their Christmas tradition and Cath & Richard who go to the church we used to go to came with 8 of their 10 children. Other visitors have managed to escape being photographed.

Boxing Day Breakfast

Early this Boxing day morning we sprang out of bed and did the 2 hour drive up to my parents in Manchester. Tony & Debbie with Aidan & Mattaeus have just flown in from their 3 months in Australia and drove up to Manchester with my lovely Auntie Sylvia for a couple of days. It was really wonderful to see them all again after so long and it was great to see how well the children all got on so naturally.
We arrived to a fabulous buffet breakfast; bacon, sausage, ham, fruit, breads, cheeses, pancakes & maple syrup - It was worth the drive!

I didn't manage to get a family photograph this time so I've attempted to compile my own!
I love that all the girls in the house went for a coffee and left the men to play charades with the children. It was hilarious with giggling till it hurt. There are some seriously unflattering but fun photos here that I could get sued for except I didn't take most of them!
We had a great day and it was really good to come home to a log fire and Christmas Dinner leftovers

Happy Christmas

We've had a really lovely quiet Christmas day at home. This is the kids with one or two of their presents and this is Christmas dinner... delicious over-indulgence.

Grandad the Gravy Monster

Although you are little
I think you should know
before you get older,
or sprout up and grow

that inside this family
there's a terrible tale,
it's a horrible secret
regarding one male.

For behind his kind eyes
and his white head of hair
with mad football watching
and Coronation Street cares

Your grandpa's not grandpa
all of the day
he's really quite different,
come closer, I'll say.

He's the last gravy monster
that lives in this land.
You watch him at dinner
he'll eat what he can.

He eats it on chicken, on peas
and his mash.
His cornflakes, his kippers,
his slippers and cash.

He puts it on ice-cream
and drinks through a straw
on his toast and jam
one grandchild, she saw.

But if you have doubts
that all this is true
then when he runs out
just watch him turn blue.

He'll rumble and grumble
a monsterous roar
"The gravy boats empty....
I WANT SOME MORE!!!!!!"

A Beth original!

La Tasca

It's almost midnight and we're all sat in the posh lounge with the Christmas Tree watching Pride & Prejudice. It's been a fun day. Halandra was upset when setting up Monopoly for the second half of her 'head to head' with Andy to find that the photograph that was taken for accuracy had been doctored! (I had 'photoshopped' 6 hotels on Andy's properties.)
This afternoon Adam (my brother) & Rachel popped over with Jacob, Amelia, Elijah & Zachary their children. Beth & I walked along the road to visit Granny Smith and Mike too (and Elliot the dog!) which is always a giggle - Flo was visiting and she was great fun too. When we got back all the children had settled down on the floor to watch 'Cars' on DVD. So Beth & I made Welsh Cottage Pie for everyone for tea. Yummy ... except for Beth's lumpy potatoes!
With so many people and stresses of the season it is important to take regular breaks so we all went into Manchester and then over to La Tasca for a lovely Tapas meal. It was the first time Megan Joff & Hally have had tapas and they loved it. We went round the table and all said one positive thing about each other person there . My children delight my soul when they behave so wonderfully and act from their personalities.

Christmas Comet!

Well.... here we are at my parents home, ... the presents are under the tree, the fairy lights are twinkling, the destructive comet hurtling towards earth with 'Christmas' emblazened on it it is just 3 days from impact and already the tensions and insatiable expectations of the season seem to be smothering the beautiful and spectacular joy of remembering that it was the birth of Jesus that is the most amazing intervention on this earth since creation. What an incredible act of Love, patience and commitment to step into the midst of us, as one of us, to make such a perfect strategic game move that it flipped destiny 180 degrees and now I KNOW God for eternity! Thank you Father!

It is lovely that Amie is here with her 'boyfriend' Andy. Halandra & Andy seem to get on well in a 'cat & dog' kinda way! After an intense competition between serious rivals on the monopoly board and an installment of 'the oven saga', we all headed of to Manchester's Imperial War Museum.

It is a very impressive building meant to represent sections of the earth.
There were all kinds of display vehicles and armory… after posing in front of a tank Andy thought he’d display his mechanical knowledge and work on the caterpillar tracks?
We enjoyed coffee & muffins with fresh clotted cream & mini jars of conserve whilst Hally selected the music. (All these pictures expand if you click on them.)
There is a tall tower with 161 steps I believe which we all just about managed, leading to an open air viewing platform. The views were lovely. In fact the whole area around the quays there is now lovely. All very different from when I used to walk through this formerly industrial / derelict area to get to Manchester United football matches as a teenager.

That is Megan in the middle picture. She has been adorable, gracious and loving today!
On the right is a barge heading toward the museum we'd just been to, (Megan Joff Hally & I, between us, took this collection of photos)
To finish off the day we went to Burger King, then watched Happy Feet at the cinema in the Lowry Centre. - A fun film with brilliant music and singing. It was however quite politically anti-establishment, anti-church and the whole animal humanisation genre is one I am oppossed to..... but an enjoyable toe tapping film!
The final picture is my friend Greg... (Yes the bald head does make him look scary but he's a lovely gentle guy) we've been great friends since we were 8 I think. We went to church together, 6th form school together, Capernwray Bible School together. We've double dated, we shared holidays together and each others highs and lows over many years. It was great to go out for a late night coffee at the Trafford Centre and find out.... He's Married!!! Hello to Nuy who I've not met yet but look forward to meeting soon. May God bless you both and may you both fall in love with Him as you have with each other.

Reindeer

With money being tight at Christmas time, we thought with his red nose, boundless energy and convincing antlers, that we should send our dog Judder to Santa for some seasonal employment. Judder was not amused and gave us his threatening Ninja look! ... So we settled for a round of Jingle bells.

After some lovely homemade Butternut squash & sweetcorn soup I spent sometime showing Megan, Joff & Hally how to set up a Blog. It will mainly be used to display the work & activities they get to do as part of our Homeschooling. There's nothing there yet but I've linked their new page and watch it for developments!

Top 10 things not to do if you’re a goose at Christmas:

1. Attack postman who is bringing family presents
2. Scare then chase the children singing carols.
3. Attack neighbours who are bringing Christmas cards and greetings!
4. Eat the bread from the boot of the car whilst we’re unpacking groceries
5. Attack the Christmas wreath on the front door.
6. Poo on the neighbours porch
7. Honk loudly in the morning, (especially at holiday ‘sleep in’ time!)

8. Try to enter the house through the kitchen window. (Whether it’s open or not.)
9. Look fat and plum
10. Bite Beth on the bum ( especially as she’s the one deciding on Christmas dinner.)

Cosy fire.............

It's 03:20 and I'm not asleep.

I've brought my quilt down to sit by the fire so as not to disturb Beth. My mind is full of project ideas for work and compassionate ministry ideas. I've written them down so perhaps I'll drift into sleep now........
If you read this blog please feel invited and welcome to comment.

Ohhh...Christmas Tree!

Yesterday evening was all about the Christmas Tree!

One of our family traditions is to buy each family member an ornament for the tree.
Each one has a tag with name and year on it so the tree becomes very personal.
It is one little present we each get to open whilst putting the tree up. So up above are this year's offerings. Megan Joff and Hally's then Beth's and mine. Yes I like Angels.... leave me alone! (I believe in 'real' ones too but that's for another post.) The Tree is now resplendent! That's Joff putting his decorations on.

Today, Hywel & I drove up to Manchester to do some Christmas shopping for our wives. We spent some time in the Lowry shopping mall before visiting the Lowry Art Gallery. We dropped in on my parents for tea (and some of my Mum's amazing flapjacks) and to return some files to Amie.
Hywel wanted to go to JJB's Soccer Dome. He mockingly asked me if I'd ever visited of these things called "sport shops"! We then managed a couple of hours at the Trafford Centre accompanied by various carol playing bands before driving home. It was really good to spend the day with a good friend being real and talking about everything including our faith.

Is this the beginning of Freedom?

This afternoon, Hally went to a friends house for tea and to play for a while. So, for the first time, Beth & I left Megan & Joff at home alone for a few hours whilst we went shopping! We went to the Food Hall at Coed-y-Dinas in Welshpool and picked up some gorgeous Inverarre Smoked Scottish Salmon amongst other things. By the way, Beth managed to snap this picture which is fine but I need you to know that in Mid-Wales it is quite acceptable for "real men' to carry wicker shopping baskets... ... ... Honestly! After some present shopping and buying this year's Christmas Tree ornaments we went to the Royal Oak for Macchiato coffees and warm Mince Pies. (you can keep your Starbucks!) It was good to have time to talk and relax.

Yummy Christmas Sliding!

Following some seriously Yummy Chocolate cake, (by the way, doesn't my sister Amie look like about 15 in this photo!) we came home to light a log fire, watch a movie and inadvertently start that downward indulgent Christmas slide toward lethagy. So at 10:00 I crawled out of bed to make a late start to Homeschooling. We we doing sequence formulas and after making a hexagon chain out of matchsticks Megan worked out the formula is 5n+1.

Why do we see Christmas as a time of 'self' indulgence? Why do I let any period of holiday from work become a downward sliding where I let go of the habits that help me and leave myself feeling depressed and indulged. Perhaps I beginning to realise thatself-indulgence in self-destructive. I hereby commit myself to making sure this holiday is a positive one where I use the opportunity of absence of work to invest in me rather than indulge me!

Coffee & Cake on Joff

We came to Manchester today to do some Christmas shopping and see Amie & Mum. We're staying over tonight. Dad flies in from his trip to America early in the morning so it'lll be good to see him. We went into Manchester city centre this afternoon and enjoyed the Scandanavian Mackets in St Annes Square today, there were all kinds of gifts and foods, live 'stomp' band and finches chirping in the trees. Hally got a candy cane and we had the obligitory visit to the Diney Store. Then this evening Beth and I were about to go out to do some shopping again and Joff (our 11 year old son) slipped £5 into my hand and told me to enjoy a coffee and cake with Beth! How cool is that.

So here's the evidence that we actually spent his cash! (The Carrot Cake was probably the best I've ever tasted, stunning!) Late night shopping is fun, Beth found an adorable cuddly girraffe that I fell in love with but wouldn't let her buy for me. The little street cred I have left would dissolve instantly! Tomorrow we'll spend some time here with Dad then go home via our new church in Wrexham.

101 things about me:

1. I’m a good extrovert but most happy being an introvert
2. I think I was quite naive when I was a teenager.
3. I used to have a Chopper bike which was better than Greg’s Grifter
4. I used to collect matchboxes, in a way I guess I still do.
5. I wrote to Noel Edmonds on Swap Shop to show my collection – he never wrote back.
6. I used to love Toblerone, now it’s Snickers.
7. I used to like Refreshers… I still do.
8. I used to love tulips now it’s forget-me-nots and roses
9. I used to support Manchester United, now I don’t support and team.
10. I used to like red-heads… now I just like Beth.
11. I used to have a dog called Ben, he was a sheep dog I think he was 12 and I was 16 when he died.
12. Our family has had Blizzard the Dalmatian, Fox the sheepdog that got shot and now we have Judder a Weimaraner.

13. We live on a beautiful smallholding farm on a hill on the Welsh borders.

14. We’ve got pigs, geese, ducks, chickens
15. We did have goats but they’re meat now!
16. We eat a lot of vegetarian food.
17. We’d like to eat even less meat
18. I hated school

19. Mainly because I was bullied and I felt really alone
20. I love being British but I think I’d fit in better in parts of the USA or Canada
21. I loved living in Estes Park CO for a while when I worked at Ravenscrest
22. I failed my American driving test the first day I drove a car
23. I passed my American driving test the second day I drove a car
24. I loved skiing in Colorado.
25. I played soccer for the Estes Park Eagles.
26. I wasn’t great!
27. My first crush was a girl from Sweden
28. I loved spending time with my cousins growing up. Especially Kenton and Anna.
29. When I was 11 I went to America for 5 weeks, we went Rodeo horse riding, hunting, water-skiing, Disneyland, flew to various States with my Dad preaching.
30. I was the first person in my high school to go to America.
31. Mr Cain was my Maths teacher. I think he was the only teacher that I liked.
32. That could be why I still love Math.
33. We Homeschool Megan, Joff & Hally and I teach them Maths.
34. I love food; marmalade on toast with tea, bacon on white bread & butter, raspberry pavlova, Nachos, Marmite & Philadelphia on toast and Roast Sunday lunch. Beth’s is even better than Mum’s (Don’t tell Mum!)
35. I love log fires on crisp Autumn evenings
36. Greg and I used to sell sweets for a profit in Worsley by the orange canal.
37. I setup & ran Mephisto’s Discos when I was 17.
38. My parents didn’t let me go to Discos.
39. I made £100s
40. My Dad was angry, and proud I think, when he found out.
41. I had a special friend called Sacha for a long time.
42. I grew up in Salford, I liked it but didn’t fit in.
43. I went to the local high school whilst my brothers went to a Private all boys school.
44. I went there in the 6th form and jumped out the window.
45. I failed my A’levels but I liked the ‘all girls’ school next door.
46. I was on a huge Ferry from Holland when we crashed into a tanker, we started sinking but we made it!
47. It was on the sinking ferry I had my first real ‘snog’ with a Dutch girl.
48. I had a best friend called Derek, we met at Manchester’s Nazarene Bible College, he was my best-man and we went all over South Africa together.
49. He died last year.

50. I’ve done youth work or youth ministry for a lot of my working life

51. I’m now a Children’s Right Officer
52. I still think of myself as a youth worker
53. I love working with young people.
54. I have a slight twist in my left index finger since it was shattered by a sledge hammer.
55. I like ‘real’ people, people with character and people who have passion.
56. I hate injustice, oppression and lack of integrity
57. I love playing the piano even though I’m not very good.
58. I get dandruff when I’m stressed.

59. My best ever holiday was Disneyland Paris last year.
60. I’ve always found it hard being a Christian but disliking religion and most Christians!
61. I’ve had loads of jobs including Lumber-jack, ski-instructor, mushroom picker, waiter (many times) charity tele-sales, mechanic, insurance salesman (my most hated one!) Radio DJ, Chef, Barman, Restaurant trainer, Gift Shop Owner, Newsagent, Hospital porter, Hospital theatre technician, McDonalds Trainee manager, Video shop assistant manager, Evangelist, Youth worker, White Van driver, Graphic Designer, Speciality Cake Decorator, Youth Pastor, Film-Maker.
62. I’ve been working for Powys for nearly 6 years now.
63. I loved living in Coquille OR for a while but I guess my family was too young and working for a church can be outrageously frustrating!
64. I miss having BBQs on the beach by Bandon Lighthouse
65. We still celebrate Thanksgiving each year.
66. I love my parents, my brothers and my adorable lil’ sis but I don’t feel like I fit in!
67. I really enjoy movies, amongst my favourites are: Matrix, Calamity Jane, Love Actually, Pride & Prejudice (new), Little Women, Shrek, Little Mermaid, All Die Hards, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Rain Man, The American President and many more
68. I loved being at the births of my three wonderful children, it was tough & scary with complications but to hold them in your arms, melting, loving, falling, hoping in those first few hours is indescribable.

69. I believe the Bible… totally! 6- 24 Hour days of creation around 6000 years ago.
70. I believe lots of things but that’s another list.
71. My first car was a silver Ford Capri and I loved it
72. Vasectomies aren’t that bad.
73. I liked being a mechanic at Frank’s Garage
74. I love long summer days on Aberdovey beaches
75. I’ve never taken illegal drugs,
76. I’ve only smoked half a cigarette but I miss the second hand smoke from Restaurants
77. I’ve never been drunk
78. I am a rebel though and always have been although it doesn’t sound like it.
79. I like thinks pretty, I like ribbons and tiny flower prints.
80. I guess I have a strong feminine side.
81. I’m not gay
82. Whilst on Honeymoon in North Africa we hitch-hiked to the Sahara desert to ride camels and go skinny dipping in an oasis!
83. We got kidnapped by smugglers and ended up in a Tunisian jail.
84. I wanted to be a fireman but that’s not worked out yet.
85. I love sunny ice-cold winter’s mornings.
86. I love it when our pond overflows
87. I have a big yellow Canadian canoe
88. I like playing Basketball late at night alone in our Barn.
89. I don’t use shampoo when I wash my hair.

90. Beth and I got separated, divorced, friends, dating, engaged and married again.
91. God gets all the publicity and appreciation for that and it’s much much better this time!
92. I’ve never known love like this.
93. Fame has never enticed me or impressed me.
94. I went up in a glider plane and it scared me.
95. I like photography and design.
96. I really don’t like mornings but I’m getting better and I will one day.
97. I love the Isle of Skye in the Scottish Highlands.
98. I think it is my favourite place on earth. (except for the midges.)
99. I am against fear in all its guises
100. I’ve had lots of nicknames.
101. I think I like Nidge the best.