On the first of the month, Steve came to visit and hang out for the day. We finally convinced him to let us teach him how to play Magic! So here we are teaching him on our living room table (because both the dining room table and the actual game table were too covered with cards to play, it’s taken over our lives!)
The next day was a super busy one, as we headed to London for an event that was originally scheduled for a year ago - the christening of our goddaughter, Hebe! We have been so blessed to become such good friends with Amy and Ben, and it is a huge honour to be godparents for their third daughter. The service was done by Ben’s brother who is a vicar in the Church of England, thus the trip to his church in London. After, we gathered for pizza at his manse which was a short walk away. Here’s a photo of the four godparents with the VIP of the day!
After lunch, we drove home and made it back in time for the annual fireworks at the castle! This is one of my favourite events of the year, and it was just as good this year as it’s ever been. I took about a hundred photos of the fireworks, so I’ll try to choose just one to share…
From there, it was back to work on Monday and trying to catch up after almost two weeks away. So it was a quiet week fun-wise. I did talk Joel into letting me decorate early for Christmas this year! On Thursday the 6th we went to play Magic with some new friends in Newport, and when we got home we put up the Christmas tree. It’s the earliest we’ve ever done it and I am loving it. I also saw an idea on TikTok that involved wrapping your tissue boxes to make them festive…so I spent a movie watching evening doing that I am quite chuffed with the results!
On Saturday the 8th, the weather was lovely, so we took advantage and got our steps in around the castle. The trees were showing off and reminding us that maybe we didn’t need to go all the way to Canada to get some fall colours!
On Remembrance Sunday, I attended part of the worship at Caldicot Methodist Church, then left to go help lead the town service at the cross. In the afternoon, I drove to Gwehelog to lead their service. I took some paper cranes and did my “paper crane” sermon in which I tell the story of Sadako and fold a paper crane whilst preaching. The cranes made for a lovely display with the poppies they had on the altar.
On actual Remembrance Day, the 11th, I went to a service at Penallt Old Church. They were rededicating the war memorial that we removed from Trellech Chapel when we closed it. I was intrigued to learn that the plaque hadn’t always been in our chapel, and a local historian shared the stories of behind every name listed. It was a very moving service.
Though we put the tree up on the 6th, I didn’t get it decorated until the 13th! Here it is this year, keeping it simple with just store-bought baubles.
Friday the 14th was Avatar pre-release day! We venture out in the rain in Newport to pick up some pre-orders and try to get some commander bundles. We didn’t get everything we wanted, but Joel did manage to snag one of each pre-release kit from a local game store. That turned out quite lucky as we stayed home for the worst of the storm Friday night, then went to Amy and Ben’s on Saturday to do our own little pre-release party.
On Monday the 17th, I was off to Milton Keynes for some training for a connexional committee I serve on. One of the presentations on theological reflection took me back to my seminary days!
The training ended on the 18th at lunchtime and I immediately had to hit the road to get to Llandridnod Wells for a Wales Superintendent’s meeting. This meant I missed the MOCC interviews which I was very sad about. But, it was nice to see colleagues, we had some great conversations, and the hotel we stay in has a great pool area. I also very much related with a colleague’s illustration of church life these days!
In the end, it’s probably good I couldn’t do the interviews, since it meant I was home on the 20th and Joel and I were able to go see the double feature of Wicked! I’ve been counting down the days to the second half since I saw the first one in theaters three times last year. Our cinema went all out with decorations and we even bought some merch. And of course, I had to wear pink and green!
On Friday the 21st it was back to Milton Keynes for the day (yes, I did a ridiculous amount of driving this week) so we could meet up with a fellow YCWI who came to interview for the MOCC program! She and her husband were lovely, and we were delighted to learn a few days later that she was recommended for an appointment - so now it’s just the long wait till February!
On Saturday the 22nd, we held our Christmas Fayre at the church, and one of our members played the harp. I think the harp might be my favourite instrument!
Then it was a few days of getting work done and preparing for Thanksgiving! We kept it very low-key this year with Steve as our only guest, and we didn’t even have a turkey. Joel finally talked me into getting rotisserie chicken instead and you know what - it was just as good and a whole lot easier! I prepped all the food early, Joel went out for chicken that morning, and we basically ate everything as leftovers from the start. I’m not mad about it.
We talked Steve into playing more Magic, this time with a deck Joel made just for him…
And Steve brought us a photo album he made from his completed quest to visit every UK county. It was so fun to go through the whole thing and see not just all of the cool places he had been, but how many of them we had been to with him! We were only in one or two photos, but there were tons more I recognized as having been with him when he took them. It was a great walk down memory lane.
On Friday the 28th we didn’t do any shopping this year! Gasp! This might be the first year we didn’t do any Black Friday shopping, but we spent all of our money on Canada and Avatar cards, lol. We did go to Amy and Ben’s to play for the evening and I couldn’t resist snapping this photo of Rollo being super cute.
On Saturday the 29th, we opened the church for free hot drinks while the town center had rides, stalls, and other entertainment in preparation for the annual Christmas lights turn on. I was delighted to have a reason to wear my new (thrifted) Christmas dinosaur dress and Christmas dinosaur earrings! I do so love a good theme.
Then somehow it was the first Sunday in Advent, and it feels like the year is practically over!
November went quickly, December feels like it’s basically over already, and with a trip to Iowa mid-January, I know the start of the year is going to zoom by as well. That’s why I love doing these monthly posts, so I can keep track of what we are doing with our lives!
XOXO, Bethany