Advent 1

So we are now officially in the season of Advent, Christmas doesn't officially start until 25th December, but I think this Advent will be more of a season of preparation than ever before.
I bought an Advent Crown (a candle holder for 5 candles, one each for the four Sundays of Advent and one for Christmas Day) for our church in memory of my sister. It was used today for the first time and blessed for use. This is our Rector's daughter helping to light the first candle at the start of today's service.
After the service we filmed my announcement of the news of Jesus birth to the shepherd's, I was in full angel garb. I'm saving that blip for another day!
This afternoon Ali popped in to pick up her washing, lovely to see her. She also announced she was looking for 6 shuttlecocks to make angels with (she needs 30 this year and only has 24) and would I please put a request on our local Facebook page. I did so and within half an hour had an offer of 6 for her. People are so kind and helpful. I'll pick them up tomorrow.
After she left I decided to make cranberry sauce. I bought the berries a couple of weeks ago and didn't want them going off. It's so easy, in less than an hour I had three jars made, it's so much tastier than the bought stuff and as well as going well with the turkey it's also very nice with brie in sandwiches.
This evening we had a service in church of Advent music and readings. Two musicians from the charity Live Music Now came and provided the music, one a soprano and the other a pianist/ organist. The singer remained behind a screen for the whole time, the accompanist was masked and we were all seated according to the regulations, socially distanced and using different seats to those which had been used in our morning service. It was so good to have music in church. I still miss being able to sing, but listening was the next best thing. The readings and poems were read by the Rector and a member of the congregation. It was a lovely start to Advent and over £200 was raised for a local young people's charity.
When we came out the Main Street looked quite magical with all the Christmas lights lit.

I'm very glad I did the filming of my angel this morning. After I got home tonight, I bent over to look in a bag and banged my forehead, right by the top of my nose, on the corner of the mantlepiece. It's swollen up into a large lump in spite of instantly applying arnica ...... and it hurts. I fear it is going to be a big bruise tomorrow!

Keep safe everybody, nobody wants to be sick over Christmas.