In theory ...

... I have seven minutes to write tonight's blog before the clock strikes for bedtime!  The chances of keeping to that are slim and over the past few evenings ... I've not even heard the clock strike!
For tea / dinner /supper ... what do you call the evening meal that you should have eaten around six but didn't have time to warm up until ten?  Anyhow, the evening meal was a rather delicious soup with thanks to "Middle Sister"!  She and her husband arrived at last night's concert with a "food parcel" ... without that it would have been toast tonight!

This was just as good as it looks and helped to restore energy.
It had been a great evening at the local primary school's Christmas concert.  Key Stage 1 performed a most amusing story of Ralph the green nosed reindeer.  There's a lot of talent among the pupils and the teachers work so hard to get everything ready for the public.  I wish I'd been sitting along the aisle as half a dozen energetic dancers sprinkled fairy dust as they passed.  Don't you wish you could have some fairy dust too ... it must have wonderful magical properties.
Then, Key Stage 2 told the Nativity story in a very creative and amusing way ... the costumes were fantastic and the acting just perfect.  It is hard to imagine the hours and hours that went into rehearsals and costume design.  Lots of the parents were taking pictures but I didn't feel that I could do that in the school setting, so there's nothing to illustrate such an enjoyable evening.
I'm back in the school on Friday morning to do the closing assembly talk ... I'll need to get my head round that as parents will be present as well as the children and their teachers.
Here in the rectory, not only was I hungry but so too was Eliot.
He's such a messy eater and he picks out all the dark brown hearts to drop on the floor.  It used to be the green lumps but he seems to eat them now and just reject the other bits.  Is it colour, shape or taste ... who knows the mind of a dog?
 At the minute he's not seeing very much of me so I'll have to make up for that in the few days after Christmas when I'll head off to the seaside ... whatever the weather!

 There are times when you could imagine that Eliot is asking that the camera be put aside and he be allowed to eat or sleep or play undisturbed!

In that, he doesn't stand a chance!
It is perhaps much the same around church.  The Mothers' Union / Ladies' Guild meeting today was, as usual, photographed.  Christmas tree decorations were on the agenda ... a page from an old hymnal (Hymns Ancient and Modern, as it happens; bought in a second hand shop a long time ago) ... a wooden bead, a pipecleaner and a little bit of glue.  By folding, cutting and sticking an angel is created and ready to hang on the tree.

 Everyone made two or three of them so there'll be a heavenly host around Saint Nicholas' this Christmas season!

A festive tea rounded off the afternoon and everyone went home with a couple of tea light holders as a reminder of our Christmas meeting.

I think that I'll use mine on the kitchen windowsill ... not that I'm in need of any more containers for candles ... or candles themselves!
Of course, Sunday will bring another four or five hundred candles into church for the Nine Lessons and Carols service.  That is always something very special and a great deal of work goes into the preparations for it.
The seven minutes are up ... and then some!
Plans for tomorrow will wait until morning ... Holy Communion at one o'clock will provide the opportunity to rest quietly in God's presence for a while.  For now, goodnight ... goodnight world ... if there's anybody out there reading this!
Once again ... this is the blessing from Common Prayer:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you;may he guide you through he wilderness : protect you through the storm;may he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you;may he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.