How many people in your village?

No I don't mean the village where you live. I mean the village in your heart. The number of people you meaningfully connect with. Your Christmas card list perhaps? Though not necessarily. A fellow minister's wife once told me the normal capacity is about 100. And when you move from town to town, or church to church, there is a major reshuffle. Many in your village leave at that point and new ones take their place. It is not that the old ones are gone and forgotten completely, just that the quality of the friendship changes. Take for example people who have 500 facebook friends; how can they seriously be really good friends with them all? Anyway here I am in a new place and inevitably there are some friends from previous places who have faded into the background. But I thank God for the many new friends populating my new village this year.

Luke 2: 1-20 Sermon in a nutshell

When God's glory was revealed to the shepherds, they expressed fear in the glory of God and faith in the gospel of God. May God's glory be revealed in all our Christmas services.

Let the Christmas baking begin!

First off ... mince pies made with my old o level cooking formula for shortcrust pastry of half fat to flour (and the half fat is then subdivided into half marg and half lard.) Mincemeat mixed with a grated apple and some orange juice makes it tastier, moister and it goes further. Then little stars for lids saves all that sealing and bubbling over.

Next is the Christmas cake. Found a recipe on the internet this year. Claims to be really moist and was easy to mix up. It is in the oven now ... and will be for the foreseeable future.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1160/simmerandstir-christmas-cake