Christmas Festivities

The past few weeks have been a blur of essays, reading, notes, scraps of paper and slightly stressful trips to the library, so needless to say, I have been more than a little bit thrilled that Uni is finished for first term, and I have nothing but Christmas plans for the next few weeks.

I have returned to Bournemouth, and the joys of the South Coast, but so far it's only rained, and with my family at work and school and most of my friends from home still away, today has been a little dull. Still, Christmas films and mulled wine will be occurring this evening, so I definitely can't complain. 

The past weekend was full of Christmas excitement, firstly with a trip to the cinema to see The Hobbit, which I can safely say I have been waiting for, for probably close to ten years. It was a bit of a childhood dream, and as such I think I need to go see it again. It was full of quotes from the book, and there was an abundance of dwarves, so it was definitely an evening well spent. We also attempted to behave like dwarves in the toilets...

Dwarfish Friends

Saturday saw an early Christmas day with my housemates, with a trip to Borough Market to educate one of my friends on the joys of running around trying all the delicious, but expensive food for free. Being a week and a half before Christmas, the market was at it's best, but also it's busiest so we had to elbow our way through crowds to try Christmas pudding, and all the cheeses and olive oils you could ever want. Totally worth it though. We even popped into Southwark Cathedral which was looking especially beautiful with all of the decorations, including some foliage around a statue of Shakespeare. Go check it out. 

Housemates round the Tree

In the evening we made about a hundred biscuits, prior to cooking the best roast dinner in existence. With chicken stuffed with lemons and fresh rosemary, potatoes cooked with garlic, flour and sea salt, and real stuffing, we were all incredibly proud of our cooking accomplishments. We even had a guest, so we managed to get an actual photo of all of us ready to stuff our faces! 

Hungry for a Feast

We finished the evening off with biscuit decorating and Miracle on 34th Street, the perfect end to a very festive day. As a house, we're all rather busy and so often don't see very much of one another, so it felt like quite a treat to spend a whole weekend together. Sunday morning I had a friend over for brunch, and then we took a long walk around Victoria Park in an attempt to deal with our cravings for countryside. It wasn't quite the same, but still impressive. 

Victoria Park and The City

The weekend was topped off with not only a bit of Harry Potter, but an amazing Carol service at church. Over 1,000 people went to the two carol services, and Christchurch pulled off an incredible evening. I was proud to be part of it all. 

Choir and Band, with some fake snow too.

With so much going on I wasn't too prepared for an evening of interfaith workshops and discussion on Monday night, but it turned out to be a great evening of catching up with people I met in September, and discovering more about what people think. We finished the evening with a rather heated three person rant about feminism on the tube on the way home. I fear we might have been filmed. We probably were a bit of a sight. 

Tonight I'm looking forward to relaxing with some old friends. 

As much as I like time to chill out, I definitely need lots of sociable time, and a day of watching Homeland by myself was possibly not the most productive use of my time. 

I shall update you on more Christmas happenings soon! Much love x

Breakthrough and Everything

It's been a packed weekend, the first in a while.

Yesterday, church ran a conference called Everything, looking at how God wants to be involved in every sphere of life, from education, to sport, to art, to media and politics. It was an amazing day, I acquired a bright pink t.shirt, free lunch and a couple of lanyards. More important though was the wisdom that oozed from the speakers and the inspiration and vision for what the future could look like if we all worked together for the global good. 

The day left me knackered though, and with a head full of a billion thoughts, so it was good to get an early night, and spend this morning chilling in bed with my battered yet loved copy of The Hobbit. I often find that my thoughts don't make much sense, or there are too many of them to be able to form them into anything coherent. Reading things helps to quieten the racket that the ideas are making, and give me the peace to begin writing and attempting to deal with them. Sounds ridiculous but it seems to work. Anyway, by the time I got to church this afternoon I was feeling sort of frustrated and irritated for no real reason, just because I was confused.

I found myself grinding my teeth a little, and then, well God showed up. Now, it's not always like this, those moments of release where you're reminded so strongly that He's with you, that He knows everything and holds everything in hand and He won't let go of the desires He's put with in you. But, today it was. Today He just told me. And showed me. And was just with me, and it was amazing. No other words for it. 

And so this weekend saw a little of everything, and a little of breakthrough. It doesn't mean my situation has changed but it does mean my outlook has. 

Jeremiah 29:11-13 declares these incredible truths...

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart."

And so this is what my week is beginning with, the promises that God wants to be involved in everything and He'll absolutely, most definitely, accomplish his purposes. That's a pretty great foundation for things if you ask me.