Yummy Christmas Dinner

Here we are sitting down for a nice Christmas Lunch. Jenny and Nigel, and Crystal and Dom have really made it such a lovely Christmas for us. 

Christmas Greetings From Olney

Here were are in the Marketplace in Olney. We hope you have a very lovely Christmas wherever you are. 

Happy Christmas, all you lovely people!

Merry Christmas to you all!

Here's our lovely nativity set that Mom made us in the window of our house. It is quite fun watching the adults and kids stare in at it as they walk by! As it is Christmas, here is a small exerpt from the most famous story of them all, with a few comments below.

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

This famous story has taken on a new reality to us of late. With Lara so heavily pregnant, we have some (previously unfelt) sympathy for Mary. Think about it for a moment. You're nine month's pregnant and are ordered to travel to another town, not in a large, comfortable car like we have, but either on foot or by donkey. That, in itself, has got to be quite a huge upheaval. Lara's uncomfortable enough in our car, as it is. Then, throw in the chaos of an overpacked town, with no space, even for a pregnant lady. A very pregnant lady.

I guess if I was Mary, I'd be thinking, ' Uh, hello God! What's this all about? If this is your son, why, exactly, am I in this dirty stable?' I mean, what an entrance for the Son of God. (and poor Mary! - no gas and air, or option of an epidural, or water birth tank, or... I mean, that has got to be scary enough, hasn't it?)

Another thing of interest which springs out of this story is the fact that, though those in Bethlehem, near Jesus, had no room for him, and rather ignored him, it was to a crowd of unreligious shepherds who God announced his son's birth - and they were quick to go find out more. (I wonder what Lara would think if a pack of gruff shepherd walked in to the hospital ward!)

Another interesting thing we heard in church last week was regarding the three gifts that the academics from the east brought with them. I doubt the slippers I gave Lara today would could as being prophetic, but these were;

Gold - the gift for a King.
Frankincense - this was burnt in the Jewish temple as an acompanyment / symbol of prayer. The indication of this is therefore likely to be about our relationship with God - and how Christ would make that SO much better. And Finally...
Myrrh - the modern day equivalent of this would be a coffin and some embalming materials.

These are not normal gifts for babies! (We've been given lots of baby grows and sleepsuits, a crib, and some lovely stuffed toys.) But the point here is that though Jesus was born, through his death (Myrrh) he would clear away the rubbish separating us from God, and restoring us in friendship with him (Frankincense). He would also usher in his new kingdom (Gold) where "there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away".

Amongst the joy and pain in this world today, I eagerly await the full appearance of that kingdom, and today pray; 'God, your kingdom come.'

Baby's room coming together!

Look at our little baby's room! We now have a cot, thanks to our friend Caroline, whose kids have now rather outgrown it! Lara's done amazingly to get everything ready for the new arrival, and has done SO much washing of little baby things, you would not believe it. It is amazing how much stuff (cotton wool, nappies, clothes, muslins, cool walkie-talkie systems, remote controlled helicopters, sleepsuits etc) a new baby needs! Just about getting there now, though. 

Reclaimed Bathroom door

As we have come to expect, most original features in this house were removed and replaced with 'lovely' 1970 classical additions - very smooth, unpannelled, very unvictorian doors. So we visited a few reclaimation yards and purchased some 1890's doors for our bedrooms and bathrooms. No one had quite the right size, of course, so I spent some time cutting them to size.
I've definately become someone who favours hand (unpowered) saws, as there is less set up time involved, and less risk of making all go horribly wrong in an instant. In this case, cutting through such old wood kept me very warm in just a tee shirt outside in sub-zero temperatures! 

Understairs cupboard door - 1st of 4

We've now got some nice and solid shelves up under the stairs, as well as a large coat rail area - complete with a little baby coat hanging up in readiness! I'm making these doors out of tongue and groove cladding on a more solid frame backing. I didn't have the right metal mending plates to make this door 'properly' but these have now been delivered, so some retro-fitting will occur. 

Rime Frost on the river island by our home

Wintery weather (for England in our current, warm climate) has hit Olney in the last week or so. We've been having the most sustained foggy conditions I remember. A day or so ago, we had the most amazing frost - 'Rime Frost' according to my meteorologically astute wife. Here's a photos from the island on the floodplain below our house. Makes you want to curl up in front of a nice fire with a cup of hot chocolate, with LOTS of those little marshmallows sprinkled on top.

Christmas is coming

Don't know about you, but it really hasn't felt that Christmassy to me of late - but now we have the place all decorated... it may almost be time. We had a lovely time with our visitors, though the rain was a bit wet! (Notice the wise men Mom made us by the Christmas tree - making their way to the front window where Mary, Joseph and Jesus are.) Oh! and we have sheep for our shepherds now too! 

Carpet in!

We've now got the carpet down throughout the house! This came just in time, because the next day we had Dad, Mom, Simon, Nicola, Amanda, Grandad and Uncle David visiting us. So After the carpet guys left it was a case of getting all the furnature back down to the lounge / diner (which was much easier that getting it up the stairs!) and then decorating! 

Underlay and gripper rods

Tim's top money-saving tip of the week: When you buy underlay or gripper rods, DO NOT buy them from carpetright or another big flooring store. They were going to charge us £5.99 per sq. m. for pretty basic stuff. We found some luxury underlay online for £2.50 sq.m. and for this we would have had to pay £7.99 sq.m. at carpet right. Similarly, gripper rods; bought these from srewfix for £22 for 150 m. I could have paid carpetright £73 for 39m. Guess which options we went for... 

Hole in the floor

Of course, nothing is simple. The last bit of carpet to be removed revealed a nice big hole in the concrete floor. So, first thing Saturday morning I cut some wood to size, waterproofed it and sealed it in... Just in time for the carpet men. 

Mouldy carpet coming up

Here's Tim removing the mouldy carpet from downstairs late on Friday night. Yummy! It looks like there had once been a leak around the radiator.

All the furanture had to first be moved to the kitchen and bedrooms. That is like a big tetris puzzle! 

Tim's yummy pizza

Poor Lara, no cheese... Happy Tim, LOTS of cheese 

Under Stairs Storage Unit - Frame going in

The understairs storage unit is the last major job to do on this house, before the carpets come this Saturday morning. Here is the frame going in. I've used gripfil adhesive to stick the base rail to the floor, and lots of long screws and brackets for the rest! This type of work takes a lot longer than one would hope - got to this point about 11:45 last night... 

Unification brought by Paint

See what I mean about the different coloured woods? This is the beginning of the painting process. Lots still to do before the carpet comes next week! 

Banister being painted

Here's Lara painting the banister late at night. Most pregnancy books say that the lady should be resting in the third trimester... well, at least Lara was sitting down for most of this. That is resting, isn't it?

The stairs are looking so much better now, as all the different coloured woods reused from here and there are being covered over and they now look like they are meant to be together!

Wall behind the fireplace plastered and painted

We're now in the mad rush to finish a long list of tasks before the carpet is laid next week - just in time for the Christmas festivities! Here is the fireplace chimney breast being plastered and painted with its overcoat before placement of the fireplace surround. The hearth stones have now been laid (Gripfill is useful stuff) and most of the skirting board is down; Crystal and I tackled that last night. Lara is doing fantastically well growing our baby, and we're so looking forward to meeting it! 

Dom and the Banister

This last weekend, Dom and Crystal came to stay. While the girls went out shopping for more (even BIGGER) clothes to house Lara and the baby, Dom got stuck into the banister at the top of the stairs. Thankfully, this is all complete now, so we're nearly getting there! Just need to put down another 39m of skirting board (no exaggeration), lay some hearth stones, properly attach the fireplace, paint all the woodwork and make the understairs cupboard before the carpets come next week! (Then we can work on all the rest of the jobs! Yay!) (Sigh...)

Banister on the stairs

Look! Safe and secure stairs at last! I think this banister will be strong enough to cope with most things our little family and bigger friends can throw at it! 

Spindles on the stairs

Once the risers had been attached, we started attaching the spindles to the base rail. Of course, as with most things in this project, the ceiling protruded too far over the stairway, so many of the spindles had to be notched here and there to fit! After about two evenings of chiselling, they seemed to fit ok! Then, it was on to the handrail... 

Baby Shower Number Two

Our lovely church friends planned a surprise baby shower for Lara, which she loved! It was in a posh old teashop with crustless sandwiches and mini-cakes, scones and crumbles - all dairy-free! We also were given loads of lovely things - Tim is here seen testing the baby towel and has proved himself to be a dab hand at dressing baby-sized giraffes in the little baby clothes we were given. 

The Scottish Carpenter

Gavin's greatest hero was a carpenter, so he thought that he would follow in his footsteps, and lend a hand with the stairs. (Look at that arm go!) 

The Scottish Plasterer

Gavin decided to visit us to escape from the plastering of his parents' loft. Little did he know he would be once more taking up the trowel so soon after his arrival. This is him working on our fireplace. 

Wounded

And only one slight wound to show for this*. (*not taking into account the number of times Gav got hit by planks of wood...) 

Stairs - half way

Here are the stairs at the close of play on Saturday - boxed in, and side panels installed!