A Cosy Bedroom on a Cold Night

Somehow I don't think we'll be getting much sleep tonight.     We have our two older grandchildren sleeping over.   They have been fizzing with excitement about this for months; for some reason it was deemed to be almost as exciting as Christmas and we had to have a countdown of the number of sleeps until the big night - since before Christmas.

What makes it even funnier is the fact that these grandchildren live very close to us and spend several hours of almost every day in our house, anyway! 

Our master bedroom has an open fire, we don't often light it, but I think that part of the attraction for these two is to fall asleep to the flickering flames of the log fire - well who wouldn't?

They have a large blow up mattress on the floor while we 'sleep' in our bed as normal, for a few hours anyway.   Almost without a doubt our granddaughter will creep into the middle of our bed during the night, followed by her older brother just before dawn.

There is a large television in the room.  We very rarely use it, but they love to have their breakfast in our bed, while watching cartoons on the television.

It really doesn't take much to make them happy.

I'm pulling the drawbridge up tomorrow though.  😉

Candlewax and Bells

A deep, dark night in the countryside, no traffic, no streetlights.   

Beckoned in by a solitary bell and the flickering of golden light from many candles we stepped in through the porch, past the enormous ancient wooden door and into the nave of the tiny church.   It was looking wonderful, with every deep, deep, windowsill filled with red-berried holly, ivy and lots of creamy-coloured candles. 

It didn't take long for the church to fill up, but that was mainly down to the diminutive size of the church!     Our elderly organist did her best and so did we.  The organ wheezed and creaked as the organist managed to include unplanned random notes here and there, but then so did the congregation.   It didn't matter, we had a wonderful time and those old familiar carols were belted out with such gusto that the organist struggled to keep up with us.

Afterwards we had coffee and hot mince pies, conversation, laughter.   It was a wonderful prelude to Christmas.       I enjoy 'Carols from Kings', but that polished performance cannot compete with the real pleasure and authenticity of that evening. 

Once again we tumbled out into the velvety black of night, clutching our torches, as we made our way back down the lane and home.