I have decided to do a New Year’s Eve post today since I don’t blog on a Sunday.
Every Hogmanay, I will sit down and think about all the good things that have happened in my life and be thankful.
This year, despite the many good things that have happened, I can only think of the one thing that has devastated me – losing my beloved father. I am not sure how I am going to face the new year without him. He was my confidante. It is so difficult to go the family home and to see my mother’s sad face. I want to cry my heart out but I have to be strong for her.
Some mornings I get angry that nothing has come to a standstill instead the world around me is functioning as per normal.
In a few days time, if I am spared I too will step into a new year and by God’s grace my family and I will carry on living despite our broken hearts.
My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness – 2 Corinthians 12:9
A few Sundays ago I had an unusual experience in church. I was quite sure that I was the last one to go inside the church before the door was shut. I usually do a quick glance to see who is who before I find a seat.
During communion, I noticed a new person. He was a young man who was traditionally dressed with a tie on. I was super impressed. I rarely see smartly dressed people in church. Then it was time for our final hymn when I heard this booming voice. The dire congregational singing suddenly turned into what it seemed a male choir! I concluded that it was the young man that had the good singing voice.
I had forgotten about him until I got home when I began to think about him….. He was certainly not there but I went into the church. I was also quite sure that nobody else came in after me. If they had, the door would have made an awful noise and I would have felt a draught! Furthermore where was his singing voice when we sang all the other hymns earlier???
I am convinced that he was an angel. No, I haven’t had too much to drink during this festive period. I am teetotal! 🤣
First let me start with a shocking piece of news. I didn’t bother putting up Christmas decorations this year not even a wreath! I couldn’t bear to open up the box that contains all our decorations. Instead, I bought some fairy lights from Ocado and set them up near the windows that were visible from the outside!
I was feeling very sad leading up to Christmas. A really good cry in the shower on the eve of Christmas eve helped!
Since Christmas eve was a Sunday, we had ALL the usual services PLUS the crib services and the midnight mass. I didn’t go to the midnight mass but waited up for the vicar. I don’t like being on my own in the dark but was doing quite well until all our security lights started blazing! Funnily, it was precisely at this time that I got reminded of a newspaper article which suggested that vicarages tended to get burgled on either Christmas eve or Christmas Day as the burglars know that the vicar and his family will not be home! I did what I usually do, go room by room and investigate and found nothing. Thankfully!
The vicar came back just after 1am and it was almost 2am before we went to bed. It was a very early start the next morning for the Christmas service. I was walking around like a bear with a sore head. The plan was to have our Christmas meal at lunchtime and then for the vicar to catch up on his sleep. But do things always go according to plan? No! The vicar asked if we could have our meal in the evening as he had to go to the hospital after the services.
We had toast for lunch and had our Christmas meal in the evening. I did a repeat of our anniversary meal and it went down very well. The fillet steak was just lovely. Instead of the homemade chocolate cake for dessert, we had a shop bought dessert. Dark Chocolate and Salted Caramel mousse for the vicar while I had a dairy free dark chocolate mousse. Both were from Gu via Ocado.
A few weeks ago, the vicar and I celebrated our wedding anniversary. Rural living means that there is hardly anywhere never mind special to treat ourselves and furthermore with him being the parish priest privacy would be compromised.
We do enjoy dining in and so I decided to cook fillet steaks which we both love with all the trimmings! I got some lovely organic fillet steaks from Ocado which literally melted in our mouths.
Just as I was plating up in the dining room, the main dining room light bulb fuse blew! We have got dozens of spare light bulbs but just not the one that we were needing!
It was not intentional but we ended up having a candlelight dinner!
I woke up fine but as the day went by I was slowly getting grumpy. The vicarage is still very busy.
We got a nice surprise in that an elderly parishioner and her friend came by to wish us and to deliver a pot of Poinsettia. It was very kind of them to think of us and come over in this blustery wind!
Since this will be my last entry before Christmas, just for your information…. we are having beef for our Christmas lunch. We rarely have turkey as the vicar doesn’t like turkey. I was also interested to read that not all my fellow bloggers have turkey for their Christmas lunch.
I seem to have gotten up on the wrong side of bed today as I am was a little grouchy. You see it is supposed to be the vicar’s day off today but……
As I type this he is out on official business! The phone has been ringing non stop with one emergency after another so there goes his day off. Today was supposed to be in lieu of his usual day off because the same happened on his actual day off! Anyway, I think another reason for my grouchiness is that it is accumulated irritation as this is what happens all the time throughout the year!!!
Anyway, the plan was to have a biggish lunch today and so I went ahead with my plan. I cooked meatballs with gravy and it was a success which means that the grouchiness has now disappeared (thankfully!).
I made this to my own recipe so if you are interested, here it is…..
Ingredients (*I used organic ingredients but feel free to use what suits you)
Serves 2/3
Meatballs
400g mince meat
1 small onion
1 clove garlic
1 celery
2 small carrots
A splash of kikkoman soy sauce
Two tbsp of oil for frying
Salt to Taste
Gravy
1 small onion, sliced
A splash of red wine
200ml of beef stock
2 tsp plain flour
Method
1. To make the meatballs, mince the onion, celery and garlic. I used a food processor.
2. Put the mince meat, salt and soy sauce in a bowl.
3. Add the chopped vegetables etc to the mince meat and mix them all together.
4. Shape the mince meat into 16 small balls.
5. Heat oil and fry the meatballs until they are brown. Remove from heat and put them in an ovenproof tray.
6. Heat the oven to 200c and finish off cooking the meatballs in the oven. They should be ready in 15 minutes. Once cooked, turn off the oven and keep the meatballs warm in the oven.
7. Fry the onions in the same pan that you fried your meatballs in.
8. Once the onions are soft , add the flour and stir.
9. Add a splash of red wine and glaze the pan.
10. Add the beef stock and bring to boil.
11. Reduce heat and remove from heat once the gravy thickens.
12. Serve.
I like to serve my meatballs on a warm plate with the gravy on the side, non dairy creamy mash and steamed french beans.
I notice that everyone around me is hyper busy with Christmas. The vicarage too is busy as the vicar is very busy with various things on top of people coming around for meetings etc.
The blogging world has gone a little quiet. At least some of the bloggers that I follow have gone quiet. Maybe they just don’t have much to say at the moment or are just super busy with Christmas.
This week the vicar and I attended a funeral. I rarely attend funerals but this is of someone we both knew. It was pouring rain when we arrived at the church. I was slightly taken aback by the festive atmosphere inside the church. There were Christmas trees all around with flashing lights! The congregation was noisy and so I missed some important bits of the eulogy which I annoyed me. It is only when I attend life events like these that I am reminded that I am very traditional!!!!
I recently suggested to the vicar that I should start a small gift wrapping service as I love gift wrapping. In the past I often helped family and friends with gift wrapping as I could do them creatively and more importantly in a jiffy. I am a firm believer that the wrapping of the present is just as important as the gift itself.
This year for obvious reasons I struggled to bring myself to wrap presents. I want to continue mourning….. Furthermore, I hadn’t bought anything to aid me in the wrapping until some beautiful stationery found its way through the vicarage post box. I hadn’t ordered anything but according to the sender it was complimentary! How lovely! That kind of kick started the gift wrapping as the beautiful papers got me excited. They were not gift wrappers but they were too beautiful not to be used as one.
The presents have now all been wrapped and have found their way to the recipients!
Yes, you have read it correctly. I will not be getting any grocery delivery this week! Before you get stressed out on my behalf, please let me assure you that it wasn’t a mistake. I cancelled the grocery order for this simple reason…. Christmas orders with Ocado have a minimum spend of £90 which I didn’t think I could meet and so all my Christmas food came with last week’s order!
Hopefully this means that someone who really needs the slot will get it! They probably already have!!
Secret Diary Of A Church of England Vicar's Wife 