I wasn't really looking forward to Christmas this year... but I did my best on the run up to the big day to prepare for the rest of the family so that we could all hopefully have a nice relaxing and somewhat "fun" time together...However, It's been difficult to get into the jolly mindset when most of the time all I feel is a sense of grief. I haven't felt much like writing over this period either....mostly I've just wanted to hide away, be quiet and contemplate... but I did try to spend time with my lovely family ...
I've just finished looking through a mountain of photographs of Christmas over the years..... and have been re-living a life time of fun moments that we have shared together as a family with Heni. I am so grateful to have all of these memories. This Christmas it's going to be different without her.... and we will be making new and different memories... and in that "different" kind of Christmas celebration I am looking for ways to honour and to remember her in our family festivities this year. One of the things I want to do, is for everyone to write a letter to Heni to put in her stocking...it's still hanging above the fire place...just like usual.... In years ahead it will become a family history treasure to look back on and read about the things that we have done during the years. It will be a blessing to read of ways in which we have noticed Heni's influence and legacy in our lives.
This week we enjoyed a family day out to Waddesdon Manor.... a local National Trust property near where we live. We've visited it every year for a number of years now and look forward to it as part of our Christmas traditions and a way of getting us in to the festive spirit. We enjoy going to see the house, trees, lights and doing some Christmas shopping at the wooden cabin "market" set in the grounds around the Manor.
I know it's only the beginning of March.... (but I know how some folks like to plan ahead) so today I thought I would tell you about a trip that daughter number two, Gem and I took at the beginning of December last year. We went to Lincoln (England) for a girls weekend break and to have a mooch around the Christmas markets! I know you probably don't want to think about Christmas right now and I promise it's not going to be all about that.... this post also includes an "eating out with food intolerance" restaurant review that we ate out at as well! You never know, Lincoln may be somewhere that you want to put on your bucket list of places to visit in the future.... or the market may be on your list of things to do?
I haven't got a scheduled post due out here on Henibean and so I thought that I would sit back and just write.... and perhaps tell you a little about what's been happening this week at home.
It's been a week of mixed emotions. One of the events of the week was having to say goodbye to my eldest son and daughter in law as they left home on their next adventure... a move to America! My son is half American anyhow (American dad) and so It will be a great time for them to explore his "other" country and heritage and get to know a lot of our family over there a little better. It was a sad time saying goodbye to them and we are sure going to miss having them live so close to us (in the apartment at the bottom of the garden!) I know that there is Face-time and Skype these days (we talked to them 24 hours after they left!) but the saddest part for me was to see Heni hug them goodbye, and cling on to them with her legendary "headlock" as she loved them and then let them go.
Welcome to week four ...the final installment of our Advent Tree bauble hunt! This week we will build up and finish the last few ornaments for our project. Today I will be sharing with you the remaining 6 scriptures and decorations for your tree that depict the many varied names and roles of Christ.Hopefully that will mean you will still have plenty of time to finish searching (or making) in good enough time to start your advent on December 1st! If you have been following this blog series you will know that there are 25 decorations in total ....with the last one getting opened and hung on the tree on Christmas day. Please Feel free to change the scriptures and even change the decorations to something that resonates with you and reminds you of the the real message of Christmas. If you haven't already seen the previous posts throughout November it may be a good idea to check out WEEK 1,WEEK 2 and WEEK 3 for the rest of the scriptures and decorations after seeing days 20 - 25 in this post.
Welcome to week 3 of the advent tree bauble hunt! If you are new to the blog then you may want to go check out week one and week two first to see what we are up to! Then come back and and join me here for the next 6 scriptures and ornaments.....
Welcome to the second week of Christmas bauble hunting! If you read last weeks post (Part 1) you will know that I originally made this little advent tree for my son some years ago. Last week we went through the first six ornaments and scriptures depicting some of the names and attributes of Christ. This week we are on to the next 7 .... ...so off we go...
Half term is over and I have just returned from a family respite break in Iceland! It is an amazingly diverse country in more ways than one, and while we were there we experienced our first snow of the year. It made me realize that Christmas is fast approaching and
is on its merry way! (I will tell you more about our adventures in Iceland in a future post....) So....as it is officially the 1st of November, I thought I would share a project with you that I did for my son a
number of years back while he was serving a mission for our
Church. We had not seen him since he left almost two years previous and during the time he was away I would occasionally put together a care
package (with various items that I thought he may need or like) and send it to
him. On his last Christmas away, I though that I would do something a little
bit different.
