Hark!

He did come after all. We were convinced that although the girls have behaved fairly well this year, it wasn't enough to deserve presents beyond a Lapland trip. But we've been proven wrong. He came, he delivered, he ate the biscuits.

We had a fun time opening presents this morning, especially with the crazy collection of gifts that Helen and Stephanie had made each other (and us). Chatting with Nanna and Pop and Auntie Sophie in Australia was good too, although we seemed to have problems with audio levels somewhere.

It was a very easy drive to Gloucester Cathedral this morning - hardly anyone about on the roads. There had been some fuss on the radio yesterday about how poor it was that there would be no trains on Christmas Day, and few on Boxing Day. The train operators explained that not only were they doing major engineering work, but also there was almost no demand. It's hard to judge exactly how accurate that is, but there wasn't much bustle around Malvern or Gloucestershire today. Maybe it was because of the lack of trains.

The music at Gloucester was good - making both Matins and Eucharist. We heard Howells Jubilate, Elgar Te Deum, and Mathias A Babe is Born during Matins (sung in the Quire) and then we all joined the procession to the Nave to O Come All Ye Faithful. The only choral Eucharistic music was the Vierne Messe Sollonelle - with the Benedictus and Agnus Dei sung during communion, and the organ postlude was Mulet's Carillon Sortie.



Soon after arriving home, and a brief but diverse and Christmassy chat with Dr Glennn, we went across the common to our Christmas Lunch. It was the sort of lunch which didn't get us home until 4pm. We experienced both traditional Christmas Dinners as well as Indian (being at our closest Indian restaurant, Paprika). They were both very nicely prepared, although we had to bring a good meal's worth home afterwards. It was nice that we won two raffle prizes too: a drawing set (for the girls) and a traction truck (for Christopher). The walk home proceeded a little more sedately on full tummies.

We spent some time trying out the roller shoes, but discovered that some skill is required, and that it's harder than it looks.

Only the smallest seems to require any dinner tonight, although it might be hard to drag his attention away from his new vehicular delights.

While Joanna's waiting for the Boxing Day Test to start, we had a brief look at the Paris map that Santa brought her. We need to get from the North to an Orly airport hotel, and then vaguely NW to near Sceaux (a green circle). I'm not sure that this map will be enough to get us successfully through the spaghetti.

Merry Christmas everyone!

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*It seems that Gareth Perkins, Graham Powell and others have similar experiences - see posts 9 and 10 of this descant discussion. From memory, the culmination is a B minor 7 with flat 5 on "Word" (of the Father...). Oh, and a pet hate in common: having people sing descants on too many verses.