Beth

The Christmas countdown has officially begun and I couldn’t be more excited! With a trip to two different Christmas fayres, a Christmas film watched and a gingerbread house on the cards, I think its official – Santa Clause is coming to town!

Prep for our New Year’s House is in full swing, and talk of ballrooms and decorations has got me feeling very festive. I’ve kitted us out with all sorts of decorations for our cottage ready to go up on December the 1^st; pretty fairy lights, hanging ornaments and Lego advent calendars are just the start. With all this exciting news it is important to note a very sombre bit of information. We don’t have a Christmas tree! I know, what’s Christmas without a Christmas tree? (Other than more focussed on Jesus, which is of course a wonderful thing). Therefore it is with extreme distress that I ask if anyone can find the place in their heart to feel pity for us, a donated Christmas tree would be greatly appreciated.

As much as the countdown to Christmas means excitement and décor and fun, it also means frosty mornings and cold working days. Just this morning we had to relocate our morning devotions from the freezing cold office to our warm, cosy cottage. On top of this the cold work of clearing tones and tones of brambles from the deep, dark, undiscovered Gaines grounds has got us shivering as we stand around the blazing fires burning log after log we have been continuously chopping down. The work is long and hard but the results are going to be amazing! A new assault course is definitely on its way.

So as the winter days get colder and shorter it is the excitement of Christmas celebrations and the hope of our God – who sent his own son Jesus Christ down to earth as a baby – that keep us doing what we’re doing, so that when people come to Gaines they can have a great time while we tell them about the amazing things that little baby did when he grew up!