Friday Focus 04/12/20 – Preparation

Advent is a time for preparation and the last couple of weeks have been busy preparing for various things. Obviously, the preparation for Christmas is underway – most of the presents have now been bought and are waiting to be wrapped; cards are being written and the decorations have been brought down from the loft (although have yet to be put up). It’s going to be a quiet Christmas with just our family bubble this year and none of our usual round of pre-Christmas visits. It will be strange not to visit my family over Christmas though.

 

 

I’m flying solo this week for the first time in ages with hubby away on a work event. He usually does all the video editing for our church services so part of the preparations for him being away was to teach me how to use the software he uses for this. Colour balancing and image editing are things I’m familiar with but I’ve had less experience of editing audio. It won’t be quite as polished a result as he produces, but hopefully it will be okay and I’m enjoying learning more about how to do it.

 

I’ve also started to prepare content for our Christmas services. One of the things I’ve started doing recently is using Playmobil to illustrate some of our Bible readings. I have to admit I treated myself to a Playmobil nativity advent calendar purely so I could take photos for the Christmas readings (although I did manage to put it all back together in time for the start of advent so the children could enjoy opening it as they didn’t know I’d bought it in the first place!)

 

 

The other preparations I’ve been making this week is for the arrival of my new car later today. My current one has been on its way out since just before the first lockdown as it started burning oil. We’ve managed to get through with mostly using my husband’s car since March (and only using mine for very short journeys if absolutely necessary) but it’s now time for a new one. Part of me is a little sad about saying goodbye to my old car as it was our family car for so many days out and holidays with Jessica, but it will be nice to have a new car too. We’ve gone for another Touran so it will be quite similar to my old car.

 

Things that have made me smile over the last two weeks

• Daddy and Sophie re-enacting the story of the Billy Goats Gruff on a walk in the woods.

 

 

• Getting out for walks most days with Thomas.

 

 

• Sitting and colouring in wooden Christmas tree decorations with Sophie.

 

• Sitting in the park with a flask of hot chocolate.

 

• Having matching new winter coats for Sophie and Thomas.

 

 

• Dew-covered spiderwebs on the washing line.

 

• Sophie getting a WOW of the Week at school for being an excellent role model for her class.

 

• Doing a photo shoot in the park with Sophie and Thomas for this year’s Christmas card photo.

 

 

• Being sent Christmas tree decorations with all three of my children’s names included.