Unicorns, sparklers and Widor

Christmas day has been a bit fractured.  A day of two halves in fact.  It started on Christmas Eve for me as I spoke to my bro, sis in law and the kids on their Christmas morning.  Had a bonus chat with dad too as my bro called him while I was there.  Niece was a bit cheeky about 'old' people and technology, but I blame the distance!

After that it was down time before bed and Christmas morning take two!  It was silent outside, noticeable due to the absence of noise.  Everyone is off doing christmas stuff and there isn't even any traffic.  It was also cold.  5 degrees.  No snow though unfortunately.  Alison and I ended up at Great St Mary's this morning for their christmas day communion service.  Lots of carols again and a great sermon that I actually listened to!  And a unicorn on the end of the front pew.  Towards the end the Vicar broke tradition because there had been a wedding there in the previous couple of days and they had donated a whole pile of sparklers.  We got to light the sparklers and wave them around in the church.  During the service the heavens opened and I thought we would get wet again but it had cleared up by the time the service finished.

After a restorative coffee we decided to go and listen to the girls' choir rehearse for Matins and thought, what the heck, we have nothing else to do so stayed for Matins.  It was a lovely service with a bonus of having the Widor played at the end at breakneck speed and from memory by the organist and choir master.

After exploring the other end of the street we found a little Chinese restaurant that was open so Christmas dinner was Chicken Fried Rice and Chicken Chow Mein. It was really nice after a long morning and we knew that later in the afternoon we had an invitation to coffee and dessert from Elgy who had stood in line with us yesterday.

Christmas dinner

Gifts from kind strangers Elgy and Sonia