Festive preparations on the shortest day

With the end of term behind them, Kath, Anto and Rhiannon arrived yesterday afternoon, with Anto going straight off to a sound check for this evening's 'Third Uncles' gig at Chapter. I had the pleasure of looking after Rhiannon while the others went to the gig. She drew pictures of the Nativity and a couple of angels and we discussed them as she worked. Earlier she'd put out the family Nativity set in its usual place on the kitchen window sill. It's made of small pottery figures which her mum and her friend Emily had fashioned when they were in primary school over thirty years ago.

Rhiannon, just like Jasmine, has brought her own Advent calendar with her, to add to the one I brought back from Spain. When both children are here we'll have three to display, somehow. The blue LED lights on top of the stable came home with Rachel last night, acquired from the club where she was visiting Owain during his first gig of the weekend. They'd been part of some exotic party balloons which had been popped, leaving the lights in the detritus on the floor.

I heard William Dalrymple speak superbly in the BBC Radio Four 'Point of View' slot last night about the heritage which Islam and Christianity share in reverence for stories about the birth of Jesus. It was a great interfaith Christmas sermon. In passing, he mentioned the eastern tradition of wisdom sayings about or attributed to Jesus, known among Asians of different religious faiths which aren't obviously derived from the Bible or the Qu'ran, but have a life of their own through oral tradition. Whether or not they represent an obscure strand of teaching that has survived two millennia of oral transmission outside scripture is a curiosity compared to the thought that people of different faiths value such sayings and identify them with the word and works of Jesus, regardless of  their origin. There's no getting away from the fact that his influence persists and touches the whole world in surprising ways.

This morning, I dismantled the ancient crumbling now redundant garden shed and took the remains to the tip. While doing this I pinched a nerve in my back, and will have to cope with the consequences through the next few days.

The Christmas tree came in from the cold. It's the one we dug up out of an allotment patch on Llandaff Fields for a tenner two years ago. It hasn't fared so well in its tub in the alley outside and is a bit thin on needles. As we were away last December, it stayed outdoors, forsaken and neglected. We thought we'd let it see another Christmas, rather than throw it away, as it's still alive. So it looks rather minimalist, but quite effective with lights and candles, thanks to Rhiannon's decorative skills.

We all walked into town together this afternoon and ended up having tea in John Lewis'. We came home on a smart new 61 bus, one of several replacement single deckers making their appearance this week. Our driver said he was none too impressed. I imagine that's how he would feel in the first few weeks, as getting used to driving a new vehicle to the point where it becomes second nature is a bit like getting used to a new pair of shoes. It takes a while before you stop noticing there's a difference.