Festivity commences

More shopping and cleaning to be done this morning, plus a couple of sermons to complete for tonight, and a present to buy for Clare - all before lunch. Early afternoon, Kath, Anto, Rhiannon and Auntie Viv arrived by car from Kenilworth. Amazingly there were plenty of spare parking places in the street, for a change. Only one of three builder's skips in the street for the past couple of months now remains, releasing an extra four parking places. There were several more empty places in addition, as a number of families have gone away for Christmas. This holiday week, nobody need park in proscribed places at the street entrance, where several people have been unfairly fined for leaving their cars overnight lately. Not long after, Owain arrived from Bristol to complete the household, and we spoke to Rachel and Jasmine just after breakfast in Phoenix, first on Viber, then using face time on Clare's iPad.

Then I popped into town on the bus to shop for another last minute present for Clare, and made it there and back in just over half an hour, a record time. The rush of homebound shoppers from the retail hub, as shops were closing for the weekend, was already under way, but I was going in the opposite direction. The roads were empty when I took off for the six o'clock Vigil Mass and crib blessing at St German's. It was attended by nearly fifty people. Santa must have slipped in when we weren't looking, and left boxes of chocolates for all churchgoers. I received three bottles of favourite wines from members of the congregation in addition. What a lovely treat!

I returned to eat a big pasta supper with the family, for which I prepared the sugo earlier in the day. We sang a few carols, and Rhiannon played her flute accompanied by Grandma on the piano, before I headed off to St German's again for Midnight Mass, thankfully, starting at eleven o'clock. There were thirty of us this time, and we were all parting company in good cheer by a quarter past midnight. I arrived home to a slumbering household. The biscuit and beverage left for Santa's visit to Rhiannon had already been nibbled and supped. And, there was a full moon over Cardiff.