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Christmas is upon us and those last minute presents need to be purchased. There's nothing like a deadline to get things done! I have written a Christmas eshort/thought to balance all the indulgence we may suffer over the next few days, which you can see on the YES blog called "Give yourself away this Christmas"
Irfana, myself and Zara are off up to Shropshire for Christmas, So I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Yesterday we celebrated Zara's cousin Kezia'a 3rd birthday. All the family gathered
and Zara experienced what it means to get a kiss from the Cheeky boys. Saturday we visited Simon and Laekha in Amersham and had a great time catching up on and eating biryani. It was one of those magical times where Irfana and Laekha disappeared upstairs to powder their noses and Simon and I got to work on the PS2. Check out my flikr account for more phots. I've gone pro!
The Free For All team are reuniting over the next 3 days to rehearse scenes from the play and talk through delivering workshops. Unfortunately we are not all around as Mike is away in the States on holiday and Ade (back centre with cap on) is busy promoting Amy Winehouse's new single rehab. You may have spotted him on TV recently singing back up. We will also have the opportunity to come together at the beginning of Jan before our first performance in Quinton and then Wells Cathedrals. For a full list of the tour go to our new Free For All website.
Preparing a thought about advent for Premier Radio I stumbled across this secular advent calendar. Basically someone has done a sculpture for each day of advent and has made some images of Christmas far more real than the church seems to do. I was attracted to the baby one for obvious reasons and a caption beside it 
"Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukah! Good Solstice! Happy Kwanzaa!" Also there was a very earthy one of Mary preparing for birth with the caption; "Mary couldn't sleep on Christmas Eve either". Listen out for the thought on 14th December and take a look at other images here on Justjk's twisted secular advent calendar.
Check out this months trax16 with a new enhanced format, where you can see what's going on in addition to hearing. In the show Anita visits the land of the Kiwis and chats with Maori and Christian young people in New Zealand about faith and culture. And while I am off having baby Zara, Abby is keeping my seat warm, as we get lyrically creative and think of ways to make Christmas more than decoration.
Ryan Baker-Barnes provides us with a fresh sounding worship song and we announce the winner of a stunning trax16 t-shirt.
It has been an amazing two weeks and tomorrow I go back to work. This week we have had a few visitors and it has been great to see Zara and friends together. Sarah had been held to a promise she had made as part of a game at Irfana's baby shower and came to present Irfana with Saag Aloo. For more pics of Zara with friends go to my flikr account. Meanwhile tomorrow I will have a youth and Children's meeting up north and the reality of work is upon me. I've got that Sunday evening bath night feeling before school the next day....
