Addison Embroidery
at the
Vicarage

Never have I been so behind for Christmas on the present making front. At the moment I shall probably have made just 2 presents – a cardigan for the smallest person and a jumper for the rapidly growing next smallest person. Ideas for handmade gifts for adult members of the family flew out of the window a couple of weeks ago and though for a few nights recently I lay in bed unable to sleep in the early hours and used the time to think through the making of a couple of Christmas stockings, I know nothing will come of those either. Daughter No 1 has commissioned an advent  calendar for next year, so at my current work rate I should probably start that at Easter!

2019 Christmas card Angel, taken from Duncan Grant’s mural of Christ in Splendour, Berwick Church, near Brighton (hand embroidered and appliquéd by Mary Addison)

I just managed a Christmas card. This angel is the pair to the one I did 2 year’s ago and is taken from Duncan Grant’s painting of Christ in Splendour on the chancel arch in Berwick Church near Brighton. (More about the painting and the first angel on my blog here.) The first one I did is much better than this year’s – I’m not pleased with the head but there you go, it was either this or no Christmas card.

We’re off for a London Christmas, my first with the smallest people, so it should be great fun. Paddington Station is closing down completely for four days or so over Christmas, and after that will only have limited services, so we shall be staying for 10 days until the New Year. We’re just hoping all goes well with the trains tomorrow as we have a carol concert at St Paul’s Cathedral to get to for 3.30pm.

Meanwhile have a lovely Christmas, whether it’s quiet and ruminative or boisterous and exhausting, both of which can be equally enjoyable depending upon what has gone before.

As the day of the election approaches things are getting fast paced here in the London household. I have settled in on a semi permanent basis, while daughter No 1 is sent all over the country to research and report on interesting marginal constituencies and the statistical curiosities of newly analysed voting patterns. Ridiculously early trains and overnight stays make this a more difficult job than it looks, especially when very small people wake in the night and want their mummy.  Fortunately daddy is not the sort of man to put his head under the pillow at such times and he responds to the cries with much needed comfort and reassurance – which sometimes includes going down and up 4 flights of stairs to fetch a warm drink. That the second smallest person has had a fever this week and also wakes in the middle of the night is just another thing that needs to be coped with by a man who not only has 2 children but 2 columns to write every week. How do they do it! Well, probably in part because they have a good team at home here. Daughter No 3 is the best of nannies  and she, me and a gem of a home help, manage cooking, childcare, cleaning and washing between us – if one can’t do something, someone else takes the job on, we mix and match – in fact it can be rather fun. We are still, however, thankful that there are only a few days to go.  Black Friday may be nothing compared to Friday 13 December as sleepless nights agonising over election results  judder into mornings of attending school nativity plays.

Sample bands of Fair Isle in the same pattern but different colours

Knitting and sewing, much curtailed by domestic activities, all I have to show this week are 3 sample bands  of Fair Isle, one of which is destined for the small person’s Christmas present.