Guess where this was taken!

Me in my new cloak, which will also come in useful if I ever get a job at Hogwarts

The Flying Corradinos, with Mike Thorpe on Guitar

Our minimalist nativity set, bought in some trendy pop-up shop in Shoreditch or somewhere

Ruth and I in fetching Christmas hats

Rose, in Berlin, talking to Matthew on the phone and standing under the 'Melbourne' section of the famous world clock in Alexanderplatz.

Rose and I in hats at a railway station in Berlin

Lovely Vertine in Chianti

Gathering of the Websters to celebrate Austin's 90th and Andrew's 60th birthdays

Happy Christmas from the Vicarage!

I'm writing this from a house full of Christmas lurgy – occupational hazard for vicars and teachers. We’ve both been very busy but have decided that we can allow ourselves to be ill today and perhaps tomorrow, before gearing back up for Christmas. Hence I’m writing this jolly, festive missive today. I’ve called in sick. The Boss is fine with that.

If you don’t live in a vicarage you won’t fully understand this, but Christmas Eve falling on a Sunday is pretty brutal. It’s starts like every Sunday with a service in church at 8:00 AM, followed by a mid-morning service. Then it transmutes into Christmas Eve with Crib Services in both churches, then there’s ‘Midnight Mass’, again in both churches (although I’m not taking both, of course, having not mastered the spiritual gift of bilocation). Then, after too little sleep, Christmas Day starts with another 8:00 AM service, followed by a couple of mid-morning services and then my plan is to fall asleep with my head in the soup.

We’ve had a good start to the season, with my annual ‘Campaign for a Real Advent’ falling inevitably on deaf ears as churchgoers and pagans alike rush headlong into midwinter festivity. We’ve had a Christmas Tree Festival, Carol Services (one in the snow, charmingly), a (knitted) travelling nativity making its way around the parishes, and a pub-crawling carol sing. I’ve attended nursery nativity plays and primary school carol concerts. One child – a wise woman, I think – asked what gift she had brought the baby replied confidently, “I can’t say that”. And it wasn’t even frankincense, it was silver, apparently, which they’d added to the traditional three gifts to make sure everyone had a speaking part.
The Summer
In the summer we had a fabulous family holiday in Tuscany. All eight of us – Rose and I, Chris and Erin (from Melbourne), Matt and Arina (from Berlin), and Martin and Lizzy (from London) – arrived within about the space of an hour at Pisa airport. We had booked a holiday home in a place called Vertine, in Chianti. Vertine is gorgeous: it’s a little medieval walled hamlet with an 11th century castle and church, and just one place to eat. Next to the church is the old priest’s house (the Canonica di Vertine), now a holiday home. And that’s where we stayed! Were it not for the mosquitoes (and lack of air con in our room – all the other bedrooms had it), it would have been idyllic. Still, it was pretty close to being perfect.

On our first evening together, Chris asked if he could suggest a particular theme for our celebration: he announced that Erin was pregnant – quite the most exciting news I’ve ever had on the first day of a holiday! We look forward to welcoming our first grandchild in February 2018. Rose and I plan to travel to Melbourne to meet him (they know it’s a boy) as soon as the services on Easter Sunday morning (1st April) are over. We only have a fortnight so it’s going to be a bit epic but we are hoping we might be able to make a similar trip in October.

Anyway, apart from just being together and baby news, we also visited Sienna, stayed a couple of nights in Florence and saw the leaning tower of Pisa. Lots of art and architecture. (But you do eventually find yourself saying, “If I see one more Madonna and Child…”)
Berlin
During the year, Rose and I also managed a couple of visits to see Matthew and Arina in Berlin. Berlin is a fascinating, if somewhat melancholy city. Rose commented that it’s almost as if the second world war has only just ended – there are memorials and reminders of both its Nazi and communist past everywhere you go. As well as what remains of the wall and all that, we also visited the Pergamon Museum which is extraordinary (the Ishtar Gate from Babylon is there!) and the RAF cemetery where Alan’s dad’s brother, Norman, is buried. (He was shot down over Berlin in 1943, aged 19.)

Given that we were in Germany around the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s ’95 Theses’ (the start of the protestant reformation) Alan thought it would be fun to visit Wittenberg, the place where Luther lived. And it was. I bought a poster of the 95 Theses and some socks which say “Hier stehe ich und kann nicht anders!” on them. (Luther is supposed to have uttered these words – ‘Here I stand. I can do no other!’-at the Diet of Worms. I don’t know if he actually said them, but I now have a pair of socks with them on. Which is nice. Because it’s about standing and they’re socks.)
150th Birthday Party
Another family highlight was a get-together of the Webster clan in celebration of Austin’s 90th birthday. Austin had said he wanted a barbecue in our garden for his birthday party, so we booked caterers and prayed for the weather. We also marked Andrew’s 60th birthday, making it a 150th birthday party. It went very well with cousins seeing each other for the first time in years. The day ended with a singalong. There were times along the way that we weren’t sure Austin would make it and, sadly, his health has deteriorated markedly in the last few years. He now lives in Belong Warrington, a lovely care community that is close to where Rose and I live.

My mum, Sylvia, also struggles with her health but, so far, Dad has been able to care for her at home (which is not bad for an 89 year-old).

(Instead of Christmas cards this year, Rose and I have made a donation to Alzheimer's Society.)
Alan's Day Job
Workwise, the highlight of my year has been to welcome the Revd Ruth Mock as a colleague in our two parishes. Ruth was ordained deacon at Chester Cathedral on 2nd July to serve as Curate with us. Ruth is a former primary school teacher and was working with the Diocese of Chester as the bishop’s family life advisor. (Although how much advice the bishop of Chester needs about his family, I’m not sure.) Ruth is a joy to work with and brings fresh energy and insights to our ministry.

Around the time Ruth was being ordained, I was marking the 31st anniversary of my own ordination and the 30th anniversary of my becoming a priest. We decided to hold a celebration marking my anniversary and welcoming Ruth, so a ceilidh was organised in September this year. It was particularly good to have booked a ceilidh band which features Mike Thorpe on guitar. We knew Mike and Jann from my curacy days in Aylesbury (all those years ago) and they also know Ruth from Macclesfield, so there were some interesting connections. The parishes kindly had a whip-round and I was presented with a clerical cloak (which every vicar needs for burials in the churchyard on days when it’s snowing or raining) and a posh fountain pen for writing up the wedding registers.

Rose's Work

Rose's career has diversified. She remains head of maths at Cransley School, a part-time job. She's also had a promotion in her work with the exam board where she is the author and lead marker for a couple of A Level papers.

And what started out as a 'toe in the door' at Hodders has become a steady stream of commissions for new textbooks for the UK and international A Levels

Alan is fond of introducing her as, "my wife, the author" and isn't at all jealous that she has work in print.
Music
Music remains important, with Rose continuing in her role as Director of Music at St Matthew's. She has also taken over running Appleton Thorn Village Choir, having been their accompanist for some while. In church life, she has put together an extended choir (more like a community choir than a church choir) to sing at weddings and other occasions, including our Carol Services.

Alan plays ukulele with the Warrington based Infernal Twangers. We meet monthly to play through songs but I’ve only had one gig with them – an appearance at Culceth Christmas market on a cold, dark, wet Saturday afternoon. I enjoy the fact that most of the other players are proper musicians with the ukulele as a second string to their bow, as it were. Appleton Thorn Village Hall holds regular music nights with excellent acts, including Scottish gypsy jazz outfit, Rose Room, and local guitar legends, Gary Potter and Peter Price.

Merry Christmas!

So, anyway. Here it is, Merry Christmas. Everybody's having fun.

Love to you and yours,

Alan & Rose