Christmas 2020

Lucy has had a busy year. She was awarded Tenure at Lehigh University. This means she has a secure job and has been promoted to Associate Professor. 

Also we have a new granddaughter!

Amelia Mae arrived 10th February 2020

She continues to grow and is developing her own personality and character.

Elliott is mad about all things to do with American diggers. Here he is playing with a "backhoe" adaptation made by Jason.

In between Covid spikes, Kate, Christophe and the boys were able to visit us in August. Benji has now gone up to High School and Joe is in Year One.

Having worked at Tyndale House for 10 years, Kate is now Head Librarian at Hughes Hall College in Cambridge. She started there in the summer by organising the Covid precautions. During the lockdown, she was busy juggling work and home schooling so a busy year for her too.

Facetime has been great for keeping in touch. Like many other people we have learnt at lot about Zoom. We've been to 3 birthday parties (Elliott, Benji & Joe), celebrated Thanksgiving with Lucy & family, enjoyed a zoom murder mystery evening with family in Cambridge, Scotland, Pennsylvania, California and New Zealand. We've also done virtual cake making with Joe. At the beginning of the year we became homegroup leaders. We met a few times at our house but have spent the rest of the year Zooming.

Being in Lockdown has meant that Colin has had few opportunities of going out far from home with his camera. Nevertheless he has had four photographs printed in the local newspaper on the theme of autumn.

His photos on Google Maps have received 1.7m views.

It's been good to do a variety of local walks as well as our favourite - a walk along the seafront. When Covid rules have allowed, we've been a little further afield. One day we ventured as far as Teignmouth to see 3 cruise-liners moored close to the shore.

The first half on the year was difficult health-wise for Colin. On the 31st of January he was taken by ambulance to A&E with severe abdominal pains. He was sent home later that day painless but with a catheter.  We lost count of the number of times we had to call out emergency teams to sort out the external plumbing. The medication eventually kicked in and, in May, he was de-plumbed and, with the help of an assortment of pills is living a fairly normal life.

In the Autumn our Pastor was off sick for 2 months, which meant that Colin was called out of retirement to lead services and preach on a regular basis. This was a novel experience given that it was all pre-recorded to be streamed on Facebook and YouTube. It was strange just preaching to a congregation of 1 (the cameraman). It was even stranger just recording the links and not being there for the actual worship songs.  One week he forgot to do Communion and had to go back 10 days later to record a Communion segment, which for continuity purposes meant he had to remember what he had been wearing!  He also had to be aware not to wear anything green, because it interfered with "Green screen" background.  His Dec 27th service was recorded back in November. He did his best to look Christmassy.

We have also been acting as "Gatekeepers" for the church's "after service Zoom coffee and chat" and  also the midweek Zoom prayer meeting. This follows Jan's Zumba session on Zoom. Jan has also been active in the church team packing and delivering bags of food to local families in need. (It's great that we can collect surplus food from Tesco once a week for this.) She also accompanies our Family Support Worker (both in masks) to give some families extra support and advice. This is similar to the work she did with CAP but without the admin and responsibility.

We are so thankful that we and our family have been Covid-free and that vaccines are going to be available. This year, we're having a quiet Christmas at home and looking forward to meeting up with family and friends in 2021. May we wish you a happy Christmas and all the best in 2021.