Merry Christmas!

I probably won't get a chance to wish you Merry Christmas tomorrow so here it is:

I hope you all have a very Happy and Merry Christmas. May God bless you and all your families!

Christmas is almost upon us!

Wow... How quickly Christmas has crept up on us this year. It hardly seems real that it is only two days away now. I guess the snow that is still here (Yay!) makes it seem more Christmassy, but we haven't really been getting into the spirit of Christmas much yet!

It doesn't really help that we haven't been to church for three weeks. Bad, I know. I don't really have much excuse, okay so the weather hasn't been the nicest of weather, but really should I let that stop me? I could have walked to church. I was even up early enough on two of those three Sundays to walk to church. To be quite honest I was just feeling too lazy.

I've been far too lazy lately. I've barely done anything to help around the house and to help my mum get ready for Christmas. I've mostly just been on my computer, not really doing anything: facebook, watching movies etc. And now, thinking about it make me seem really bad. I really will have to try harder to do things to help my mum, when asked, and before she asks.

This is to be my goal for the next two days and on into the new year.

I also need to stop being so lazy with my schoolwork. I usually only do the bare minimum necessary to get the teachers off my back. I need to put more time and effort into my work. Also I need to revise for my first GCSE exam (Science) which takes place in January. I only just scraped an A* in my mock so a little more revision is necessary.

Snow..

Well it finally snowed! I'm happy about that, but it's a shame it had to wait until the last day of term (today) to snow. Today was going to be quite a good day at school with no lessons and a talent show.

Our school carol concert was supposed to be on last night, but it was cancelled due to the weather warnings. I am in the orchestra and string ensemble (I play the viola) and we've been rehearsing such a lot, it's such a shame the concert got cancelled.

I love how in this country we get a little bit of snow and everyone's panicking! Most of the schools are closed and there's been problems on the roads. Everything comes to a standstill here when it snows whereas other countries are very prepared for snow. I suppose it doesn't matter so much as in this country we don't get that much snow that often unfortunately.

We're still hoping for a White Christmas, but the snow will probably melt away in the time between now and Christmas :(

Busy :)

I've been quite busy lately with school work - lots of homework and revision for a fairly important exam coming up!

I've also been involved in a parish concert that took place last Sunday, which took up quite a lot of time with rehearsals etc.

Hopefully I'll have a bit more to blog about soon with my birthday & Christmas coming up :)

Beautiful Picture

I saw this picture on The Inkworld blog (http://ennainkgirl.blogspot.com) and I just thought that it was so beautiful and magical I had to share it :)

Confirmation

I'm going to be confirmed this May :) The preparation meetings are starting already and there's a great group of us :)

World Youth Day Launch!

Today I went to my diocese launch of World Youth Day 2011. We have to start preparing for it early as we have to raise around £900 each! We saw some videos of WYD 2008 in Sydney and it looked amazing so I really hope that I can raise the money to go and as it will be in Madrid, Spain then it's not too far to go this time! There were 5 of us from my parish and also many people from the other parishes in our diocese including a few people I know from school. The people who went in 2008 said that it really was a great experiance.

I am already starting to come up with ways to earn money so that I can go. It's a lot of money but I do think it will be worth it!

Who else is going?

Joel's Gone :(

Joel's going back up to uni today :( He left this morning quite early for his girlfriend's house. However now there are severe gales up in the north so they're not going up until a bit later. It's quite windy here too!

Forest Born

I just found out that there is a new book just come out in Shannon Hale's Books of Bayern series! It's called Forest Born and looks pretty good!

Rin is sure that something is wrong with her...something really bad. Something that is keeping her from feeling at home in the Forest homestead where she's lived all her life. Something that is keeping her from trusting herself with anyone at all.

When her brother Razo returns from the city for a visit, she accompanies him to the palace, hoping that she can find peace away from home. But war has come to Bayern again, and Rin is compelled to join the queen and her closest allies, magical girls Rin thinks of as the Fire Sisters, as they venture into the Forest toward Kel, the land where someone seems to want them all dead. Many beloved Bayern characters reappear in this story, but it is Rin's own journey of discovering how to balance the good and the bad in herself that drives this compelling adventure.

The Christian Blog Awards - Award Ceremony!

Yesterday I went to the Christian Web and New Media awards ceremony.

My Dad and I set off in the morning and spent the day in London. We visited several different churches which had been rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London in 1666. We also visited some other churches which I don't think were Wren churches.

St. Bartholomew the Great

St. Bart's is on of the oldest churches in London. It escaped the Great Fire of London and also was one of the few churches to escape the London Bombing during World War 2.

You walk through this gate:

And then you can see the front of the Church:

You have to pay to go in and look around, but it's free to go in and pray so my Dad and I just went in to pray, but you can see most of the interior from the prayer chapel.

Here's a picture of the inside:

Inside it is really old and you can see bits from from lots of different times.

Their Website:

http://www.greatstbarts.com/

St. Brides

http://www.stbrides.com/

The site of St. Bride's has been a place of worship for 2000 years!

We went down into the Crypt that they only discovered after World War 2 bombing and there was displays about the history of St. Brides. It was really interesting to see that there were bits that they had found from Roman and Saxon Churches. Down in the crypt there was pieces of Roman pavement!

After the Great Fire of London, when St. Bride's was burnt to the ground, it was rebuilt by Christopher Wren. it was one of his most expensive and elaborate churches.

Since the 16th Century the area was known for printing and newspaper-making so St. Bride's became known as the Journalists' Church.

During the Blitz the church was fire-bombed and the nave was completely destroyed. In 1953 the restoration work began and the church was rededicated in 1957.

The Spire:

The inside:

St. Vedast

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Vedast_Foster_Lane

St. Vedast's was not completely destroyed in the Great Fire of London, but required quite a lot of work which was designed by Christopher Wren. The church was gutted by fire-bombs during the Blitz and was then restored.

Inside:

St. Mary-le-Bow

We only got to this church as it was closing so we were only able to have a quick look inside. The stain glass windows were amazing though!

They have a good website, with more information and pictures here: http://www.stmarylebow.co.uk/

We also went into St. Anne & St. Agnes and another one which I can't remember the name of.

We visited John Soane's house. He was an architect and filled his house with interesting things to help his students. It's a pretty crazy house, absolutely crammed full of strange things!

We also visited Dr. Johnson's house. He wrote a dictionary. His house was pretty empty really, so it wasn't really very interesting!

The Award Ceremony

The award ceremony took place in St. Stephen Walbrook (this church was also rebuilt by Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London).

Here is a picture of the church:

And the big dome inside:

When we arrived I was greeted by two of the people who were running the event and I was told that I was going to get a gift and not to be too nervous! I then knew that I was going to get something, but I didn't know what or what for!

At the start there was a champagne reception, but of course I just had to have orange juice! Then there was a welcoming speech.

Following that, dinner was served. It was all very posh, with candles on the tables and waiters/waitresses bringing the food. We had a three course meal! The starter was Baked Asparagus, wrapped in puff pastry with Béarnaise sauce. The Main course was a Paupiette of Sole with leek and tarragon stuffing and fine herb butter sauce. That was served with Broad Bean and Potato Puree and Sweet Peppers stuffed with Butternut Squash. For dessert there was Rhubarb and Elderflower Crème Brûlée with Honey Shortbread. Then fairtrade coffee and a selection of teas were served along with homemade fudge and mini chocolate brownies.

After we had finished Dinner we were onto the Awards Ceremony!

You can see a full list of all the winners (plus more information about the event) here: http://christianblogawards.com/

When the winner & runner up for the Best Christian blog for the under 25s were announced I was a bit disappointed and puzzled as I hadn't won. Then up came the 'Special Recognition'. It was me :D I got special recognition for being the youngest entrant! I received a certificate and a nintendo DS lite!! I was so amazed and really nervous :P However I managed to say a few words about my blog etc. so that was good :)

The winners of the People's Choice award was the website of the Benedictine nuns from Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred (http://www.benedictinenuns.org.uk/). As they are a closed monastery they could not come to the award ceremony to collect their award! Instead they sent in a video for us to watch containing a little snapshot of their lives!

It was totally amazing to be there and see what other Christians have been doing on the web and also to get to meet them :) I had a wonderful time!