Gingerbread and Beef

This morning we headed down to Shannon Hopkins' flat for some holiday baking. The Jones family was down from Orkney, and they make a gingerbread house every year at Christmas. We made the dough last night and refrigerated it. By the time we arrived, Samuel had the blueprints drawn up and ready to go. The only complication?
The Joneses had brought a MASSIVE rib roast that needed to be cooked as well. So we had to juggle racks of building materials around pots of vegetables in the oven, with one eye always on that roast, patiently waiting its turn. Andrew explained to me that they'd been saving this roast for about seven months, as it was part of the half-cow they purchased from their neighbor in the spring.
In the end, the cookies got baked and the roast had its turn. The gingerbread house went up, along with my addition: an out-house around the back. Then we feasted, first on meat, then on the house. They had a great rule for the kids: if you eat a sweet, you have to eat the gingerbread underneath it too!
We do have a few pictures, I'll see if I can get them up tomorrow.

Random Pics

I've been meaning to take some of the pictures off my camera phone and put them up here, but keep forgetting. Anyway, here they are, some are quite old. One is a fireplace built out of organic vegetables from our weekly delivery. Another is yours truly dressed as Edgar Allen Poe for a recent fancy dress party. Finally, there's a shot from the blues jam that happens every week across the street - some American visitors of our teammates were making a guest appearance with a friend of mine who's a regular at the jams.

Winter Wonderland

Took the girls to the Winter Wonderland today at Hyde Park, to celebrate the last day of school before the holiday break. They saw Father Christmas, and Andi told him she wants a reindeer for Christmas! It was bitter cold so we didn't stay too long. They watched people ice skating for a while, and said they want to try it sometime, so I think we might make that an activity for one of their days off.

Climbing Christmas Dinner

Last night was my last climbing wall session of the year. There was a dinner planned for members of the climbing club, and about 10 of us braved the freezing temperatures for 2 hrs of climbing before heading off to dinner.
Freezing, you ask? At an indoor rock wall? Yes, it was about 32 F last night, thanks to the architects who decided to put netting instead of windows along the top of the three glass walls that surround the climbing surface. It's basically a covered outdoor wall, even though it's almost entirely enclosed.
Anyway, after some good climbing, we headed off to the local Indian restaurant for vegetarian starters and good spicy chicken and rice to warm us up. I connected really well with another climber who has kids, and we talked for a while about being dads. Before we knew it, midnight arrived and the restaurant chucked us out; but a good time was had by all, and I finally feel like after a year of climbing and not really meeting anyone, I'm getting to connect to some of the other guys at the wall.

Shelter Art Show

Thursday night was the opening of the Shelter art exhibition at St Michael’s church. Shelter was conceived as a way to bring together our artist friends from the market and help raise money for the cold weather shelter we’re involved in. Artists submitted pieces on the theme of shelter (some stuck closer to the theme than others). They will donate a portion of each sale to the cold weather shelter.
We had been running around like crazy for the last week picking up art, fixing lights at the appropriate angle, and hanging pieces. It was great fun and hard work, culminating in our opening night.
A good number of people came to the opening, mostly friends and invitees of the artists. Somer and Kathy kept the mulled wine flowing all night, which helped compensate for the cold in the building (it was warmer outside than it was inside, as St. Michael’s can't afford to turn on the heat).
So why did we do something like this? Aside from the obvious answer that it takes money to run the cold weather shelter, and this is one way to raise money, there's a bigger picture. Our vision for bringing people close to God who wouldn't ordinarily set foot in a traditional church means that we look for ways to include them in projects that are close to God's heart. God loves art, he loves artists, and he loves the weak and needy in Camden. This show brings those things together, and does it in a beautiful building that has been used to worship God for over 100 years. We want to help people experience God as they rub shoulders with his people and participate in his mission to shelter the homeless. And we hope that they have helped us better to know the shelter that God provides us as they've expressed the theme in their paintings, photographs, and sculptures.