Merry Christmas

Let me greet you on this day of miracle birth, divine intervention and new beginnings. A very Merry Christmas to you.

With memory-loss patients there can be genuine laughter.  Pressure this year meant my attempts at decorating the house were limited. No Christmas tree (first time in 57 years) and no Nativity scene. Since coming to Cambridge we have placed all the nativity figures on straw in front of a stable backdrop in our hall. I had found the stable in a storage box but realized energy was too low to unpack the key nativity figures. So I put the stable on its side in a corner.

Yesterday Carol came into the room asking me loudly: 'Where's Jesus? Where's Mary?  She had found the stable and placed it empty where it has normally stood. But where were the key figures?  Smiling, I explained I had run out of energy but said what a good question that is in all the Christmas festivities. Where's Jesus? She laughed in agreement.

I left the empty stable there.  As someone said

The manger is empty - He outgrew it

The cross is empty - He endured it

The tomb is empty - He overcame it

The throne is never empty - now He reigns for ever and ever.

Christmas blessings to all my readers.