Reims Cathedral. Photo courtesy of France Tourism.

Well, that’s another month and indeed a whole year done and dusted. What a month it has been, what a year it has been, what a year it is going to be. Bring on 2025.

We started the month in France, Reims to be exact. Click on the link if you’ve never heard of it. Reims is not to be confused with Riems, which is an Island in Greifswald, Germany. Which, although very beautiful, is not where we went.

I started my sojourn in Reims (not to be confused with Riems) by tripping over, headbutting a wall, and falling over, hurting my hip. No walls were injured during the making of this fall. My forehead looked like a good Mikhail Gorbachev impression with a massive bruise and I left several layers of skin stuck to the wall. I then had to limp around this beautiful city for two days with little sympathy from my fellow travellers. I’m sure this would not have happened in Riems but we didn’t go there, we were in Reims. However, despite my broken hip and fractured femur, (slight exaggeration), we had a jolly good time, eating, drinking, visiting the Christmas market, eating, drinking, and eating some more. Two days in Reims and 2 kg heavier. I did lose it again the following week.

Mikhail Gorbachev a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country’s dissolution in 1991, who also looks as if he had headbutted a wall.

Reims is possibly most famous for its champagne production. Here you will find some of the largest and most celebrated champagne houses, many of which are open for tours and tastings. However, it is also a great place to visit if you love to try new dishes. Reims can definitely be described as a ‘foodie town’ and even has its own signature dish, biscuits roses de Reims.

Visiting Reims is certainly a treat for lovers of history and architecture. We visited a few of the more standout attractions, but the entire city is full of beautiful Gothic buildings and well worth a visit.

Now, what else happened in December, let me think, oh, I remember, Christmas! The build up to Christmas is always hectic in our house, I made the Christmas cake in October, but still had to be marzipanned and iced. (see below). Not too bad a job, even if I say so myself. It was well laced with alcohol, brandy and amaretto, tastes great and should last us well into January before it’s all eaten.

The Christmas cake was well laced with alcohol, brandy and amaretto.

We had a great Christmas, thanks for asking, A brilliant Carols by Candlelight service just before, a Chrisdingle on Christmas Eve and a Thanksgiving service on the big day. We had lots of family around the Christmas table including my youngest daughter, her husband and two of my awesome grandsons, plus my wifes sister and brother. So, 8 in all around the table, not too bad. We had Turkey, of course, roast beef and a smoked gammon plus all the trimmings, pigs in blankets, sausage and apricot stuffing, roasted vegetables, and more. We opened presents galore, mainly the two boys, and we filled 2 sacks with torn wrapping paper. The last visitor left at 10.45 pm. We were exhausted, but happy, I think we were probably in bed before he reached the end of our road! Most people think that Christmas is all about the chidren, to us, it’s all about the one child, Jesus. Although we all had a good time, we left room for ‘the reason for the season’ in our fun filled day.

On the 28th we all went to my eldest daughter in the New Forest where we did the whole thing again, this time with her, her hubby and two equaly awesome grand daughters.

That Segways us neatly into New Years Eve. We were most fortunate to be invited, with some other friends to a New Year’s Eve party. This was at the house of our friends, Jez and Sandra. There were a lot of their family there, so we felt quite honoured to be included. Again, we ate lovely food, drunk fine wines and beers, although I had to stick to the 0% beer as I was driving. Anyway, I don’t need alcohol to be silly, it come naturally to me.

My main acheivement over Christmas and New Year was putting on nearly 3 kg in weight. I’m back on my normal diet and fitness regime now, so it will soon be gone again and I’ll be back to my 75kg weight.

Despite being such a busy month, I still managed to publish ten articles or poems on this website, mainly poetry but with a bit of theology thrown in for good measure. If you like the poetry but not the theology, then my poems can also be found at a website called Line of Poetry . Do pay it a visit, not only me, but hundreds of other and more talented poets are on there as well.

May I take this opportunity now to wish you all a belated Happy New Year, may you all be richly blessed in 2025.

©Joseph R Mason and Richard J Kirk – 2025

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