Griffiths family Christmas news 2005
Having moved house at the beginning of 2004 we thought 2005 would be a quiet year, without too many changes. How wrong we were! The post of Vicar of St Michael and All Angels, Galleywood became vacant following the retirement of Andy’s boss. Andy successfully applied for the job and was inducted and instituted as incumbent of the parish in July. St Michael’s Galleywood consists of two congregations (one more formal, one more informal), with a combined average Sunday attendance of about 185 and plans to grow.
The change in job involved another house move for us (number seven in twelve years) and the learning of new skills by Andy such as bell-ringing! We’re enjoying the new house though. It’s much bigger and is surrounded by a large garden – which Bethany calls a real wildlife garden – with all sorts of birds alongside a pair of squirrels and a couple of foxes who were seen this morning playing about three metres from our living room window. Mowing the lawn is keeping Andy fit, and his work load in the parish should soon become more manageable as a new associate minister has finally started work alongside him.
Bethany has continued to pursue her interests and flourish at school. She tries to read everything she sees and feels compelled to write on every piece of paper she finds! The proudest moment of the year for us was when she performed three dances (ballet, tap and modern) at the Civic Theatre in Chelmsford in front of hundreds of people as part of a dancing show. She also took her first dancing exam in July gaining a distinction in primary modern and is an avid fan of Strictly Come Dancing! She has continued to ask us rather complicated theological questions so we’re glad to have an expert on hand to answer them. She is also interested in “the olden days” when her parents were at school. ‘Daddy, did you play kiss-chase when you were at school? The boys keep running after me and trying to kiss me. Yuk!’ She is now beginning to ask more questions about life in France and is keeping up her French to an extent at an after -school club.
Alison has had a tough year. She went back to work in September 2004, teaching French in junior schools in the Chelmsford area. The first term and a half wasn’t easy, as there was much to learn about working with younger children, but things picked up in the Spring and now she has increased her hours to three and a half days a week. This term has been quite stressful with lots of lesson observations and monitoring though this is quite good practice for the new style OFSTED inspections, where only two days’ notice is given of the inspectors’ arrival.
Highlights of the year have included a family wedding in June and two weeks holiday in August which culminated in a reunion in Hampshire with friends from Paris. We hope to go further afield for a holiday next year as well as explore more of East Anglia now that the volume of work in the parish should decrease. From Alison’s point of view another highlight was England’s Ashes victory this summer though she was glad she was at church for the final morning of the 2-run victory at Edgbaston as the tension would have been too great. (Apologies to readers from non-cricket playing nations, but the significance of this would take too much space to explain.)
A brief letter this year – but probably for the best if you receive as many letters as we do at this time of the year. May we wish you a peaceful Christmas and a blessed new year.
NEW ADDRESS:
450 Beehive Lane
Galleywood
Chelmsford
Essex CM2 8RN