advent wreath

More years ago than I will tell you, but well over thirty, Tony and I moved from the hole in the ground where we'd been living into a sweet little flat in a happy corner of Bristol. He was doing ministerial training, I was doing a secretarial job in the education offices, and we'd been married three months. When Advent began, I was determined that we'd have an advent wreath.

This was easier said than done as (a) we were trying to pull our home together around us (b) we were penniless and (c) I didn't know how to make one. I contrived something with four candles and the lid of a sellotape box. But it was important to me to have an advent wreath at home, so year after year I managed to make some sort of wobbly edifice with candles and holly. Remarkably, the house never caught fire and neither did I. Then, thirty years ago when we were again living near a German friend, I asked her to show me how to make a proper advent wreath.

Being a person who always goes the extra mile, she went one better. She made me a red wooden stand with a star-shaped base so that I could make a hanging wreath in the true German fashion, and we sat together on the Saturday before Christmas, making Advent wreaths. She had asked her mum in Germany to send the candle holders that you can't get over here. And every year since then I've made the advent wreath with red ribbons and green branches, the way she taught me.

It's there now, hanging from the stand she made, all ready to light tomorrow, waiting for its thirtieth Advent and telling me something. It's telling me how much I have to be thankful for over those years.