Hi

Did you manage to get to the Victorian Christmas Market on Saturday? If you did you may have seen me dressed up as a King and Lorraine dressed as Mary as we had our photo taken as part of the ‘Get in the Picture’ nativity scene. It was really good fun and I thought I made a really good King.

However not everyone shared my view and indeed on Sunday I was faced with a picture of me taken on the Saturday up on the screen and the phrase ‘Ali Baba comes to Upton’. To be fair I did look a little bit like Ali Baba and indeed the gold turban didn’t help so I could go along with me looking like I came from a pantomime.

If I didn’t look good then the same cannot be said of some of the youngsters who got dressed up and indeed there were lots of comments about how cute they were. Saturday was one of those days when there was lots of work done but ultimately lots of satisfaction. Not the least of which for me was the amount of support we gave each other in whatever way it was possible for each of us – Thank you.

I also thought I would share with you the most popular costumes that people wore to get in the picture and they are (in descending order)
Angel, King, Mary, Shepherd, Star, Camel, Joseph, Sheep.

It reminded me that as a little boy I would have given anything to have been Joseph in the school nativity and if I had been a child on Saturday that would have been what I would have chosen to dress up in. It surprised me to see that Joseph was lower down on the list than a camel! How times change. I never was Joseph but I was a shepherd a few times and was once a horse (rear end).

But Saturday was about having fun in our community and being a part of all that goes on in Upton. I will remember the day for the real sense of fun on the faces of the adults who dressed up, the delight of the children as they really got involved and the little boy who when he was asked by Lorraine what he wanted to dress up as said ‘a dinosaur’ as he truly believed there was one in the nativity scene.

Saturday was superb and yes I can see how I might be confused with Ali Baba in that outfit. It has made me start to think already about what I might be next year to better that! Maybe I will be Joseph, or a star or even a camel. One good thing is that I cannot be the back end of a horse – we do not have the costume.

God Bless

Paul