Mince Pies at the shops

Today we had our annual mince pies at the shops morning. Near Christmas we spend one Saturday morning at the local shops handing out mince pies or biscuits and a hot drink to the shoppers. We also invite them to our Candlelight Carol service.

My husband, the Thoughtful Man, charges up a big battery and we have a little fibre optic Christmas tree. He also hooks up a CD player to play Christmas songs the whole while.

Here is Eric who looks like he is not so sure about the weather!

It was raining pretty heavy all day, so we put the table under the overhang. However, Eric is the balloon man, so he was out in the rain the whole time cheerfully passing out balloons to any children who came by. or even to adults if he could get them to smile! The rest of us stayed under shelter. My husband and I were kept busy trying to keep up with Eric by blowing up balloons - helium - and tying strings on them. I am glad it wasn't colder!

These photos were taken near the beginning, so at that point the Thoughtful Man is at the back talking to Councillor Chas Bailey. The other ladies are my friend Pat, Niki - who drove her motorbike on the toy run a couple weeks ago, and Jackie, Eric's wife.

At one point, we were surprised by a lady from the news agent coming out and asking if we wanted a cup of tea or coffee. That was a very nice and very welcome gift!

And we did give out a lot of those biscuits I made the other day! Later, I parcelled more of them up to hand out to the neighbours with their Christmas cards. Some will be kept here, but the rest will be available for after the Candlelight service.

I am going to link this post to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday...not a textile related sample of creativity. But I think sometimes getting out of your studio and speaking to real people can give you a different focus when you get back inside to make things. I think these sorts of things come from the same source of creativity inside you - finding creative ways to be kind to others.