The past twelve months have been relatively stable for us as a family. It is the first year for awhile that none of us have started a new job, or a new school (although Joel did move up from the school's nursery class to reception). We have not moved, and we certainly haven't moved church. We intend for this stability to continue, God willing, for years to come. Certainly we hope that our children will see out their schooling from our current home somewhere in North London.

Of course, the top story of the year from our perspective has surely been the birth of George Nathan Warnock, who was born just one day before the tenth birthday of the first of our five children, Tamasin Joy Warnock. He has been a wonderful addition to our family, and it has been a joy to watch his siblings play their part in caring for him.

Ours is a busy home, and mostly a very happy home as well. One person holds the household together more than any other, and that is, of course, my absolutely gorgeous wife, Andrée. We have had twelve years together, and I seem to pile more work in her direction with every year. With our seemingly ever-growing family, the people-carrier is now full, so I really do think that five constitutes a full quiver for us. This time, no one even seems to be asking us, "When is the next one due?" So don't be expecting any more Warnock babies—we certainly aren't!

One family event this year which we all have appreciated, being a technology-loving family, was of course, deserting the Microsoft operating system. We delight in being a little bit different in our family, and going against that particular grain has been a real joy! It is one way in which we are all allowed to apostatize! Time slots for our Macbook have to be ordered in triplicate a week in advance. (OK, so we aren't really that organized, but probably should be!). Even Mrs W can get withdrawal symptoms, however!

I tried to express my gratitude to my better half in a post I wrote when recovering from my knee surgery earlier in the year entitled "Thanks to Those Who Keep My Life Going on as Normal". She will never fully understand how much she means to me, nor just how much I rely on her. As a good friend of mine recently said when his own wife was away, "My life is just rubbish without her!" With my frequent business trips and all the drains on her time, none of it would really happen if it wasn't for the sacrifices she has made to be an old-fashioned full-time Mum. It is no wonder many people stop at two children as it really is hard to imagine how both of us could manage to go out to work.

Next year we will see our eldest go to secondary school, which is shocking and makes me feel very old. Before that, however, we are looking forward to some uninterrupted time together, and also spending time with our extended family over the Christmas break. Much as I love blogging, you will no doubt excuse me if I don't spend the holiday season with you! Not that I have finished yet, as there are several more days of "Review of the Year" posts to get through first, so keep coming back as you hopefully begin to wind down towards a rest on Christmas Day—unless, of course, you are the one cooking that Christmas dinner, which here in Britain often looks very much like a copy of the U.S. Thanksgiving dinner). Have a nice time with your family, but I hope you will enjoy reminiscing with me for a few more days about the year that was.

People who know me well know that the football genes have skipped a generation. I am, of course, referring to the original game of football as invented by us British and called "soccer" by only one nation on earth (i.e. the USA). To the rest of the world it's just 'football'.

My father and brother love football and support Tottenham. My eldest son, Henry, has caused some consternation by rejecting this club and defecting to Arsenal instead. My brother and father are disgusted

But perhaps I should remind them of another defection that occurred decades before. I seem to remember that when I was a boy we supported another team, one which miraculously made it to the 1st division for just one season, if I remember correctly. That team was Brighton and Hove Albion! When their success ended I became disillusioned with football altogether, whilst the other members of my family simply switched teams! So guys, was that defection to a better team any worse than my son doing the same thing?

Of course, with us living in London the rivalry between these two teams is great. A friend of mine also challenged my son about his support for the 'reds' rather than the 'blues'. The typical boy arguments of who is better ensued. My son had the perfect reply to the Tottenham fan. To understand this, as you can see above, the logo of Arsenal includes a gun, and that of Tottenham, a bird.

Henry simply asked, "Who would win a battle between a canon and a bird?"

The results of a match between Tottenham and Arsenal a couple of months ago would seem to bear this out!

UPDATE

Adrian then . . .

Adrian now . . .

This is the last day of Mrs. W. as Adrian is back tonight. I recently read the book, Shopping For Time (by Carolyn Mahaney, Nicole Whitacre, Kristin Chesemore, and Janelle Bradshaw). They are also the authors of girltalk, a blog for Christian women. It is written by a mother and her grown-up daughters about "How to do it all and not be overwhelmed." As a mother of five young children, you can imagine I thought this was worth a read!

The book is very easy to read and fairly short. It is centered around five tips to help get your life in order, and is directed at women of all ages and stages of life. The five tips are as follows:

1. Rise early. Having implemented this tip in varying degrees since having read the book, I can certainly vouch for its effectiveness. It is possible to get up and spend time with God without any interruptions, and having done this, to plan the day and get some jobs done early.
   
   
2. Sit still. This is about spending time at Jesus' feet, and how vital this is, before beginning the activities of the day.
   
   
3. Sit and plan. I have implemented this and have bought a diary instead of relying on my calendar. So after sitting at Jesus' feet, then I can sit with my diary and plan how to most effectively use the time available.
   
   
4. Consider people. This tip was about the importance of evaluating who you are spending time with, and in what proportions. It talks about who you can be influenced by, who you are influencing, and the benefits of planning and thinking about this carefully and deliberately.
   
   
5. Plan to depend. We should not be seeking to complete our 'to do list' more than glorifying our Saviour, and he is the one on whom we depend for help. I am still learning, but this book has provided me with a lot to think about and practical encouragement.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book; it is highly practical and firmly grounded in biblical truth. It is an easy read, with personal stories and humor, but packed full of things to think about, pray about, and apply in our own lives. It is available from Crossway Books.

We had a lot of fun with our American visitors over the weekend. Some of my kids and I went to London with them on Saturday. We visited St Paul's, the Westminster area, and the Tower of London, which we reached by boat. It was a great day, whose highlight for me was surely the following quotes:

Tamasin—"Why did you come all the way from America to look at all these dead people when there are plenty of living ones in our country as well?"

Henry—"That statue over there is supposed to be an angel! More like a demon, showing off its breasts like that. Disgusting!"

Tamasin and Henry of Darwin's tomb—"What's he doing in a church? Surely he's not welcome here?!?"

Charis—My legs are all shaky (after climbing up then down St. Paul's 400+ stairs).

Observant readers of my blog will have noticed that I didn't post any larger photos of Rob Rufus when I spoke about Together On A Mission and interviewed Rob Rufus. One reason for this was that the snapshots I took while we were together were ruined in my hurry as I had the camera on the wrong setting. As a result the color was all wrong and I thought they were beyond salvation.

Well, my MacBook and the wonderful iPhoto software came to the rescue. I have never been able to understand photography software (although Picasa from google was reasonably easy) and so was thrilled to see Tamasin and Henry master it in no time. They took one of the following two photos each and were able to repair them admirably. At moments like this a father is proud of his kids and a relatively new MacBook owner is proud of his laptop!