Rose Chintz Cottage

Monday, 21 December 2020

Merry Christmas!

Oh, there's no place like home for the holidays
'Cause no matter how far away you roam
When you pine for the sunshine of a friendly gaze
For the holidays you can't beat home sweet home! - Perry Como

Welcome dear friends to my last week of No Place Like Home this year! I hope you all enjoyed the party and you made some new friends.

Are you ready for Christmas? I have a couple of friends who always wait till Christmas Eve to shop. That has always flabbergasted me because I like to stay away from the stores the last month or two before the Holidays. Much too crowded, and there is usually nothing left in the stores. But I guess if we were all the same, it would be a boring world, wouldn't it?

Let our hearts be filled with gladness,

And our spirits lifted high;

Let us breathe a prayer of joy and peace

As Christmas Day draws nigh. ~ Lucile Taylor

My post today is an assortment of photos.

Every Christmas my mother made mincemeat pie when I was growing up and I continued that tradition after I got married. I usually make mincemeat tarts now instead of the pie because there is usually pumpkin pie among the desserts for Christmas dinner.

I simply love this sweet and spicy fruit mixture which goes so wonderfully in pies, squares, tarts and the like. Unfortunately, it cannot be found in the grocery stores this year, so I had to make due with a photo of my tarts from a few years ago.

This is the first year ever I haven't made them and I really miss them!

You will have as many happy months in the coming year, as the number of houses you eat mince pies in during Christmastime. - unknown

I think I'm in trouble next year, according to that bit of trivia I found on line about mincemeat pies! *smiles*

Christmas is such a special time of year when families and friends get together to celebrate.

I was in getting my hair cut the other day and my stylist was telling me all about the games she and her family are going to play on Christmas Day. It sounded like a great time! She is blessed because all of her children live here. That is not the case with so many families this year, including our own. I am thankful we have one of our sons and grandsons here so we can spend the day with them. But this year, it may very well be the loneliest time of the year for some.

Prayer Request-

I mentioned a couple of months ago that my oldest son, Jeff, is having ear surgery soon.

Well, tomorrow, Tuesday, is the day! This will be a fairly serious surgery because it will either give him back 50% of his hearing in his bad ear or it will render him deaf. The surgeon will be replacing the bones in his middle ear with synthetic bones. The bones had been damaged by the tumour he had removed in his last surgery a few years ago. This is his third surgery and I am praying it will restore the hearing in his ear. Would you please pray for him? Thank you so much and God bless you!

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: The presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. ~ Burton Hills

For those who are given permission to gather together, may they cherish their Christmas and give thanks for the miracle of family and the Reason for the Season.

This is a photo of my family when my children were very young. How I miss those days!

I am sharing one more Christmas ornament gifted to me by a family member many years ago. I have a story to go with it...

Many years ago, a home we were renting, got a flooded basement. In the basement I had stored all of the Christmas ornaments, in boxes. There were no totes. Sadly, many of the ornaments had to be disposed of which made me incredibly sad because they all had wonderful memories attached to them. Some of them were from our first Christmas together as husband and wife.

One of those ornaments which I was able to salvage was this water logged, wee rustic stable with the Holy Family in it. I enlarged the photo so you could get a better look at it. It is quite tiny and consists of numerous pieces of wood; between twenty and thirty pieces of wood!

I carefully gathered up all the wet pieces of that stable and Holy Family and set them on a window sill so the sun could dry them out.

When the pieces were dry, I painstakingly started to glue it back together again. It was tedious work and it took some time and patience to get it right because the pieces were so small.

However, I did finally get it back together again and after thirty some years, it still hangs on the Christmas tree every year.

Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing. ~ Camille Pissarro

That little nativity kind of reminds me of us humans. When we come into this world, we are brand new, but as the years go by, we get our feelings hurt and we begin to acquire bad habits, and dare I say it, sin in our lives! The day comes when we realize what a mess we are and we need help to be put back together again.

That is God's job, and that is one of the reasons why God sent His only Son down here. If we allow Him to, He will work on us, a little at a time, helping to mend our many hurts and our inferior qualities. He is in the business of making us more like Himself, if we believe, if we allow Him to.

Just like my little nativity, once He fixes us, He makes us strong so we can be of use for many years to bring joy to Him and the world around us.

I like the quote by Max Lucado~

"Live in such a way that the world will be glad you did."

God Rest you Merry Gentlemen

God rest ye merry gentlemen

Let nothing you dismay
Remember Christ our Saviour
Was born on Christmas Day
To save us all from Satan's pow'r
When we were gone astray
Oh tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy
Oh tidings of comfort and joy

~ English Carol, 18th century

Merry Christmas everyone! May we all be a light in this world and do what we can to make the world a better place. The Lord be with you all and make you a blessing this Christmas!

Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord. - Luke 2:11

I am delighted to have you join me today. If you have something to share, simply let me know in a comment and I will add your blog to the list of participants. I will be happy to come and visit you. Please share any of the following: Cooking and baking, recipes, antiquing, artwork, ceramics, crafts, crocheting/knitting, quilting/sewing, collections, floral arranging, home decor, homemaking tips, hospitality, refinishing furniture, tea time, tablescapes, thrift shopping etc....Maybe there's a new baby in the family or you have a new fur baby you would like to introduce us to. They are welcome too! Anything and everything which makes your HOME more enjoyable to come HOME to, for your family, your friends, and yourself.

Lord, this humble house we'd keep
Sweet with play and calm with sleep.
Help us so that we may give
Beauty to the lives we live.
Let Thy love and let Thy grace
Shine upon our dwelling place. - Edgar A. Guest

My party participants~

Sharing from my heart ~ Sandi

Monday, 14 December 2020

Beloved Trinkets for No Place Like Home

Hearts are aglow when we fill our homes with domestic warmth, nostalgia, and the beloved trinkets that symbolize the season. ~ Victoria magazine

Good morning, dear friends! Welcome to No Place Like Home week four! We have one more party after this one. Hope you can join me then too.

The days are winding down to Christmas. I have all the decorating done that I'm going to do this year. Not the baking though. I still have a bit of that to do yet. I won't be doing too much of that however because we don't know whether we will be spending Christmas with our family or not. We will have to wait and see if the restrictions will be lifted in time.

Today I'm sharing a few of my trinkets; treasures from my family. I am a very sentimental person and I tend to hold on to things that I have acquired over the years like, greeting cards and sweet little love notes from my boys when they were growing up. Among those treasures are tree ornaments. We all have them. I can look at an ornament and I remember who gifted me with it and when. Those are the treasures that make a tree special.

This beautiful ornament was a gift from my hubby. He likes to get me a new one every year. He knows how much I love sparkle and prisms so this one is like a four dimensional starburst. The phone camera simply doesn't do it justice. It catches the light and reflects the sparkle; very pretty on the tree!

This snow covered cloche is from my oldest son. Three angels clustered together on a cloud with roses, bringing joy.

This wee rocking horse was a gift from my middle boy when he was nine years old. I love it, and whenever I look at it I remember that little boy with the big blue eyes!

A goldfinch, my favourite bird, was sent to me by my youngest son when he was a post-doc in Colorado a few years ago. The birdie is very fragile and made of blown glass. My son sent me two that Christmas, this one and a cardinal. He got himself a bluejay which is the bird of PEI.

This lovely ornament is one of two ornaments, gifted to me by my mother; one of the last gifts she ever gave me. It is forest green and white with a circle of roses painted around the centre and topped by a butterfly. Anyone who is familiar with Lena Liu's work will recognize her handiwork.

I have so many cherished ornaments but that will do for today. Oh, the memories attached to each one is priceless!

You should always be the best decoration in your own house.~ Phoebe Howard

Instead of the usual floral centrepiece, I have the table set with my Hallmark gingerbread house, a tree, and Hubby's little snowman which I put in his stocking many years ago. The snowman has a crow sitting on his arm.

And the snowman is noseless!

He had a lovely little orange carrot nose which I noticed was missing the other day.

When I mentioned it to my hubby, he told me when he was vacuuming the family room, he had seen something small and orange on the carpet but he thought it garbage so it went into the vacuum cleaner. He thinks perhaps it was the snowman's nose. Anyway, I will have to make a new nose or get my niece to make it because my hands are not as good as they used to be.

Why is this important? Well, years ago, my hubby used to feed the crows and they literally waited for him to come home from work because they knew they would get fed. I always knew when Hubby was coming home because the crows would start calling to one another when they saw our car at the mailboxes. Crows are incredibly smart!

Alas, that relationship came to an abrupt end when the crows ate our large flower garden that we had spent hours and a good sum of money planting in the back yard. That little snowman with the crow on his arm represents a memory, you see. Remember I told you I am sentimental?

A Royal Stafford teacup and a plate of jelly cookies are on the table for a quick cuppa.

I am delighted to have you join me today. If you have something to share, simply let me know in a comment and I will add your blog to the list of participants. I will be happy to come and visit you.

Please share any of the following: Cooking and baking, recipes, antiquing, artwork, ceramics, crafts, crocheting/knitting, quilting/sewing, collections, floral arranging, home decor, homemaking tips, hospitality, refinishing furniture, tea time, tablescapes, thrift shopping etc....Maybe there's a new baby in the family or you have a new fur baby you would like to introduce us to. They are welcome too! Anything and everything which makes your HOME more enjoyable to come HOME to, for your family, your friends, and yourself.

I am sharing this prayer that I always ended my Home parties with. It is a special prayer asking for the Lord's blessing upon our homes, whether it be a house, an apartment, a motel room, a hospital room, or a jail cell. May we be thankful every day for His blessing and go out and share a blessing with others. The Lord watch over you all this coming week! Christmas hugs.