Rose Chintz Cottage: December 2020

Thursday, 31 December 2020

Christmas 2020 Has Come and Gone

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love. ~ Hamilton Wright Mabie

Hello dear friends! I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas. We certainly did!

We had a wonderful time at my son's girlfriend's house on Christmas Day. We had a turkey dinner and then we exchanged gifts afterwards. Later we had a video call with our boys.

I started sending my only granddaughter a Christmas ornament every year since she was born. She is now ten years old, and she loves the ornament I sent her this year! The little red truck was also a gift to me from my hubby this year, so we each have one.

My son and his girlfriend gave me this heart for Christmas. It has the family tree etched on it with all my grandchildren's names. I love it!

On Boxing Day, we did another video call with all the family. That evening our oldest grandson dropped in for supper and a long visit. It was a wonderful Christmas after a long and oftentimes lonely year!

Today, I have set the tea table with my Spode Christmas Tree teapot and some festive teacups. The boot had been part of a floral arrangement for my mother a few years ago which I made an arrangement in. Homemade cherry topped mini cheese cakes will be our tea treat today. They are just enough to enjoy with a cuppa.

Christmas is forever, not for just one day,

For loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away

Like the bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.

The good you do to others is good you do yourself. ~ Norman Wesley Brooks

This year is winding down, and like pretty much everyone, we will be happy to say goodbye to the year 2020. I don't believe it has been kind to very many of us.

It has been a year filled with highs and lows; mostly lows. Our family suffered through several disappointments, but losing my brother was a monumental loss for me.

My only brother, who was younger than me, passed away in March, right after the Covid hit, so that was extremely distressing. I cannot express the level of despair it has caused me.

Our whole family was supposed to come home for a visit in the Summer, the first time in two years, and that had to be canceled.

Our youngest grandson who lived here on the Island, moved up to Ontario to play football and go to school. That was difficult. He is only fifteen years old and he is not happy up there, so that makes it even worse. We miss him terribly.

Our middle son and his son got Covid in November, but they have recovered. At the same time, my hubby had his stroke. Hubby is better now but he gave us all such a fright! With proper meds and diet, he should be fine.

Three days before Christmas, our oldest son had surgery to hopefully restore some hearing in his ear. He has been in a lot of pain ever since, and we won't know how the surgery turned out until his ear heals.

So, it has been a really rough year in our household.

The blessings however, are numerous, and outweigh the woes. We are grateful for our loving family and answers to prayer.

One of those answered prayers is, our middle son and his family will be moving from the west coast to the east coast; closer to home! Twenty years of praying for this to happen, and it is finally going to come true. Sometimes, I still feel like I have to pinch myself. We have a very excited family right now!

I know many of you have suffered much worse this past year and some of you sailed through 2020 fairly well. But the New Year is upon us and I, for one, am looking forward to a fresh start.

Regardless of how things appear sometimes, we must remember that God is still in control of what happens. We must always put our trust in Him, not man!

Thank you for stopping by my blog, and I want to thank each of you who joined my No Place Like Home party the last number of weeks. It gave me something lovely to focus on when life came crashing down on me late in the year. So, thank you to everyone who joined and all of you who left comments.

I will end my post with a wish for a Happy and Healthy New Year. I pray the next twelve months will bring us all good health, love, joy, peace, and contentment. In the words of Tiny Tim, "God bless us, every one!"

See you next year!

Sharing from my heart ~ Sandi

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.

My Participants

Amy

Sharing from my heart ~ Sandi

Monday, 7 December 2020

A Christmas Tea for No Place Like Home

Home is the nicest place there is. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Good morning, lovely friends, and welcome to the third week of No Place Like Home!

I just finished decorating our main tree in the family room and I decided to set up a tea beside the tree as I haven't done that since last year.

Taking time for tea or coffee is a lovely way to just relax and savour not only tea and treats but the traditions passed down.

On Christmas Day at half past three,

Brew yourself a cup of tea.

I'll think of you, You think of me

While sitting 'round the Christmas tree.

Perhaps like I do, you have a tree that is filled with ornaments gifted to you by loved ones. I call both of my trees, Memory Trees, and I can recall pretty much who gave me which ornament and when. These ornaments make the trees so special.

My youngest son gifted me with this sweet cardinal teacup from Cracker Barrel the last time we were in Vancouver.

My oldest son gifted me with three cardinals, all in different positions, a number of years ago. This is just one of them.

I love sitting in the glow of the lights in the evening when the supper dishes have been done and we can sit and listen to music or watch a Christmas movie.

Most importantly, this year in particular when the world has gone topsy-turvy, it is good to slow down and remember the Reason for the Season; the first coming of our Lord Jesus. Think about how dark our world would be without Him! Let's count our Blessings, for there are many!

Christmas is that moment in time when God, in His unconditional love, stepped out of heaven and onto earth, in order that we might one day step out of earth into heaven. - Charles F Stanley

So here is my tea table set up with my favourite red toile table cloth draped with a lovely topper. If you look closely, you will see a reindeer in the topper. The table is set with a favourite green teapot, my Staffordshire green and white transferware teacups and dessert plates, tea and treats. The treats are my sultana fruit cake and chocolate balls which a friend dropped off. Won't you join me?

Thank you to all of you who shared last week. I know it is a busy time of year and we love having you share your decorating as well as recipes and other things pertaining to your home this special time of year.