not well.

Sadly I'm coping with Pleurisy at the moment, so will be off line for a while.

I do wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year.

Christmas week.

This is a time when I go back in my memories of childhood Christmases.

This reminds me of the trees we had as children. Always live, usually cut from a local farm. Brought in with huge excitement.

Our decorations were mainly home made, little walnut half shells silvered and given a mast to represent a little boat, silver paper made into zig zag hangings, tiny toys hung on branches.

And yes, there were real candles (this long before health and safety rules!)

It was a lovely time of quiet expectation, of making family cards and presents, of hanging enormous fishermen's stockings, of writing letters to Father Christmas........ We went out to cut holly and greenery to place behind pictures and mirrors, not at all 'Country Living' but beautiful all the same

We never forgot that Christmas was a celebration of Jesus' birth. We might not have understood it in depth, but it was always there as a meaning for all that went on.

I may not be posting much over the week, but
I want to wish you all the happiest and healthiest of Christmases.

May joy be yours.

Journeys

So many people are going on journeys at this time of year.

Some off to visit with families, some for an occasion such as a Christmas wedding, some going off on holiday to the sun.

I wonder what it must have been like for Joseph and Mary as they travelled. No flask of hot coffee to revive their weariness. No little packs of snacks to offset hunger. No Travel Lodge to have a stopover.

Just one step after another.

I wonder if they talked about this amazing thing that was happening to them.

I wonder if they were afraid. I'm sure they were, and yet they had the depth of faith to travel to Bethlehem, with no certainty of lodging, and knowing that the baby would probably be born en route.

To me, it makes our little journeys seem very unimportant. We live in a world where many of us in the West have just about everything. Mary and Joseph had almost nothing.

I'm not sure that I could do without my comforts and embark on such a journey now.

Advent hymn

This lovely hymn was written by Charles Wesley, who is very much revered in Cornwall as the bringer of the Methodist Faith. He travelled here in 1743 with his brother John, bringing the Gospel to the people wherever they were, rather than expecting everyone to go to church.
This is Gwennap Pit, near Redruth, where John Wesley preached. It is still owned by the Methodist church as far as I know, and I believe that services are still held there.

Charles wrote around six thousand hymns and they have lasted through the centuries. Often we sing them without realising who the author was.

1 Come, O long-expected Jesus,

born to set your people free!

from our fears and sins release us,

Christ in whom our rest shall be.

2 Israel's strength and consolation,

born salvation to impart;

dear desire of every nation,

joy of every longing heart.

3 Born your people to deliver,

born a child, and yet a king;

born to reign in us for ever,

now your gracious kingdom bring:

4 By your own eternal Spirit

rule in our hearts alone;

by your all-sufficient merit

raise us to your glorious throne.

 , Charles Wesley (1707 - 1788)

A Christmas ornament swap.

I recently participated in a Christmas ornament swap organised by Karina of Merciful Moments, and a delightful parcel arrived today from Ohio.

Such a generous collection of lovely things.

A box of pretty tree ornaments, a beautiful prayer journal,

delicious candies, peppermint stirrers (I've never seen these before!) and a very attractive piece of Art work done by Sarah, my swap partner.

A gorgeous card told me so much about Sarah and her life, so nice to meet a new friend.

Ornaments and Sarah's lovely painting.

The journal, which I shall treasure.

Thank you Karina for organising this.

Slowly moving on.

Gently moving towards a Christmassy home.

My Candle wreath comes out at Advent, it's one that we bought thirty years ago in Liberty's in London.

A quilt that I made in France covers a table, and the first cards are displayed.

No rushing, no frantic doings.

My husband, who is only slowly recovering from the falls he had, followed by a chest infection, needs to have slow, calm days with no feeling of hurry.

But that's what Advent should be.

My cards will be posted later today and there is still time for them to arrive, even the ones to people living abroad. I hope.

A pause in Advent.

It's been a few years since I joined in the Pause in Advent.

Thanks to Angela for keeping it going.

I'm finding that the world's attitude to Christmas is one of buy, buy, buy. Since September our shops have been full of 'gift ideas'.

It saddens me that a season which is essentially a quiet time of waiting, expectation and preparation, has got to this state.

I remember the excitement as a child of getting ready, writing to Father Christmas, making lists, decorating the tree and so on. I loved doing all this with my children. Somehow materialism hadn't hit in the same way as now.

I saw, as I drove past a new development of shops this week, a huge poster outside a furniture shop.

It screamed..

'If You Love It..

Have It!!'

I felt so sad that in the midst of world famine, terror stricken hordes without food or water, we should be encouraging this 'grab' attitude.

In Advent is it time to take a step back, to spend a little moment thinking about the real reason for Christmas?