12 Ways to Cozy Your Winter

One of the main reasons that winter is my favorite season is its coziness. I love to feel cozy and it brings me so much joy to make my family and anyone who comes to our home feel cozy too. It's a harsh world out there at times, and if there's one place people should feel wrapped in love, it's home. 

- 12 Ways to Cozy Your Winter -

1. Candles. And more candles...lit every night.

2. Down throw pillows.

3. Hot chocolate, preferably with a shot of caramel syrup and a dollop of very loosely whipped cream.

4. Duvets in every bedroom.

5. Canisters of homemade biscotti by the coffee maker.

6. All the overhead lighting on dimmer switches with the brightness dimmed at sunset.

7. Throw blankets at the ready to chase away chills. We have a big basket of them in the family room, plus they are folded and draped over couches and chairs. 

8. Seasonal, warming meals.

9. Tea time nearly every day at four o'clock.

10. A roaring fire.

11. The bathroom well-stocked with essentials for lengthy bathroom soaks.

12. Cookies freshly baked out of the oven when everyone comes home.

Christmas Party

Last week was a super busy week around our house, because we were hosting our annual Christmas Open House on Saturday! We've hosted this party every year for 25 years, and we have the best memories from it. As much as this has been a big event in our family life, I've been terrible about taking any pictures by which to remember it. I was determined that this was not going to happen this year, so I snapped pictures from the beginning of the preparations all through to the end of the party.

Every party starts with lots of baking. This year's menu was: 

Gingerbread Men

Snowflake-shaped Sugar Cookies (my grandma's recipe)

Ina Garten's Pecan Shortbread Cookies

Chocolate Raspberry Bars

Half Baked Harvest's Chocolate Espresso Thumbprint Cookies

Baked Spiral-Sliced Ham with Pineapple-Habanero Glaze

Antipasto Skewers

Assorted Cheeses and Crackers

Vegetables with Chipotle-Garlic Dip

Olives and Pickles

candies

Lindt Truffles

Wassail

Cranberry and Orange Infused Water

Coffee

Tea

We were expecting almost 60 people for the party. I divided my week into baking, which happened Monday through Wednesday, and grocery and flower shopping on Thursday, cleaning and savory prepping on Friday, and final party prep on Saturday, the day of the party.

Lots of silver polishing happened that Friday...of all the serving pieces we were using for the party, as well as any silver that sits on the open hutch. It's important to me that everything be clean and sparkling for the party...light dancing off everything is a big part of making an evening gathering feel festive.

And fresh flowers are important too! This crystal vase with a big bouquet was destined for the dining room table, where all the food would be spread. The dining room is painted a pretty icy shade of green, so it try to stick with greens and white flowers there, with maybe a minimal pop of red.

The morning of the party! I love how the winter light streams into my kitchen. And when it's completely ready for a party, well...that's even better!

The candy jars on the kitchen island were full of tempting sweets, allowing all the small (and not so small) guests unfettered access to the candy. I was amused that only the smallest jar, containing gum drops, was empty by the end of the night. I think it was the easiest jar for the little ones to reach. Too cute!

All dressed up and the party is just a couple hours from starting, but we paused for some pictures.

In the final 15 minutes before the party is supposed to start, I sweep through the house and make sure all the Christmas lights are turned on, the dimmers are dimmed to just the right amount of light to keep people awake and yet make them relaxed, and I light all the candles.

I guess I only took video of the food table (which you can view in my archived stories on my Instagram account @goodwifeh), but here is a trio of cake plates sporting cookies.

It is SO difficult to take pictures during the party, because I want to devote my time entirely to our guests. This year, probably owing to the fact that I wore black velvet jeans and could just slip my phone into my back pocket, I did manage to take a few. Our party is a happy mix of family, friends from our town, friends from church, and more.

I loved this sweet grouping of a party happening within a party!

My peeps (as the young people say) from our town's historical society, where I volunteeer.

And this sweet peep is 97 1/2 years old! She still lives in her own home, starts a fire in her fireplace every night, and she drives a Mini Cooper. She is a precious, precious soul.

Adorable granddaughter spying out her present under the tree.

And our youngest grandson chomping down on a gingerbread man. We make many types of cookies each year, but the gingerbread men have happened every one of the 25 years.

Final moment, about midnight, when all the guest had gone home and all the dishes had been washed and dried. Christmas lights twinkling and soft Christmas jazz music playing and feet up. 

On Instagram, I had a heap of questions about the food and the tradition of our party. I've archived that story for future reference. But I'm more than happy to answer questions here too!

Decking the Halls

Nearly every year, I change up the way we decorate the staircase/banister. This year, since I was all about simple, natural, and magical with the Christmas decorations, we went with:

- fresh greenery roping

- simple ribbon in sort of a khaki-gold color

- gold metal antique rings about 4" across

- small, mercury glass ornaments

- small, gold "berries" wired into the greens

- tiny lights on a wire

During the day, the bitty, gold "berries" add a touch of color. And at night, the ornaments shimmer in the glint of light from the tiny lights. The color scheme (except for the greens) is nearly monochromatic, which make it simple...or at least simpler than I'm used to. And I'm definitely loving that this year!

So It Begins...

So it begins...the accumulation of the pumpkins! Something about all those New England farmstands just beckoning us with their piles of bulbous squash...drawing us in with their proud displays of the season's best. We are powerless to resist. The first official day of autumn is not even here yet, but we already have this beauty, one tall and thin one on the mantle, a heap of small white ones in an ironstone bowl on the kitchen table, and two white ones on the front steps. The day after Thanksgiving, we'll be pitching them out into the woods for the wildlife to feast on, but for now...each one is so irresistible!

Resolve to...

This week, I made good on my resolve to keep fresh flowers in the house more often this year. My favorite, reasonably-priced sources for fresh flowers are: Trader Joe's, Whole Foods (these beauties came from there), and local farms (in season). 

What have you resolved to do this new year?

Christmas Doings at our Home

Christmas is nearly here! The month of December is nearly over. We are about to turn the calendar page to 2017. And my blog image is still stuck in autumn. 

In late-October, I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease and started on a treatment plan. Instead of blogging in the evenings, I needed to heed what my body was telling me and rest and attempt to release the tension wracking my body. You see, hearing what it's saying is easy. Knowing what I ought to do is easy. But heeding what my body is saying is the hard part. But I'm getting better at it. And my sweet family has been a big help, enabling me to still enjoy the holiday season and rest when I need to do so.

In quick highlights, here's a glimpse at the Christmas doings in our family...

In early December, we drove north to spend a day with Max and take a plate of Christmas treats to the Coasties on his boat. Posing here before one of the many lobster trap Christmas trees that highlight the town greens of coastal Maine towns.

We fetched our Christmas tree from our local cut-your-own, family-run business, which is down a narrow, bumpy, dirt road. And the family offers their maple syrup for purchase with your Christmas tree. Love it! 

Decking the halls tops my list of favorite things to do at Christmas time! This year, I used these beautiful metal wreaths (an antique store find) mixed in with the ribbons on the stair garland.

My favorite new vignette this year though was this tray on the front entry table. Super simple! Quick instructions: take one large, silver tray and add clear glass cylinder candle holders and multiple mercury glass candle holders, add tea lights and various height white candles, fill in the gaps with mirrored and ivory-colored ornaments. Light and watch the magic happen...the ohhs and ahhhs!

The family room decked out for Christmas.

I've been having fun playing with the tabletop contents of the sofa table this year, with the intention being to provide interesting things for the grandkids to look at and/or touch. Top row, left to right: a glittery lamb under a cloche and on a majolica plate (to remind us that Jesus is the spotless Lamb of God), an antique basket full of mercury glass acorns and pinecones (because the real variety abound on our property), baby Jesus in a manger, a stack of antique Dickens Christmas books. Bottom row, left to right: a stack of coffee table Christmas books, a clove-studded orange in a pewter porridger, a book entitled An American Christmas, a book of Christmas poetry with a magnifying glass, and an antique crockery bowl filled with walnuts for cracking and eating.

My shop did fabulously this season, and I am immensely grateful for all my wonderful customers! Thank YOU!

We had our annual Christmas party. I felt well enough to bake cookies, but hired someone to clean my house for the first time in my life. Oh my. That is strange, and kind of wonderful! Those are cookies lined up as far as the eye can see.

Hubby and I are ready for the party!

It has been a delightfully snowy December! We don't always have snow before Christmas, so I'm really happy about this! Our front door on a snowy morning.

Lots of snow means lots of snow blowing! And lots of shoveling! But there's no shoveling for me this year. It's my season to just provide the hot coffee afterwards.

A gorgeous scene from rural New Hampshire as the storm moved out that evening.

The grandkids came over this week for a fun morning of candy making!

And now the presents are wrapped and under the tree! Max is home for Christmas! Everyone is spending Christmas at our home this year, and we are rejoicing at that!

A very blessed Christmas from our family to yours!

Invite Nature Indoors

Autumn leaves are too pretty to relegate solely to outdoors. Invite a few branches inside. No need to offer them a cup of tea...a simple drink of water will do.

The Autumn Front Door

Every year, we try to do something a little bit different to decorate the front door and porch for autumn. Last year, we filled the urns with a variety of cold weather-hardy plants. This year, we used our own homegrown cornstalks, filled the urns with pumpkin topiaries, and plunked down a giant pumpkin on the top step. The giant pumpkin was named...Mortimer.

Welcome October!

“Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves,

We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!”

- Humbert Wolfe

Cozying

With the change of seasons, it is time to gather in the supplies to keep us warm and cozy and keep everything pretty around our home. Here's my list of fall necessities to purchase:

For the garden:
- bulbs to plant now for spring blooms

For decorating outside:
- cornstalks, various pumpkins, and mums
- Bitter Apple (This is a spray used to deter puppies from chewing on important household items...like chairs. I have found that spraying the outdoor pumpkins with a liberal dosing of it every couple of days keeps the squirrels from eating the pumpkins.)

For personal beauty:
- toenail polish in an autumn color
- shoe polish and rain protector
- body wash and lotion in a heavier scent

For the pantry and kitchen:
- dried cranberries
- canned pumpkin
- smoked cheeses
- crackers
- whole nuts for cracking
- teas
- Starbucks hot cocoa mix
- autumn cocktail ingredients
- bundles of sage to dry from the garden
- whole grain mustard
- apple butter

For prettying inside:
- small pumpkins
- gourds
- Indian corn
- sprays of bittersweet gathered in from the countryside
- pheasant feathers

For cozying:
- beeswax for making tealights to last through the winter
- pillar candle
- scented candle for the kitchen
- flannel sheets (or at least to make sure everyone still has an adequate set)
- throw blankets (or make sure they are all freshly laundered)

Like all the squirrels that are so busy snipping acorns from our oak trees and carrying them back to stuff into their nests, I am busy gathering in supplies too. To each their task!