S'more Board and Hot Chocolate Tray

Over the Christmas season, we were disappointed to not be able to gather with friends for parties and festive events but we did have occasion to make a food/drink board!  A few friends came over one evening for a bonfire after the snow.  I made a s'more board that I thought was a lot of fun (ideas came from the book, Beautiful Boards by Meagan Brown ) though I did learn that the s'more "dip" became rock hard in the cold and was of no use (plus, I burned the marshmallows.. twice).  

I also had occasion to make a tray full of hot chocolate additions.  

The only negative I've found with food/drink boards is that it's easy to end up spending a lot of money on items that don't get used, simply to make the board look full.  I really, really intended to make homemade snowman and/or peppermint marshmallows but it just didn't happen.  Maybe next year!

Christmas Eve and Day

We were fortunate this year in that our Christmas Eve and Day look similar to how it usually looks.  We were able to spend them with my Mom and sister's family.  The biggest difference was that we were not able to attend a Christmas Eve service since they were all online.  Instead, we sat together and watched it on TV.  

In thinking about how it would be a little sad to not attend church, I got to wondering how we could make it special at home.  My solution was to set up our dinner in the library by the tree!  We moved the velvet sofas on either side of a folding table and even though it was stormy and warm outside, we made two roaring fires.  I loved it.

We served Bryce's egg nog, an appetizer wreath, tenderloin, brussel sprouts and Potatoes Anna.

For dessert, I made a variety of cookies to serve.  I actually thought this would be easier than making a dessert Christmas Eve but I don't think it saved any time and now I eat a cookie every time I pass anywhere close to the kitchen (which is every five minutes).

Our annual Christmas morning "did Santa come" stair photo.

Christmas morning my Mom joined us for breakfast.  

For breakfast we had our usual.  Strata, Grace's rolls and my favorite citrus tray with mint sugar.  

Later in the day, we went to my sisters for Christmas dinner and some present opening, we even took Rosie.  It was a good day!

Also... as an interesting side note.  Just before we were set to eat, I snapped some photos of the table.  I took them in quick succession (because I had food on the stove) and none of them turned out great as it was so dark.  I'm often asked if we've ever seen any ghosts, or spirits, since our house is so old.  I"m not even sure if I believe in such a thing but this photo did make me pause.  Look in front of the tree...

Making Greens

We had our first real snow last week!  It was a real bright spot for us in this strange, strange year and we've enjoyed the fact that it has stuck around!  A couple of days before the snow came, Gretchen and I spent the day (along with some occasional help from Bryce and Grace) making wreaths and swags from foraged greens here at Frog's Hollow.  It was such a fun day and I was really happy to learn a new skill.  I've already got plans for next year!

We've got pine, spruce, holly berry, yew and cedar here and I'm making plans to plant a "Christmas" cuttings area.  I've even gotten in mind to plant some trees to cut down for our tree inside!

We cut and organized all the greens into little bundles for the wreaths.

My first wreath was a disaster, but after taking it apart, and watching some Youtube videos, things got much better!  The swags for our light post were easy to do.

Also, the gentleman who has helped us with our landscaping around the house, dropped off his vintage garland maker for us to try.  We've had a lot of fun playing around with making boxwood garland!

Trimming The Tree

We waited until Grace came home to trim our tree but, unfortunately, that also meant that my Mom couldn't join us for tree trimming dinner (since Grace had just traveled from out of the country).  It was a rather relaxed evening but so good to have everyone under the same roof and celebrating the start of the season.

Grace helped me make Christmas tree cookies that turned out cute even though the icing gave me fits!  

Our Christmas tree bread was a little lumpier and misshapen  than usual but I did like the addition of sugared cranberries!

In addition to our travel, and St. Andrews, ornaments the children each received a 2020 appropriate ornament.  

It was a good night for all.

Exciting News

It's been busy, busy the past couple of weeks and one of the reasons why is very exciting.  I've spoken before about Erin, at Floret Flower, who is a flower farmer, and much more, in Washington State.  I've followed along as she has grown and expanded her business and I've always been so impressed with how much knowledge and information she passes along to everyone through her social media outlets, her two books and her workshops (which I took online three years ago).  In other words, she's pretty amazing.  Well... she featured our WorkShirt on her blog as one of her favorite things!  That mention really helped to kick off a number of sales of the WorkShirt and other items in our small boutique.  It's been a fairly sharp learning curve for many things but I've learned a lot and am excited about where we may go from here!