We spent a cozy Christmas at home by the fire here in Michigan this week. To my delight, it snowed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day too and I got that white Christmas I was hoping for; it was beautiful! Temps have now dropped to frigid highs in the teens here and I’m extra grateful for having this time away from work where I’m able to stay in my warm bed a bit longer and linger by my fireplace at home for as long as I like. I hope you all enjoyed a warm, cozy Christmas too and are enjoying what’s left of 2017.

We had our first real snowfall of the season here in Michigan this past week and I must admit that seeing the world outside my windows covered in a blanket of fresh-fallen snow brings me joy; Maddy seems equally pleased with it and happily bounded through it like a snow bunny (you can watch a bit of that here). It truly is beautiful and we’re expecting more today and overnight to accumulate. What better to put you in the holiday mood than snowfall? I made a point to watch White Christmas over the weekend too. With a beautiful, snowy landscape in mind…feast your eyes on these: Alaska, Iceland, Norway. After all that ice and snow, maybe you need a nice crackling fire to warm you up? If you can’t enjoy a real one, here’s a virtual one for fun.

We spent the weekend decorating our home for the holidays; we picked up our fresh evergreen wreath from the Farmer’s Market on Saturday, stopped by Downtown Home & Garden for some amaryllis bulbs and enjoyed their Annual Christmas Party, and put up our tree and decorations at home. Maddy wasn’t sure what to think of our spinner ornaments on the tree at first (see video here and here), but she seems to have gotten used to them now…lol. As Lucy says, “You know, deck them halls and all that stuff…”

We traveled back home to Texas for the Thanksgiving holiday week and enjoyed some delicious food and drinks, and of course most excellent company; I loved being able to put together floral arrangements and help with setting up the Thanksgiving table (Debbie’s Grandmother’s linens, silverware, and china are beautiful). We shopped, we dined, we were able to visit with family both in the Dallas area and Gatesville, we went to “ICE! and Snow Tubing” in Gaylord and Magnolia Market at The Silos in Waco, and we even squeezed in some buffalo plaid family photos at the end of our trip. It was a treat to have an early celebration of Graham’s first birthday too while we were there together. You can view more photos from our trip here.

There’s something truly magical about a foggy fall morning; we were lucky enough to experience just that this past weekend and took advantage of it with a nice, long walk in our neighborhood. When we started our walk, the fog was thick and heavy, but by the time we got home it had started to lift. Here’s a brief video I took along the way.

Fog
by Carl Sandburg

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Happy Halloween! We put together this fun sign stand with chalk paint and carved up this cute little foam pumpkin to serve candy from so that trick-or-treaters can help themselves to candy on our front lawn. As our 1-year old, rescue, border collie mix pup, Maddy, can be reactive and likely wouldn’t do well with strangers (dressed in costumes at that) ringing our doorbell or knocking on our door most of the night we thought this would be a nice alternative. We’ll set it up on a pedestal with a blinking light inside to illuminate our jack-o-lantern tonight. Hope your holiday is frightfully fun!

Pictured above are some of our Halloween costumes from past years. We plan on having a low-key Halloween this year, just Ryan, Maddy, and I at home by our fire with a Halloween movie marathon on the TV and plenty of delicious treats to enjoy. Below are some holiday-themed items for your enjoyment:

• Ever wonder what the most popular Halloween candy in your state is?
• Stranger Things 2 is available on Netflix (as of 10/27)!!!
  • Watch Millie Bobby Brown (“Eleven”) rap “Monster”.
• Speaking of Stranger Things 2…The Best Halloween TV Episodes You Can Stream Right Now
• 2017 Guide to Halloween TV: Episodes, Specials, Movies, and Marathons
• There are lots of fun Halloween playlists and radio stations available – here are a couple:
  • Halloween Party on iTunes
  • Ultimate Halloween Playlist on Spotify
• Maddy is not a fan of Halloween lawn décor (especially inflatable cats that move).
• If more cute and less scary is your style, check this out.

Hope your Halloween is frightfully fun!

We’ve had cool, rainy weather here this last week – definitely fireplace weather, which I love! After a hectic work week and coming home from travel, I was especially happy to enjoy some downtime. There is no better place to be on a cold, rainy night that my home by the fire…and I think Maddy agrees.

The other thing that I find myself craving, when the weather turns like this, is a nice, hot, homemade bowl of soup. Ryan put together a delicious tomato-based soup – with animal shaped pasta noodles thrown in no less – which he dubbed “soup for grown-ass adults”; this “grown-ass adult” gives it two thumbs up (check out the close up of the crocodile shaped noodle in the photo below)!

I spent a few days in beautiful, sunny, California this last week. The highlight of my trip was definitely a walk through Muir Woods and then taking the ferry back from Sausalito right past a clear view of the Golden Gate Bridge on Sunday afternoon. Here are few pics from my trip and you can view them all here.

I had one of those perfect moments on Sunday afternoon, sitting in the front room of my home…cool, fresh air blowing in through the open windows, sunlight ducking in and out of the clouds, listening to the leaves blowing in the trees outside…finding my happy place and just enjoying it. The front of our home faces west and the afternoon/evening light in that room can be spectacular – the cool, fall air certainly didn’t hurt either. Maddy did her best to help Ryan with catching up on some emails on Sunday too (lol); I can’t get enough of these two!