It’s the most Wonderful time of the Year!

by in Christmas House Tours, Home Love Stories 1

We’ve decked the halls and are ready for family and fun! We’ve had a very blessed year and have even accomplished several projects on a four-year-long To Do list! This picture shows our newly updated DIY mantel in the background.

I read both of Melissa’s books this year, Love the Home You Have and The Inspired Room and am seeing my home and its rooms with new eyes.

The work we’ve done and projects we’ve completed on our home is satisfying and inspiring and we’ve got more ideas and more confidence in ourselves as we look forward to the new year.

I‘m using old school chalk boards I found at an antique fair as placemats for the kids that will also provide an activity! I think it will be a good creative outlet and hopefully requires less parental supervision during final meal prep. I’ll let you know how that went 😉

This red wood tray on the entryway console is new to me and I love the sparkle and shine of the Christmas ornaments in it. I’m working on some ideas for an entryway update that will continue to shine during the Winter months ahead and into Spring and Summer. Just a little refresh but even this small space can have a big impact.

For the first time since we’ve owned this dining set (9 years) I took the leaf out of the middle, not so much to make the table smaller, but to make the dining room seem bigger. There is now more space around the table, though guests will likely be bumping elbows. It just might go back in before the day is done, but I have been enjoying the look of a bigger space.

From my family to yours, Merry Christmas!

Scandinavian Cookies

by in food, Home Love Stories 4

I love the way the kitchen smells when cookies are being baked….I remember being a little girl and my mom would be baking all her Christmas cookies and the smell of the kitchen, well, the whole house really, smelled heavenly.   Here’s one of the cookies I have baked this year, the Scandinavian cookie.  Quite simple yet delicious.  I’ll be baking two other different ones too but for now I’ll share this one.

Preheat oven to 325* (full recipe listed at bottom of post)

Stir together flour, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, soften your butter in blender then add the sugar until fluffy….do not over blend.

Add one egg and 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract and blend well.

Add the flour mixture little by little and blend well.

The mixture will be a little crumbly, that’s ok.. Just remove to a working surface and press together to form a ball.  Divide the dough into 4 equal parts.  I use a knife and cut vertically and horizontally.  Form a 12 inch log like this for each of the four parts and placed on an ungreased cookie sheet.  I placed two rolls on each cookie sheet.

Then you flatten this roll to about 3 inches wide.

Brush each flatten roll with milk

And add the slivered almonds on top.  The milk helps the almonds stick to the top. 

Now bake in a 325* oven for 12-14 minutes or until edges are lightly brown.  Out of the oven and still warm, cut crosswise on the diagonal into 1 inch strips

Cool completely on a wire rack.

Stir the icing ingredients together and drizzle over cooled strips and enjoy.

I hope you enjoy them…Now to my next cookie… The Mexican wedding cookie, or Russian tea cakes or snowball cookies….however you call it, they are pretty yummy too!  Here’s the complete recipe listed below.

Complete recipe for Scandinavian Cookies:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp. Salt

2 tsp. Baking powder 

1/2 cup of butter

1 cup Sugar

1 large egg

1/2 tsp. Almond extract

Milk 

1/2 cup sliced almonds 

Icing

1 cup confectioners sugar

1/4 tsp. Almond extract

Preheat oven to 325*

Stir together flour, salt, baking powder.

In bowl beat butter until softened.

Add sugar and beat till fluffy.

Add egg and the 1/2 tsp. of almond extract and beat well.

Add flour mixture and mix well.

Divide dough into fourths and form each portion into a 12 inch roll.

Place two rolls on an ungreased cookie sheet about 4 inches apart

Flatten each roll about 3 inches wide.

Brush each flatten section with milk and sprinkle about a tablespoon of the sliced almonds.

Bake for about 14 minutes or till edges are lightly brown.

While still warm, cut each section diagonally into 1 inch strips.

Cool completely on a wire rack.

Stir together the powdered sugar and almond extract and enough milk to make a drizzling consistency, about 3-4 teaspoons.

Drizzle over the cool strips.

Christmas Christmas time is here!

by in Christmas House Tours, Home Love Stories 2

Hi there! We had a lot of fun decorating for Christmas this year and i’m excited to share! I couldn’t get a good shot of the tree, my camera kept focusing on the lights instead of the tree, but oh well. 

We got a Grand Fir this year. While I am tempted by the low maintenance of fake trees, I just can’t give up the tradition of picking out our own tree and sawing it down (usually in the rain, let’s be honest, it’s Oregon). And the smell is amazing! 

The living room area. We don’t have a fireplace but I love to turn Fireplace For Your Home on Netflix 🙂

And now the dining room (the other half of the room). 

I also took the cards we’ve received so far and hung the up in the entry. 

So now I’m done decorating and just sitting and enjoying the ambiance 🙂 MERRY CHRISTMAS!

? These Are a Few of My Favorite Things ?

by in Home Love Stories 7


I love Christmastime! Firstly because it is a special time to remember that Jesus came down…born as a baby in a manger in the little sleepy town of Bethlehem….to give us life and hope and peace.  It is a time for us to especially reflect on the many blessings God has given us and to celebrate the season with family and friends.

Being a December baby, I have always loved this beautiful season.  I love everything about it….the Christmas story, Christmas music, lights, shopping for that perfect gift, Christmas pageants, parties, the quiet of an evening spent at home in front of the Christmas tree with my husband and my golden retriever Gracie. She even celebrates this special time of year. 🙂

Of course, one of my most favorite parts of Christmas is decorating for the season.  I love trimming my tree with vintage Shiny Brite ornaments given to me by my mom as a keepsake of family Christmases past.

Another Christmas treasure is my my dad’s Santas. They are extra-special to me because every year growing up, he would save our Christmas tree trunk and then carve Santas and snowmen from them for us to enjoy. I love having them out at Christmas. They remind me of him and the joys of our childhood Christmases spent with mom and dad and my family. 

The family picture is of me with my older brother and my Daddy when I was two years old.  ❤️

     This Christmas I have enjoyed adding some copper touches throughout my house.  For starters, I decided to paint the galvanized tub copper that houses my main Christmas tree.  I love it!   I put the tub on two of my vintage sleds to help lift my tree a little (to accommodate the high ceilings in my living area.) One of the sleds I carried home on the plane after finding it in an antique shop in Downers Grove, IL.  The other is one from my childhood days sliding down snow-covered hills in Youngstown, OH. 

A collection of vintage bottlebrush Christmas trees and a special vintage car carrying a Christmas tree ornament fill up my mantel.  It’s my attempt to mimic the scene in the oil painting I found for $12 at an antique store in Shreveport, LA. 

My high ceilings are a good place for my bottlebrush wreaths and the book page wreath I made one afternoon with one of my dearest friends.  

The potted evergreen on my coffee table sits in a vintage silver ice bucket and holds my daddy’s baby shoes and vintage black and white Polaroids of childhood memories.  The one in the picture is of me and my brother hanging our stockings for Santa on Christmas Eve. Sweet memories for me. ❤️

Each year I love to make seasonal displays on my chalkboards.  This season, I turned a circular wooden tray over and discovered it was black, so it became a temporary chalkboard and a good place to hang my reindeer ornament.  Nothing’s safe around here at Christmastime.  

The tall skinny tree in my front entry displays all of our family’s special memories like family keepsake and homemade ornaments.  Half of the fun for me of putting up the trees is the joy of all the memories that go along with it.  Add some Christmas music while decorating and for me it’s a perfect day. 

The last thing I wanted to share with you is the reindeer moss wreath on my front entry door.  I think it’s not a coincidence that the moss is “”reindeer moss.”  Hopefully Santa would approve. 🙂

Thanks for letting me share with you my living room decorated for Christmas and a few of my favorite things that make Christmas extra special for me and my family. 

Merry Christmas, Everyone! ?❤️?

My Favorite time of Year

by in Home Love Stories 3

My favorite color is red!I use all thru my home,all year round.So I have fun at Christmas and bring all my fav things out.I use a lot of color and lights and happy things,to keep our home warm and festive.Hubby is disabled and works at home so I’m home a lot and want to keep every room cheerful.The grandkids are here a lot and we bake and cook soup,and have music playing..life can be very hard..but home is our sweet and loving place.I pray you all have a place like that you call home too.❤️