It was a very rainy Christmas morning here in Phoenix~~just perfect for lighting each of the fireplaces. This is one of the first years we didn’t have guests, so it was just our family. That set the tone for a very relaxing and easy day.

After reading Santa’s letter and opening presents, Dad made his legendary Eggs a la Goldenrod for breakfast. Click here for previous post recipe. This breakfast dish has been a family tradition and is a big hit with the children.

Benjamin made mimosas with fresh squeezed orange juice and Prosecco.

I set an easy table this year for dinner, mostly because I left that chore to the last minute. In keeping with my “simple” theme, we used holiday placemats in lieu of a tablecloth.

The Christmas dinner was also simple. Benjamin made a reverse-seared prime rib and the rest were items from the garden. Two types of cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, carrots and beets were seasoned and roasted. I even managed to dig up potatoes too!

As you know, each holiday we bake, from scratch, a new cake for dessert. This year’s selection was superb! From our favorite cake cookbook, Layered by Tessa Huff, we made the Gingerbread Coffee Toffee cake. Four layers of an old fashioned molasses cake, with coffee French buttercream and toffee pieces between the layers. It was covered in a Swiss Vanilla Meringue buttercream on the outside and a toffee molasses sauce on top. Ooh la la!

We also tried a new cocktail from Half Baked Harvest~~White Christmas Mojitos. It was surprisingly light and refreshing. An easy blender drink using coconut rum, white rum, coconut milk and sparkling water. We used cranberries instead of pomegranate arils for garnish. Click here for the recipe.

My big surprise present from Santa was an Apple Watch. With news this year of a few friends having cardiac moments, I am happy to be able to track my heart rate and workouts going forward (plus work off that delicious cake!)

We had a REALLY good Christmas. I hope you had the same. Not sure what, if anything, we will do to celebrate the New Year. But I am truly enjoying this quiet time in between. Happy Saturday!

Even though I don’t feel like I’ve completed everything for this holiday, I have an odd sense of calm about it. The magic of Christmas happens regardless. Today, I am just enjoying the rainy day and the blessings the season brings.

I can’t believe another decade is ending soon. What will the next 10 years bring? Ten years ago, motherhood was my primary role as the children were 14, 12 and 8. And just like that ~~ two have graduated college and are financially independent and the third just finished her first college semester.

The holidays can be very challenging and lonely for some. I recognize that life isn’t as glorious as portrayed on social media or Pinterest. It’s not easy to forget those holidays when I mourned the loss of loved ones or struggled with other personal pain. But when you have a good year, it should be celebrated.

My goal for the rest of 2019 is to live purposefully and with intention. When the children were small, I often told them to replace the words “have to” with the words “get to”. And better yet, add ” I am lucky I get to…..”. Whether it means washing the dishes, doing laundry, or wrapping gifts, if we just change our perspective and take joy in the simplest of chores, then it doesn’t feel like such a burden.

When we lighten our loads, we create space to be joyful with others. So, this morning, I “get to write a blog post”. I feel so lucky that you have chosen to follow Life at Bella Terra. Your comments and feedback are inspiring. You are my gifts this Christmas. My appreciation and gratitude is deep.

Wherever you are in the journey of life, I wish you and yours, from the bottom of my heart, a blessed, stress-free, and loving holiday.

Last year I made my first gingerbread house. It was such a rewarding, creative experience that I was looking forward to it again this year.

There are many gingerbread house dough recipes online. Unfortunately, since I didn’t take notes, I do not recall which recipe I had used for the dough last year.

I googled a Martha Stewart recipe and proceeded forward. The dough is very spicy and flavorful; but it was like rolling concrete, not the soft, fragrant dough from a year ago.

In thinking I had screwed up the recipe somehow, I made a second batch. It was equally difficult. At this point, I was ready to quit. But I wasn’t going to let impossible dough deter me. After some serious effort and sweat (picture me using all my weight on the rolling pin), the dough was flat enough to be used. This was NOT the experience I had last year.

You can make your own templates or get various ones online. The templates I used were purchased in the 1990s and had no instructions. Thankfully they were labeled.

The smaller pieces I cut on the counter as the larger ones were done in place on the cookie sheet, so I didn’t have to move them and risk breakage.

Baking resulted in some of the edges not being square so this was easily fixed with a paring knife.

A large cardboard base covered in aluminum foil was the foundation of the project.

The window panes were made from butterscotch candies. Last year I used yellow cellophane. First time I have done this and it was super easy.

Candies were smashed into bits and then poured onto parchment paper in the rough form of the windows.

In a few minutes, the candies melted in the oven. After cooling, they readily peeled off.

After all the pieces were baked and windows made, construction begins! There are several recipes for Royal icing for gingerbread construction. Three simple ingredients ~~confectioners sugar, egg whites and cream of tartar makes a sturdy glue. Applying with a pastry bag was helpful.

Windows were glued to the inside of the walls.

Time and patience are essential next. It is important to wait for the royal icing to dry after each section is glued together or collapse is inevitable.

Before the roof went on, battery operated fairy lights were placed inside.

This was the fun part for me~~decorating the outside with various candies and confections, pretzels and coconut.

The chimney is coated in chocolate bark. Hershey chocolate pieces and pretzels adorned the windows and corners.

With the extra gingerbread dough, I made trees, the owners and a wreath.

Here is the finished product.

My piping skills need improving. What was I thinking when I did the shorts on the gingerbread man? LOL!

Happy Saturday! Trying to minimize the stress of knowing Christmas is only 4 days away. Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

This week we had our annual neighborhood board holiday party. Nothing like having guests to motivate you to get things done! Unfortunately, I failed to take any great pictures, as I was too busy setting everything up. Photos taken in natural light are the best and of course, these were done in the evening.

In addition to a sampling of hors d’hoeurves and desserts, I served a light supper of turkey chili (see recipe here) and homemade cranberry/cherry walnut sourdough bread. Even though it was a crisp evening, the back terrace and the full moon provided the perfect backdrop for the festivities.

The house is almost completely decorated. I keep adding things as I go, but I am happy with what we did this year.

Each year we send out Christmas cards and my deadline is to get them in the mail no later than December 15th. The cards arrived yesterday from Minted late in the day so guess what I am doing this weekend. This is the first year we had Minted put the addresses on the envelopes. I kept an updated address spreadsheet this year and I am happy we went to the additional expense to have them do the addressing.

Making a gingerbread house last year for the first time was such fun! The goal is to make another this week. Hoping for successful results!

Here are some photos of the holiday decorations around the house. Every year I always hope to do a video tour but that never seems to happen!

Instead of wrapping light strands in the fresh garland on the bannister, I used remote controlled candles on each step.

The living room mantle, like the dining room, has a bit of a tree theme. The challenge with this mantle is the depth~~garland alone tends to look a bit wimpy. I added faux red berries and greens to beef it up.

The homemade stockings are typically stretched out along the mantle. This year I gathered them to one side, which I like better.

Pillows from Pottery Barn and Ikea dress up the living room sofa.

The front entrance is my husband’s project as he puts up the numerous trees that line the entry.

Battery operated candles are in each window, something my mother would do every year at our home in Connecticut.

This next week will be last minute shopping, baking cookies, making my gingerbread house, and creating a Christmas dinner menu. It’s a bit difficult not to get swept up into the anxiety of the holidays. The magic of Christmas happens every year and I keep assuring myself that it will all come together and just B-R-E-A-T-H-E.

Happy Saturday!

I am so excited to share the holiday changes to our dining room this year. Every year, literally, every year, I have done the same thing when it comes to holiday decorating.

When your holiday decorating is repetitive, it’s difficult to imagine the space differently. I was a bit stumped on what to do but somehow it just magically came together!

Here are photos of the dining room in previous years ( I think my photography skills have improved a bit!). The dining room has always been where we displayed the countless snow globes we have. Since I have been buying one for each child X 3 children up to age 21, you can do the math. We have ALOT of snow globes.

The glittery village has continually occupied to top of the buffet lending to the general snow/winter theme in this room.

But this year, being our first as empty nesters, I decided not to unpack the snow globes or glitter houses.

Ordering a 100 foot roll of garland*, I decided to use the fresh cedar greens on the mantle. Over the summer we had the room painted a clean white and added 2 white upholstered chairs in attempts to lightened the impact of the dark dining room table (which I would love to change).

The expensive Oriental rug has been in our family for a very long time so I don’t see it being replaced anytime soon. With deep tones of cranberry and some pinks, it made sense to keep the decorations in that color category.

The blush bottle brush trees are from Pier 1 Imports. The selection of bottle brush trees at Michaels was pathetic so I was delighted to find these at Pier 1. The glittery gold trees are from Pottery Barn purchased last year.

The pink and white snow ornaments are from Michaels and are hung from the chandelier with fishing line.

I love our white chairs from Ballard Designs and added the boxwood wreaths (also from Ballard Designs) with a sheer green ribbon pinned to the top of the chair.

The buffet will be filled with food for the holidays so it was left undecorated this year. I will be adding some fresh cut flowers and greens for our holiday event tomorrow evening. My sweet husband polished all the silver which makes the room sparkle.

Overall, the decorations feel cleaner and lighter this year.

I hope you enjoyed the decorating changes made to the dining room. Enjoy this beautiful Tuesday and keep jolly!

*Greens purchased from Torchio Nursery at the San Francisco Flower Market.

In addition to showing you beautiful pictures of the many wreaths we hang at Bella Terra during the holidays, the purpose of this post is the “behind the scenes” about wreaths.

I am often asked where we put all our “things”. If you invest in a well-made, substantial wreath you know they can cost a pretty penny. By accident, I found this storage system works for most of our wreaths.

Many years ago I was in charge of the grammar school memory boxes, you know those containers where the teachers put a year’s worth of student work and give it to parents on the last day of school. I found these large “pizza” style boxes measuring 14″ x 14″ x 3″ which worked perfectly for collecting all that paperwork.

With several boxes leftover, I found they also work well for storing our wreaths. I bought them in bulk and am not sure they can be purchased in small quantities. However, if you live in Phoenix, maybe we can get a small group together and split a bundle.

I use so many pipe cleaners in my decorating. I still have many left over from all those school art projects and this tip came from my friend, Janie. I use pipe cleaners to hang my wreaths and also to secure bows to wreaths. They are also great for hanging garland on bannisters because their fuzzy exterior protects the surface. Pipe cleaners are perfect for securing ornaments to tree branches too!

What did we do before Command Brand hooks? It has only been in the last few years that I have hung a wreath on our Dutch door that leads from the mudroom to the back porch. That Command hook is still strongly affixed and now it is so easy to hang seasonal wreaths.

On the much larger wreaths, like the one on the well tower, those are just wrapped in plastic and hung in the garage.

The wreaths in the family are hung with small hooks (that we leave up all year). My husband added grommets to the ribbons which are left attached to the wreath. With this easy system, the wreaths are up in under 5 minutes.

Wreaths are an easy way to transition from season to season. Generally, it is the first decoration we tackle to start the holidays.

Any fun holiday decorating tips/shortcuts you would like to share? December is quickly upon us and now it’s a dash to Christmas! Happy decorating and have a wonderful Tuesday!