I am happy to report that we had an absolutely lovely Christmas. In spite of a late night Christmas Eve, this blessed day could not have been better. With just our clan of 5, we experienced the best of family time, food and traditions. Here is a look at our post-Christmas wrap up.

Gingerbread Houses

As you may recall, I just started making a gingerbread house two years ago. Utilizing a set of templates from Martha Stewart (that are so old you can’t even find them referenced online), I select the chicken coop instead of the log cabin. To see my log cabin last year, click here.

To be honest, Martha’s chicken coop template is a rather boring structure. It looks a bit like a warehouse and doesn’t really have any resemblance to our chicken coop. But I proceed anyway, in hopes that I can add elements to make it more attractive. The log cabin design is much more interesting. Gingerbread dough is quite tasty and you can find the recipe here. I make 3 batches for all the pieces.

The pieces are assembled and “glued” together with Royal icing ~ 4 cups of confectioners sugar, 3 tablespoons meringue powder and 6 tablespoons of water.

Using shredded wheat cereal and mini-York peppermint patties, texture is added to the roof. Frosting tinted to look like adobe is painted on the sides. Pretzels trim around the entries and melted butterscotch candies make up the glass in the windows.

My attempt to make gingerbread chickens is a complete failure, so thankfully, I have these wooden chicken magnets as the coop’s occupants. Chocolate blocks become shutters and fresh greens dress up the window sills.

Camper Gingerbread

A few years ago, I saw this cute gingerbread camper by Sugar and Cloth. However, the instructions are vague and I would imagine their vintage camper was done by a professional baker.

My camper kept collapsing and the pieces didn’t really fit together. Completely frustrated, it was going in the trash. So my husband ate the wheels and a few pieces and as I’m ready to discard it, my youngest daughter insisted we not give up.

And I am so glad she did! So I baked a few more wheels and created new pieces that would fit. Candied windows and colorful lights make it look like a party camper. Though far from perfect, this became a great mother/daughter project. It is SO cute!

Raisins and chia seeds make up the walk. A paper cocktail umbrella provides shade to the lounge chair. A leftover Christmas tree cookie is placed on the roof. By the time we are finished decorating, we are belly laughing and having so much fun! A worthwhile rescue!

Unexpected Christmas Joy

On the 24th, I dropped off a present to my friend, Janie. We met at her outside back terrace and she surprised me with a cup of Christmas tea and shortbread cookies. What I thought was going to be a few minute gift exchange, turned into a lovely hour of conversation. Using her beautiful Spode tea cups and this incredible needlepoint tea cozy, made the time even more special and festive.

I don’t have a tea cozy, but I just purchased one on eBay that is identical to this! It is surprising how hot that cover kept the teapot, especially outside in the cool weather. Now I just need the cups!

Making Homemade Bacon

My daughter, Elisabeth (almost 20) is starting to learn to cook. She decided she wanted to make bacon for Christmas morning. Make bacon? So she went to the butcher and bought a 3 lb. pork belly, cured it (brown sugar, pepper, salt, distilled water and Prague powder) for several days and then smoked it for a few hours until it reached the ideal temperature.

On Christmas morning, she sliced it up and cooked it for the family and it was absolutely delicious! Who knew?

A Collaborative Cooking Day

In addition to homemade bacon, my husband and other daughter, Julianna made Eggs a la Goldenrod (see recipe here), my son picked oranges from the orchard and made fresh squeezed mimosa and I made cinnamon rolls from sourdough starter discard (delicious!). Recipe from Amy at Little Spoon Farm is here.

Disguising Gifts

After breakfast, we moved to the living room to open gifts. A rather tired looking Santa is sitting in one of the wing chairs. The children laugh about it and we go on to unwrap all the presents under the tree.

Finally, my daughter asks if she can “unwrap” Santa, which happens to be a cello for her. Though it was a bit comical trying to dress the cello as Santa, it is a good way to disguise the gift.

After we opened presents, the rest of the day is spent cooking, both indoors and out.

My dear friend, Connie let us borrow her smoker while she is out of town and we have certainly put it to good use. A rather non-traditional holiday dinner consists of smoked baby back ribs, a chicken on the rotisserie, stuffing, gravy, pear and apple chutney, spiced red cabbage with apples and oranges, twice baked potatoes, roasted vegetables, persimmon bread and mincemeat pie.

Dinner was consumed in the pink themed dining room, which just felt magical. If you missed that post, you can see it here. Needless to say, it’s time to exercise and eat greens again!

The day ended with our fabulous neighbors coming by to sing Christmas carols and deliver an amazing gift. In spite of this challenging year, I could not have asked for a more perfect day~filled with laughter, love and some of the best food I’ve ever eaten.

The time between Christmas and New Year’s is one of my favorites~enjoying the slower pace of it all and wearing elastic waist pants! With the new year, I will get back on track exercising and eating better, but for now I am giving myself permission to enjoy my family being all together and our good health.

Sending warm, relaxing wishes for the balance of 2020.

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With only 3 days until Christmas, I always like to set my table ahead of time to minimize the chaos on Christmas Day. Inspired by my pink and burgundy dining room holiday decor, I did a completely new tablescape this year. Thanks for joining me and I hope you enjoy my Christmas Dinner table.

Protecting the Table

We have a custom table pad made by Guardian (however, I cannot find them online). Padding on the table top accomplishes a few things. First it protects the surface of the table. Next, and perhaps what I like most, is that the pad softens the sound of table activity~for example placing your glass down after using it. Subtle as it may be, you can register when there isn’t a pad or protective layer, as the table will echo the noise.

The Tablecloths

For this setting, I am using two tablecloths~a larger lace white one first, and then a smaller burgundy/pink toile fabric one. Toile designs depict pastoral scenes, farm life and hunting scenes. My source for the tablecloth is Williams Sonoma, but it appears they do not carry it in stock anymore. Here is a link to a gorgeous toile fabric you can buy by the yard.

The Place Setting

If you read my blog post about the DIY napkin project that I completely botched (see post here), you will be pleased to see these beautiful napkins. My sister, Susie, read my post and as a Christmas gift, embroidered much prettier ones! What a nice sister!

The antique silver chargers can be found at Amazon (set of six here) and though they look like real silver, they are melamine. Hard to believe, right? Silver rimmed, white dishes are from Pottery Barn and have a picture of each of Santa’s reindeer on them.

The pink wine goblets are from Pier One and the vintage water ones are part of my collection. They are a subtle link to the pink holiday theme of the fresh Christmas tree.

The Centerpiece

Fresh greens, and a collection of tinsel and white feather trees gather in the middle of the table. Individual silver mint julep cups hold fresh pink roses, evergreens and a sparkly blush-toned pinecone.

Votive candles in a rose tone (from West Elm) add another glow of light to the centerpiece. Pomegranates are strewn throughout to add a deeper shade of red to the table.

Decorating the Chairs

Each chair is adorned with a boxwood wreath and pale pink satin ribbon. These are pinned to the tops of the upholstered chairs. Wreaths are a Ballard Design purchase, during one of their sales events. They look lovely year after year.

Inspiration is a funny thing~I am such a visual person and sometimes an idea is sparked by the most random thing. I haven’t used this toile tablecloth in years, yet here it is working beautifully for the holidays. The burgundy ribbon is another relic found in the bottom of a Christmas bin.

Even my friend and Pilates teacher, Heather, found the perfect ornament to match my pink tree!

Today is food shopping for our holiday dinner and one more zoning case. Then I can finally relax and wrap gifts and enjoy these last few days before the 25th.

Since I will be taking the rest of the week off and spending the time with my family, I want to wish you and yours the happiest of holidays. Whatever you are celebrating, I hope you are surrounded by love and laughter. Each day I am so grateful for your interest in our pursuits here at Bella Terra. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for following me. Have a fabulous week and stay safe and healthy.

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This post shared with Between Naps on the Porch 641st Tablescape Thursday.

Christmas is a less than one week away. Oh my. Even though I dream about having a comprehensive holiday home tour to show you, I am still noodling around with decorations (and cleaning up). Welcome to Saturday Meanderings! I am envisioning you with all your gift shopping done and lounging around in your red striped pajamas as you are reading this! And drinking a fabulous cup of coffee or tea, completely stress free on this Saturday morning!

The Main Tree

The main live tree is up…finally. It fell over twice (really) but fortunately the crash happened before the lights and ornaments were on it. Did I mention that the tree did fall over years ago and shattered our cherished, rare ornament collection? Oh well. Every year since, the children say, “remember they year the tree fell over?”

When the fresh tree is finally straight on all sides, then it gets wired to the ceiling so it will NOT fall over after ornament placement. I cannot say enough about the quality of the freshly cut trees at Whitfill Nursery. We’ve been going for years and have never been disappointed. The entire front of the house smells so good!

The Breakfast Room Mantel

The fireplace in our breakfast room (my office) typically gets a holiday painting and the mantel displays the nutcracker collection. However, this year, I am retaining the painting of the Italian village done by Janice Howell. I love the colors and the laundry hanging from the balconies. By happenstance, I placed two sets of wooden village buildings purchased at Target (for $5.00 each) on the mantel, and was instantly inspired to re-create the painting.

Adding battery operated votive candles behind the houses, and trees on either side of the mantel makes the foreground feel like it is part of the painting. Miniature holiday sweaters, hats and mittens hang on a “clothesline”. Since turning the votives on at night is a bit of a pain, I may just lay battery-operated fairy lights behind the houses instead.

The Laundry Room

The leftover mini sweaters are hung with care in the laundry room. It is fun how they mimic the mural on the wall.

The Garden

With pending frost temperatures this week, I am worried about plant damage. Typically in the winter, I will cover the garden beds with frost cloth and/or a heavy ply plastic. Adding Christmas lights (not the LED kind) will add a bit of heat under the cloth too. Amazon has 2-day shipping for frost cloth here and heavy ply plastic here.

It looks a bit like a moonscape at night with the lights glowing from underneath the covers.

It is harvest time for shishito peppers, lettuces, herbs and some of the cherry tomatoes are producing as well. If you have not had shishito peppers, they are so easy to grow.

Blistered in hot oil, then seasoned with salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon, we just love these as an appetizer. I’m not sure I understand why some are green and others are red, but they taste terrific regardless. A mild pepper but occasionally you can get one with some heat.

Christmas Cards

Do you send out holiday cards?My goal is to take our family photo at Thanksgiving, create the card and have them in the mail by December 15th. It is also when I draft our family newsletter reviewing all the good, bad and ugly that has happened in the year. Since I do love receiving cards, I will continue to send them out each year. Another thing to check off the list! Card by Minted.com.

There are a few decorations to finalize but I think we are nearly done here (thankfully). Not sure why I felt so disorganized this year. I may have mentioned that I volunteer on our neighborhood board and we’ve had two zoning cases in December that unfortunately, have taken a great deal of time. I’m blaming my scattered approach to the holidays on that!

If you missed my two other posts this week, you can see my pink dining room decorations here, and the holiday front porch here.

I may take a break from blogging next week (not sure yet), but if an email doesn’t appear in your inbox on Tuesday or Wednesday, you will know why. Until then, I am sending big virtual hugs to you!

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Yesterday, I went shopping for pink (yes, pink!) Christmas ornaments. Seriously. What was I thinking?!? Hobby Lobby is one endless row of empty shelves after another. Online shopping will get you ornaments at the end of December. Not admitting defeat, I checked out Michaels. Again, hardly any inventory, but I went down every aisle and hidden, in a strange out of the way place I found what I was looking for! And now the holiday decor for the dining room is complete! To see more about the decor evolution of this room, click here.

This year, I am happy to report that we have a live, Noble fir tree tucked into the corner andit smells H.E.A.V.E.N.L.Y! If you recall, this is the room with the burgundy/pink rug (clashing with the typical red and green for Christmas). But the fresh tree and a pretty roll of pink striped ribbon, is the basis for the inspiration. Click here for the ribbon.

With our Michaels’ purchase of a few packages of miscellaneous ornaments and floral picks, my sweet daughter, Elisabeth and I began decorating the tree. Since ornaments do not seem to come with their own hangers, we use pipe cleaners to attach them to the tree.

Still debating whether I need a tree topper of some sort, but for now the pink striped ribbon bow will do.

The glittery floral picks catch the reflection from the clear light strands.

To cover the tree stand, I use a pink and white quilt (that typically makes an appearance for Valentine decorations).

Completed with wrapped packages decorated in fun pink holiday paper, the tree is complete.

The pink tree ties in nicely with the mantel, which has a variety of bottle brush trees, garland, pink peppercorns, gold berry picks and a garland of sparkly balls. To see last year’s mantel decorations and the sources for the trees, click here.

Though not really planned, it appears trees are the theme in this room. On the dining room table, tinsel and white conical trees, candles and pink roses make up the centerpiece.

With our dry weather, I don’t need to polish the silver tea/coffee service often. But it hadn’t been cleaned since last December, so it is definitely time to do so. Not my favorite task, but a little elbow grease is rewarded with gleaming silver.

A simple addition of more trees here too along the pink linen runner from Williams Sonoma.

My second Christmas painting, done in 2017, rests on the wainscoting trim behind the buffet.

In stepping back to look at the room, I just love how it looks this year.

I have always wanted a tree in this room. Initially I thought an artificial tree, perhaps a white one, but the fresh tree looks spectacular and fills the room with the scent of the great outdoors. Such a delight!

A warm, magical holiday mood happens at night when all the lights from the tree and mantel are on, and the candles glow in the windows.

So the big fresh tree in the living room gets decorated today. It fell over last night but thankfully it was bare without ornaments and lights. Missed my December 15th deadline for sending out our Christmas cards too! But who cares? It’s the holiday season and time for merriment, right?

Have an amazing Wednesday!

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When I painted the front door a new color in April (see post here), I was worried the color might only be appropriate for summer and spring. But surprisingly, the color is proving to be one for all seasons. Remember my autumn wreath against this color? Just perfect. Well now, I want you to see how it fairs in the Holiday Front Porch decor.

It’s funny how the angle or light changes the color of the door a bit, but it is more aqua than sky blue. Since the door is 4 feet wide, I need an extra large wreath. The ribbon is from Costco and I love how the red plaid really stands out against the blue.

During the front porch re-do, I added 2 artificial cedar trees, mostly to survive the summer. But they are perfect for winter too. By adding the red plaid bow to the tops of each, they compliment the wreath. Initial “C” door mat is from Wayfair. Cedar trees can be found here.

We don’t decorate the area of the property closest to the street, due to the huge trees and excessive foliage. But the front gates get lighted wreaths and also plaid bows. Once the gate opens, the driveway leads you around to the front door, where the holiday impact really happens.

My husband sets up numerous trees to create a forest like setting on either side of the front door. When the pre-lit trees had functioning lights, it was easy. But since those only last a few years (right?), he hangs additional lights on each and every one of them. Sometimes we add snow to cover any electrical cords, but this year, I decided to remove it after taking this picture.

Faux wrapped packages are tucked in at the base of the trees for fun.

Even the stone bunny rabbit gets his own bow and bells.

Costco has a nice selection of large and small poinsettias, too! This helps fill in and cover some of the artificial tree bases.

With chilly mornings and evenings, one definitely needs a blanket for your lap on the rocking chair.

The porch looks best at night with all the twinkling lights and bursts of red. Here is an afternoon shot.

And this is how it looks in the late afternoon/dusk.

This decorated porch fits in nicely with my theory on life. Make the entrance warm and welcoming, keep the first 3 rooms upon entry clean, and then live life fully (and don’t worry about the mess!).

Happy Tuesday! We are supposed to have frost this morning so hopefully my garden covers will work! Stay safe and healthy.

What a week! Slowly the decorations are coming out and we will get our fresh tree this weekend. It’s a family tradition to get our main tree on or near my husband’s birthday. The goal is to have the tree up and decorated no later than next Tuesday. I know I am way behind other bloggers, but it doesn’t really matter because this is how we celebrate here at Bella Terra.

The Annual Christmas Painting

As you may recall, I started painting about five years ago (see post here). Each year I attempt a new holiday painting. Based on a wonderful photo, I painted our cat, Donovan. He is a stray Maine coon cat the girls found in the yard years ago and he is currently our only cat. After losing our very first cat, Tippy this year, I have an increased desire to capture our pets on canvas. If you follow me on Instagram (I hope you do!), you may have already seen this.

Two New Recipes

Chocolate Sourdough Babka Bread

Every Christmas, I replay the previous Christmases and holidays in my head. I feel blessed to have had many happy and joyous holidays from my childhood to now. Naturally there have been a few where loved ones are not there and occasionally my heart feels heavy from their loss. Lately, I have been thinking of my Mom and Dad, who both passed away rather unexpectedly 5 years ago, 5 months apart.

But they were very good parents and they made our holidays extra special every year. Being of Polish decent, I recall some of the traditions and foods surrounding the holidays. With fond memories of babka bread, I realize that I have never made one.

Babka is a dense cake, although it looks a little like a bread. It’s a sweet yeast dough filled with fudgy chocolate or cinnamon in layers and baked. It also sometimes has a streusel on top.

Since I am always looking for ways to use my sourdough starter discard, this recipe is a Chocolate Sourdough Babka with Streusel de Coco from Artisan Brian is perfect. You can see the recipe here.

A 2-day recipe, but well worth the effort. Also, I have never braided bread before but this is a fun learning recipe with excellent results!

Aged Egg Nog

Have you ever heard of aged egg nog? I certainly haven’t, yet my son brought up the idea at Thanksgiving.

Although most Americans think of eggnog as something they get out of a milk carton during the two-week period leading up to December 25, eggnog actually descends from sack posset, a strong, thick English beverage built upon eggs, milk, and either a fortified wine (like Madeira) or ale. 

In this recipe, you must age it for a minimum of 2 weeks, but they say a month or two would be even better. We made this on November 24 and will drink it later this month. Made with eggs, sugar, fresh nutmeg, half-and-half, whole milk, heavy cream, Jamaican rum, cognac, bourbon and a bit of kosher salt, let’s not count the calories!

It looks like it has lost a bit of volume (where would it go?). We all tasted it before it went into the refrigerator and it is delicious. Should be interesting to see how it tastes 6 weeks later. Click here for the link to the recipe.

An Easy DIY Holiday Decorating Idea

As you know, plaids are all the rage this year. During a recent trip to Michaels, they had buy one and get one free rolls of wrapping paper. So I grabbed all the plaid ones and did this simple, easy and fast DIY.

Here is the chest in my family room, before.

And look how festive it looks now with minimal effort!

I simply wrapped the books with the plaid wrapping paper, changed out the wooden beads for silver ones (a necklace of mine) and added faux greens.

In setting up a small tree at the other end of the chest, I added small wrapped packages underneath too.

I hope to show you more of our holiday decorations (if I can get my act together) next week with a holiday home tour.

Thanks for the help

If you don’t follow me on Instagram stories (I hope you do), I want to thank you for all the fabulous feedback on how to improve upon my dining room mantel. My friend, Jeanne suggested adding fairy lights and that did the trick! Most voted against adding ribbon and I think that was the right choice.

Every year I order a 75 foot roll of fresh cedar garland. Unfortunately, this year none was available from my resource. So I am hoping when we pick up the live tree this weekend, there will be fresh garland to purchase. Important areas of the house are draped in garland and this may be a year that we go without.

Enjoy your Saturday and weekend. We had our first big rain here the other day and I am hoping and praying for more. If you missed any posts this week, see how I clean our crystal chandeliers and how to make bleached pinecones.

Thank you so much for joining me today!