Are you ready?

Are your gifts wrapped and under the tree?

Have you baked all the goodies, sung all the carols, and bought all your new lights because those strands you bought last season didn’t work like you’d hoped they would even though you never even unboxed those suckers much less plugged them in…have you…HAVE YOU?

I’m quite certain if you looked up Christmas lights in the dictionary this is what you’d find..

Christmas Lights: A luminous way of testing both spirit and patience. See also; Cursing Vocabulary Gateway.

I must say, decorating this home for Christmas has been so much fun!

Trying to keep things a bit more natural, I made swags from cuttings I took from the property for gift giving and window decorations. I even added a few drops of black spruce and sweet orange essential oils, YUM!

Don’t mind all those dishes sitting out, my cabinet had to be replaced due to mold and for two months I’ve had nowhere else to put them! Old house, remember?

I also tried drying cranberries to string along with the dried orange slices. I was not successful. Apparently you need to poke a hole in cranberries to get them to dry properly, and to string ’em up, you don’t even need to dry them! Who knew? But I did get this lovely photo so still a win, right?

Handmade ornaments from friends, paired with glittery flea market finds are a few of my favorite things!

And I could decorate until I’m blue in the face, but the real beauty is in the bones of this historic house…

We have also been busy gift making. Again, I tried to go the natural route with this so that meant homemade potpourri and dried herbal teas from the garden.

And then there is the food…

Homemade tamales of course (You couldn’t beat the New Mexico out of me if you tried!), and a colonial Orange & Rosemary Christmas cake! Recipe is posted below. Go. Bake. Enjoy!

This was the first time I ever made a molded cake. It required a tin from the wall. Turned out quite nice for a molded cake newbie, don’t ya think?

You wanted more pictures, yes?

What do ya think of my new green kitchen chair? The moment I laid eyes on it at Habitat for Humanity I knew it was destiny, for I’d always wanted a velvety green kitchen chair.

Yes, in my KITCHEN! You see, I’m always in my kitchen. I think I spend half my life here so why not have a comfy place to sit while the water boils, or to sip morning coffee while getting the morning news, or for my not-so-little’s-anymore to chit-chat with me while I stir the sauce, or to keep me company while I wash dishes, or to simply read the daily comics your grandparents sent you all the way from New Mexico…

My not-so-little’s…How did they grow so fast?

Hope you enjoyed the Christmas home tour and this finds you all having a wonderful holiday season!

From our home to yours, we wish you a very merry CHRISTMAS!!!

As promised…

ORANGE & ROSEMARY COLONIAL CHRISTMAS CAKE RECIPE:

Ingredients

• 2 Oranges
• 2 Tbs. Honey
• 1 1/2 Cups butter + 1 1/2 TBS (14 Tbs. of butter total)
• 3 eggs
• 2 Cups All Purpose Flour
• 1 Tbs chopped fresh rosemary
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 Ground pecans (Could also use almonds or pine nuts)
• 1 Cup Yogurt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray baking tins/molds with baking spray (I used two small tin molds)
2. Remove skin & pith from oranges and slice into thin slices
3. Drizzle honey over base of cake tin and then arrange orange slices on top of honey
4. In an electric mixer cream butter & sugar until fluffy (about 10 minutes).
5. Add eggs one at a time beating well in between each
6. Place flour, baking powder, baking soda, rosemary and ground almonds in a bowl, stirring to combine
7. Add flour and yogurt to butter & sugar mixture beating until just coming together
8. Spread cake mixture over the top of the oranges and honey, smoothing the top and bake for about an hour or until cooked through.
9. Remove from oven and let cool on cooling rack for at least 15-20 minutes before removing cake from the tin
10. Once removed from tin and completely cooled, cover and let sit for a day…if you can wait that long!

Served warm with coffee this makes a terrific breakfast or afternoon treat!