Tag: christmas

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized33 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Hello everyone!! I hope that you are all doing well. We had a pretty good week here last week, just a few bumps but mostly good. Today we are working on some projects around here before heading to my cousin’s house for a family get together of cousins, which my cousin hosts once a month. I love that our kids are growing up around each other!

Read Last Week:

I loved both of these books. How to Talk to Your Succulent is a middle-grade graphic novel, and deals with loneliness, grief, and the importance of open and honest communication, in a very whimsical and magical way.

I knew I had to read Shady Hollow. I love anthropomorphic animal stories, and the main character is a fox to boot? This book was really well-written, and I feel like I learned a bit about the process of journalism as well while reading (with a little extra clarification from Lisa). All in all, a very good cozy mystery, full of woodland creatures!

Reading This Week:

This week I am reading A Fellowship of Librarians and Dragons by J. Penner! I am looking forward to it; I mean, just look at all those cozy cute images on the cover! I want a unicorn teapot! And cinnamon rolls! And a dragon!

Posted Last Week:

Top Ten Tuesday: Modern Books I Think Might Be Future Classics

Christmas Gift Guide For Kids: Gifts Wyatt has Loved

Mini-Book Reviews: The Enchanted Greenhouse, A Land So Wide, and Goblin Mode

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

Soup and Story Saturday

Watching:

Billy and I have been watching The Great British Bake Off all week. It always makes us both want to bake! This time it was Billy’s turn, and he made a savory monkey bread last night that was delicious. It was filled with cotswold cheese and was so good. He is going to make a version for Thanksgiving and I am excited. He is going to add olives which I think will be the perfect touch.

Wyatt and I also prepped for Christmas movie watching! We decided to put all the names of the movies we want to watch into a jar and every time we are going to watch one, Wyatt will draw that night’s movie.

Around the Internets:

Just a reminder that Lisa hosts a monthly linky, that I help with, called A Good Book and a Cup of Tea. Make sure to link up any book related posts! We love to hear!

A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Bookish Link Up For November

Also, we will be hosting Comfy Cozy Christmas starting the day after Thanksgiving! Anything holiday related – any December holiday – at all that strikes your fancy and you write about, please think about sharing on our linky – and I hope I can get it working again on my blog before then! Again, we love to hear everyone’s stories!

And that is it from me today! I hope that whatever you do, you do something that makes you smile!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized28 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Hello everyone!! It is snowing here! Our first snow of the year! I always feel like it is my personal gift from Mother Nature when it is around my birthday, which is next week. I am very Lorelai Gilmore about snow, especially the first snow. Tonight I am going to make soup and if I can, I am going to try to make cinnamon rolls for the first time as well.

What I Read Last Week:

This book was the perfect pick me up, full of cozy moments, snow, soup, and winged cats. I loved it!

Reading This Week:

I had started Shady Hollow when I finished The Enchanted Greenhouse, so I am reading that, but I also want to read A Land so Wide.

Posted Last Week:

Hello November

Good Book and a Cup of Tea Monthly Link Party

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Randomly Grabbed Off the Shelf

Introducing Soup and Story Saturdays

Comfy Cozy Cinema: The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

Watching:

Billy and I must be craving cozy, because we have started our umpteenth rewatch of the BBC farm shows. We just finished up Victorian Farm again, and will probably move on to Edwardian Farm next. The hold these shows have on us! Lol. I am not the only one though. I found this reel on Instagram and it made me giggle. I even commented about how we love to watch this show, blah blah, and a bunch of people liked my comment, probably because they are the same!

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Tonight we are watching the last movie in our Comfy Cozy Cinema line up, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. Then after American Thanksgiving, we will begin our Comfy Cozy Christmas link party where you can all feel free to spread the holiday cheer, all winter holidays in December btw, not just Christmas, by linking up your holiday posts! With the snow today, I can feel the winter holiday season so clearly now!

Internet Happenings:

I’ve already talked about them all a little, but Lisa and I are hosting Comfy Cozy Cinema, then Comfy Cozy Christmas together. We are also co-hosting A Good Book and a Cup of Tea, which is a monthly book linky for anything book related. And finally, I am introducing my new Soup and Story Saturdays. It is, you guessed it, all about soup! Link your posts about a soup you made or have eaten, a recipe if you made it, and either a bit about the book you are reading, or a story you want to tell us about your own life. Pretend we are at dinner together, having a meal and sharing a tale. Because I want to be a hobbit with you guys.

I also just signed up for the Library Love 2025 Challenge – I guess better late than never. I will be watching for next year’s sign up now though, if it continues. 99% of our reads come from the library and I believe wholeheartedly in supporting your local library!

And that is it from me today! I hope that whatever you do, you do something that makes you smile!

My Last Christmas Coffee Catch Up of 2024

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized24 Comments

Hello everyone!! This time in between Christmas and New Year is always so weird. I never really want to start anything new and I feel sort of stuck. Lol. It’s like a limbo time. It isn’t helping that it is super gloomy out these past few days (weeks?) Anyway, we had a wonderful holiday with family the past week.

Last Saturday we spent Christmas at my dad’s. It is always so relaxed and chill. They order food, we all sit around and watch the kiddos open their gifts, and that is about it. The kids sort of have the run of the house and do what they want and make messes and play and eat all the candy…

It was a wonderful day!

Then the next few days I spent in a flurry of baking and cleaning, as I am sure many of us did.

Christmas Eve, we went to Billy’s brother’s house for dinner and to hang out with everyone. The kids opened their gifts and played together, and it was a blast. I have awesome pictures but they do not wish their kids to be on the internet, and I am more than happy to respect their wishes.

Christmas Day started early, at 6:30 am when Wyatt got up. Billy and I stumbled out the family room with Wyatt and watched him happily open his gifts. We also exchanged our gifts to each other as well. ( He got me two of the books that I wanted!)

Then we had a little time to sit around and relax because my family wasn’t coming until 4. We were making a slow cooker pot roast, macaroni and cheese, cresecent rolls (I even made a baby size one for the Hurricane), and a winter fruit salad so we didn’t even have to spend the whole day cooking. The winter fruit salad was amazing by the way. Pear, apple, clementines, pomegranate seeds, and it was supposed to have kiwi but I didn’t get them with my order and forgot to get them later. I would say though that it didn’t need it. I am probably going to make it all winter long.

Before long my other nieces descended upon us, along with my brother and SIL, and my mom. We ate, the kids opened gifts – you guys know the drill. It was a lovely evening and I had so much fun with the kids.

I fell into bed that night, full of happy feelings, joy, and exhaustion. I had big plans for the next day – to do not one thing. And I didn’t.

I totally relaxed 100% on Thursday. Wyatt played with all of his new stuff, and I did too. I flipped through my new books, played with the new markers that were in my stocking from Santa, and just totally goblinmoded out. Wyatt was cracking me up taking photos of his books….I wonder who he was emulating? Lol.

Friday Billy was home! He took a few extra vacation days, although we have no idea what we are going to do. Maybe nothing! Yesterday we drove down to an antique store in Ohio and I picked up some cast iron rabbits and sent a bunch of pictures to my friend Kelly who also wanted to go to this antique store. She had a few things she was looking for. We also went to my favorite plant store, The Conservatory, but didn’t pick anything up this time, although they did give Wyatt a few stickers. Next we went to our favorite local fish store, to buy some little plants for the frogs, Hurkle and Durkle, and then ended up at the local book store down the street because of a certain little boy’s request. He picked up a used copy of an Avi book because to him when we say we are going shopping he thinks that means for books.

We were hoping to stop at the zoo but it was cold and raining so we opted for home and pizza instead. I painted my nails with the very sparkly polish Wyatt gave me for Christmas, we watched some tv, and that was that! Which brings us to right this very moment, Saturday morning, typing this up.

I hope that you all had a wonderful week, and that whatever you do today, that you do something that makes you smile.

My Sunday-Monday Post!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized31 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Hello everyone! I hope the last week has treated you well. I know that this can be a fun time of year, but it can also be a very difficult one as well. If you are struggling and need someone to chat with, my Instagram chat is always open. (@foxandfirthco)

We celebrated Christmas with my dad last night, and we had such a fantastic time. The kids had a blast which in turn made all of us adults happy as well. They were just perfectly kids at Christmas, you know? Eating all the junk, playing, making a mess, laughing.. all those good things.

Wyatt and the Hurricane. She wanted to draw just like her big cousin. It was adorable.

My reading has been in the bin this past week. And I have read nothing Christmas! However I did read this one.

It took place at the time of Winter Solstice so it maybe counts. I love this series and I think young Erin would have definitely connected with this character.

Reading this Week:

I am slowly reading. It may take me two weeks with the holidays and all the things I need to do still. And at bedtime I just zonk out I am so whipped. But I am reading! And oo, I just realized it is Christmas! So I am reading a Christmas book!

This is such a cool series.

Posted Last Week:

Christmas Coffee Catch Up: Gingerbread and Zoo Lights!

Comfy Cozy Christmas: What We Have Been Watching

Top Ten Tuesday: My 2024-2025 Winter TBR

And I am woefully behind on visiting blogs. I hope to do that tomorrow morning!

Watching:

Billy and I have been watching a lot of Christmas movies lately. When we don’t, we are watching Murdoch Mysteries or the Great British Bake Off. We have two movies left on our list, the Muppet Christmas Carol and Emmett Otter’s Jug Band Christmas. I can’t wait!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are planning some Cozy Crafternoons on Zoom in January and February, to beat those winter blahs that happen late winter after Christmas. We are thinking we will have maybe two per month, so four in total. We will just all meet up on the date and time, and individually work on whatever we want – embroidery, coloring, knitting, crocheting, jewelry making, etc, while chatting or you could even have the sound off and just feel part of the group without the chatter, if you like it quiet. It is sort of open and flexible but also social. I will probably be stitching away – my friend has requested a small pillow with an embroidered possum on it, so I will be working on that in January for a while. Anyway, if you are interested in learning more send an email either to me at crackercrumblife@gmail.com or to Lisa at lisahoweler@gmail.com. That way we will also have your email for the zoom link! Our first scheduled crafternoon is January 11th at 1 pm EST.

And that is it from me today! I hope that you are all doing well, and I wish you a happy week of winter reading and a wonderful holiday season!

Christmas Coffee Catch Up: Gingerbread and Holiday Lights!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized19 Comments

Linking up with my and Lisa at Boondock Rambling’s

Comfy Cozy Christmas!

Hello everyone!! We have been making merry in our own way over here! I was trying to not overwhelm all of us with activities this year, and have a slower Christmas and it has been really nice. However, now as we are getting closer to the big day, I am staring to freak out just a bit! You know, all the usual things: Did I buy enough? Did I remember everyone? Will people like what we did get for them, or made for them? Maybe I took it too slow this year, did Wyatt get to do enough? Will it ever snow? What do I need for Christmas dinner? I never did get that Christmas photo of Wyatt that I wanted… And the list goes on…. I am trying to keep it all in perspective though, and enjoy the things that we are doing and not compare them to anything else.

Let’s see. Since I last posted one of these, we have done a few things.

On Saturday, we made gingerbread! I love gingerbread, Billy loves gingerbread, Wyatt loves gingerbread. We are a gingerbread kind of family! The recipe I use is from @ofbeeandbear. This recipe is amazing, and she is a wonderful, beautiful soul. Her recipe calls for types of flour, spelt and wheat; however I use all purpose and wheat, which she says is perfectly fine. Or you can make them using entirely all purpose flour. Anyway, I think her recipe is the perfect balance of the spices and chewy vs. soft, if that makes sense.

We started that morning off right as well, with pancakes, some of them plain, some cinnamon, and some ginger. It was a delicious start to the day!

After Wyatt’s medicine and nap, and a quick trip to the library, the baking commenced!

We danced and sang along to Christmas music as we baked, in the glow of our little Christmas tree, as the day itself was very gray and gloomy. We made our own sunshine though as we all had our jobs to do. I made the dough and also rolled it out, Wyatt cut the shapes, and Billy kept the assembly line from table to oven and out again rolling!

They turned out delicious, if I do say so myself. We enjoyed a few all nice and warm and freshly baked on the floor in front of the tree, and I am pretty sure Oliver was giving us the eye because he wanted some too. Sorry Oliver, geckos can’t eat gingerbread!

On Sunday, it rained all day long. Like all day. Nonstop. We had had plans to go to the Detroit Zoo for the Wild Lights, but there was no way we were going in the rain. So instead we just caught up on things around the house, which was way less fun. Our tickets were open ended thank goodness, so we decided to go to the lights on Tuesday instead. Billy worked from home that day, and when quitting time rolled around, we headed to the zoo!

We had so much fun. It was a chilly night, but not too cold, and thankfully, it was dry. Since it was a Tuesday, there weren’t even too many other people there, which made it nice, especially with a wheelchair. We really did have a blast!

I packed up a few of those gingerbread cookies before we left, and we happily nibbled on those, and shared hot pretzels as well, as we strolled through the zoo, marveling at the lights on disply!

We were enchanted right off the bat! Everything just looked so magical!

We all loved the Enchanted Trail.

There were animals made of lights surrounding us on the trail, larger than life, and glimmering, twinkling strands all overhead. I took a lot of video on the trail and not as many photos, but these are a few of the photos I took.

After we walked the Enchanted Trail, we continued around the zoo. I just loved wandering around and seeing what they had created.

We are making more cookies today and tomorrow, as well as watching a few more Christmas movies all the way up until Christmas Eve. Saturday we have Christmas with my dad, and we always have such a nice, chill, relaxed time. I am looking forward to it!

I hope that no matter what you are doing this December, you do something that makes you smile!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized45 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well! We have had some pretty good days over here lately. I was hoping to go to the Zoo lights tonight but the weather is rainy and cold – I am hoping it stops before evening so we can go!

Read Last Week:

I just finished The Teller of Small Fortunes and it was just so warm and cozy. I love a found family trope, which this book had, and the whole vibe is just feel good. I will definitely be looking for more books by Leong in the future.

Reading This Week:

This week I am reading The Vanishing of Aveline Jones and hopefully A Christmas Journey by Anne Perry.

Posted Last Week:

Christmas Coffee Catch Up

Top Ten Tuesday: Books for a (Snow) Storm

Watching:

We are watching The Great British Bake Off, and also we are starting to watch all of our favorite Christmas movies! Last night we watched a new one though, The Red One starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans and, it was actually pretty good! Sometimes you just need an action movie and this one was really fun. We also watched Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, and I cried a few times out of nostalgia and remembering watching it with my parents when I was little. Tonight we are going for another nostalgic movie, A Charlie Brown Christmas. I am hoping for some snow before we watch A Muppet Christmas Carol, Emmett Otter’s Jug Band Christmas, and Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas, but you never know! It could be a green Christmas this year.

Speakng of Christmas, Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I have our linky up for Comfy Cozy Christmas! You can find it at the top always, but this is the link! Feel free to post any seasonal fun! We are trying to keep up with commenting on everyone’s posts but y’all are having so much fun and have so many ideas that we are a bit behind! So we apologize if we haven’t gotten to you yet.

And that is it from here today! I hope you are all well, and that no matter what you do today, that you do one thing that makes you smile!

Christmas Coffee Catch Up

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized16 Comments

Hello everyone! It is bitter cold out this morning! It is fifteen degrees, feels like temp of negative 2! I’ve got our little fireplace on, and I am drinking my coffee and enjoying the warmth of it all. Pretty soon I will get up and make a peanut butter sandwich for the squirrels, and maybe today I will cut it up in little star shapes for them. I might throw some raisins out there as well. Right now though, I am happy to enjoy this time to sit and write, with Wyatt playing with his magnatiles on the floor, busily occupied.

We have Scouts tonight and it is our winter solstice celebration! I have some fun, I hope, activities for the kids to do tonight; they are building winter solstice lanterns decorated with gnome and woodsy silhouettes, and edible campfire cookies to bring the “scout” aspect in as well. I am looking forward to taking field trips with these guys soon, which is what I am going to start researching after the holiday.

I think the late Thanksgiving threw me off! How is it only two weeks until Christmas? I feel like I am just starting out in my Christmas journey. I don’t like it! I need more time to make the magic happen! I have most of the presents bought thank goodness, but I thought we had more time for all of the other stuff, the making of Christmas, you know what I mean? We will be binging Christmas movies starting tomorrow night, with an old old favorite, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. It is nostalgic for me – I loved the movie and would listen to the record of it every night during the holiday season as I fell asleep as a little girl. I can remember laying there in the dark of my yellow Holly Hobby bedroom, listening to Big Bird try to figure out how Santa fit down the chimney, and I would eventually fall asleep before he got his answer. I also can’t wait to watch Emmett Otter, another favorite of mine from childhood that I have gotten Wyatt to love as well.

I have done a few Christmas-y things. Last Sunday, I went to the Potter’s Market with my friends Chrissy and Kelly. I love this pottery show, and I have been going for quite a few years now, minus the pandemic years. I always find great gifts, or sometimes just things for our family, like this year.

It is set up with table after table of handmade ceramic pieces, starting out with the smaller items like ornaments and winding its way up to bigger things, like serving bowls and decorative items. You get a basket and just jump in and start shopping. There were so many cool things there, that I switched out what I wanted multiple times. They have it set up so that you can pick stuff up and if you change your mind as you wind around, you can set the discarded items on the tables at the end, and the volunteer potters put them back where they belong, which is genius.

I did not take many photos, I just forgot as we chatted and laughed and filled our baskets. Well, not filled exactly, but added a few things. Lol.

I did make a reel for Instagram:

I ended up buying a happy little snail ornament for Wyatt and his bedroom tree, an ornament for the family, and then the cutest little toad house for our yard this spring! I did see a big serving bowl I coveted, it is in the video actually if you can spot it. It is is black with birch trees and a moon and I wanted it but thought what in the world would I do with it? I also really liked the raku rabbits which were so wonderfully made, and adorable.

Last weekend we spent a good two hours as a family crafting together. We had such a great time! We made little reindeer “portraits’, and it was so fun to just sit and not hurry and add in all the details that we wanted. Mine is the red background reindeer, Wyatt is the blue background, and Billy made the “Cousin Eddie” from Chevy Chase’s Christmas Vacation version. Afterwards, we ate some peppermint popcorn and watched the original How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It was a wonderfully cozy evening together.

This weekend we have plans for baking! Billy has a gift card to a local home improvement store and we are buying a small deep freeze, and I plan on filling it pretty quickly with baked goods for Christmas, before filling it with more practical things. We are going to start with ginger pancakes in the morning and then go from there!

And with that, I need to finish up school and scout prep today – and hopefully order some groceries too!

Before I go, I also wanted to share that I was asked to give a quote about my favorite movie to an article published in an article on Rent. It is a super cool article, with lots of suggestions that pair some of your favorite Christmas movies to interior design styles.

I was quoted in a Rent. article!
Read the full article here: Design Styles to Try, Based on Your Favorite Holiday Movie

Rent. is a subsidiary of Redfin.com

I hope you all have at least one small moment today that makes you smile!

Comfy Cozy Christmas Update!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized9 Comments

Hello everyone!! So we ran into a little issue with our link up – maybe it was a prank by elf on the shelf but however it happened, we had to fix it. The link to the party we have been sharing closed accidentally on December 7th, when it was supposed to stay open until Jan. 7th! So we now have a new link, named Comfy Cozy Christmas Part Two. This is the link to the new party:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef

The posts that have been going up since December 1 will still be visible to be read, just not added to. Both link ups, Part One and Part Two are still up on my permanent page for Comfy Cozy Christmas, in my banner area at the top.

I apologize for the mix-up and confusion!

But since you are here, I thought I would talk about something else coming up in our little comfy cozy world! Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are planning some Cozy Crafternoons on Zoom in January and February, to beat those winter blahs that happen late winter after Christmas. We are thinking we will have maybe two per month, so four in total. We will just all meet up on the date and time, and individually work on whatever we want – embroidery, coloring, knitting, crocheting, jewelry making, etc, while chatting or you could even have the sound off and just feel part of the group without the chatter, if you like it quiet. It is sort of open and flexible but also social. I will probably be stitching away – my friend has requested a small pillow with an embroidered possum on it, so I will be working on that in January for a while. Anyway, if you are interested in learning more send an email either to me at crackercrumblife@gmail.com or to Lisa at lisahoweler@gmail.com. That way we will also have your email for the zoom link!

Again, I apologize about the linky issues!

Hello December!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized25 Comments

Hello everyone! It’s December, the last month of the year – already! Didn’t we just have New Year’s? This year certainly flew by. I will be doing a look back later, but for now, I want to just look forward to this month.

I talk a lot about slowing down, enjoying the quiet of this month, as it gets darker so much earlier, drawing us all in, indoors and maybe also, drawing us in for some more introspective thoughts, reflection, spiritual and otherwise. It is the month of the Quiet Full Moon, at least in the Kid’s Moon Club my son is in, and I can see why it was called that. We are drawing in, quieting ourselves and our spirits. (January is also known as the Quiet Moon, but Wyatt likes the alternate version of course, of the Wolf Moon).

The last few days winter has arrived fast and furious with very low temperatures here in the Mitten state. Some cities in Michigan have received up to 23 inches of snow already! Today we actually have a terrible weather forecast, that has low to zero visibility, snow squalls, flash freezes, and arctic temps but then we are back to normal in a few days. I am just keeping my fingers crossed that we don’t get all that. I like winter and snow but I don’t want anything crazy!!

I love to be outside in the cold, the crunch of the snow underfoot. It is just so refreshing and invigorating. I feel like it just sweeps through me and clears out anything negative hanging around. And to me, one of my favorite places to be is in the cold winter woods at night (but with Billy, not alone). We always go on an owl prowl every winter and it is one of my favorite things, walking through the woods with Billy and our friends the interpreters and other people excited about seeing little screech owls. There is something indescribable about waiting there silently, waiting for the owl to call back to let us know it is there. They have silent flight so you will never hear them fly in, but if you keep your eyes on the horizon at the right time, you might catch a glimpse of one.

I am being mindful this year to not overload us with too many activities- I want to do just enough. Just that right amount of going out, of seeing the lights and being a part of festivities, but also time at home spent baking and making and watching Christmas movies. All those good old nostalgic kids movies, Mickey’s Christmas Carol, Emmett Otter’s Jug Band Christmas (a personal favorite of mine), A Muppet Christmas Carol, Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas – they just bring all the feels. And of course some just for Billy and I too, like the Man Who Invented Christmas or Chevy Chase’s Christmas Vacation.

We are also listening to Father Christmas by Tolkien together every night, as well as reading from the All Creation Waits Advent book. It is all so very peaceful in my soul, with this.

We decorated for Christmas the other day, and put our tree up. I have shared this before, but our tree is special to me. The year Wyatt was born was rough. He was born 6 weeks early, with health complications and spent 6 weeks in the NICU. When he came home, it was also a lot, with a little preemie who didn’t want to eat. He was just a tiny guy! Billy missed a lot of work and we will forever be grateful to his work who understood and allowed him to miss when he had to. It was a costly year, and when Christmas rolled around, we realized we didn’t have a tree. Then our guardian angel, a friend of our family named Faye, who I had known since I was a baby, sent us a card with a little extra in it, and told us to use it for Wyatt’s Christmas. We were able to buy some gifts for him, and a tree. She passed away soon after that, and the world lost a great light with her passing. But whenever I bring that tree out and put it up, I am reminded of Faye, and her kindness and compassion. And her laugh, her big laugh that could fill a room. She was a very special woman.

And I need to wipe these tears now.

I haven’t taken many photos yet, because I am not quite done decorating. I hope to finish up this weekend.

And, I think I am going to wrap this up for tonight, and start making dinner.

Stay safe everyone! And whatever you do tonight, do something that makes you smile.

Our Week of Hygge

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized9 Comments

Good morning everyone! I hope that you all had a good week and that you enjoyed your holiday, if you celebrate. This morning I woke up to snow, which always makes me happy. I have a cup of coffee at my side, a cat next to me, and my guys are spread out over the den, Wyatt on the floor playing, and Billy on the sofa watching reels.

This week was our hygge week here. Wyatt and I had were taking it slow, just reading and doing art projects and baking. Some of that was more slow for Wyatt than me, but we had a very good week together.

Monday was mostly a reading day, which was amazing. I finished my book, A Fellowship of Bakers and Magic, and started a new one. I also finished my embroidery project that I was making for Wyatt. It came in a pack of three that were supposed to be all foxes, but Wyatt and I think it looks more like a wolf, one of his favorite animals.

Tuesday was all art projects.

First though, we had to gather pinecones! We went to a local park and scooted around under trees collecting pinecones that we thought looked perfect for our ornament project that I had planned. Once our pockets were full, we headed back home to get to crafting. Billy had made a quick template for us, then we cut out a few more, then Wyatt painted them in Christmas elf colors. Next he dribbled glitter glue over the pinecones and chose the color antennae. Then it was my turn. I had to wield the hot glue gun to get those pinecones to stay and to glue them sandwiched shut – and I burnt my fingers more than once! Once this was finished and everything was dry, Wyatt added the little happy faces, I turned it into an ornament, and voila! Done. Wyatt made one for each of his cousins, since as a homeschool kid he does not have a Secret Santa shop. I think these are cute and I think the girls will all like them. (he has four girl cousins!)

That wasn’t all though! It was the week of Thanksgiving after all, and he needed to do a classic, traditional type Thanksgiving project, right? So, he painted a mosaic turkey! I laid out the grid of blue painters tape, he painted the shapes, and when it dried we carefully peeled the tape off, added the face, and there was his little turkey. I actually really really love how it turned out.

These literally took all day, but it was a great time and I think he did a great job.

Wednesday Billy took the day off! He has worked like a beast the past two weeks and we have barely seen him, so we loved having him home with us! I had to bake pies for Thanksgiving, but before I got down to baking, we met my cousin and his girls for a little used book store shopping. We found some good deals, and Wyatt and Billy found a fun little reading fort where they shared a cookie.

After browsing and buying, we went home where I began my baking. My goal was three Nantucket Cranberry pies, and Billy had to work on his sourdough bread as well. I got to work, whipped out three pies, and then…noticed they looked weird. And then I tasted one. It tasted weird. Something had gone very wrong! So off to grocery store Billy went for more ingredients so I could start all over again. I finally finished at 9 that night, with much better pies this time around. And the problem with the first ones? I totally forgot the sugar!

Thursday – Thanksgiving! We finished up our food assignments that we were supposed to take with us, and headed to my brother’s house, where we ate way too much food, and talked and played and laughed. I spent a good deal of time with my nieces Mermaid Girl and the Hurricane, before we went to location number two, Billy’s family’s house, for dessert. I also hung out my two nieces there, Penguin and Flamingo. (lol I wish those were there real names! Ok I actually don’t because they have beautiful names but calling them that on here cracks me up).

I didn’t take a single photo yesterday. I was just in the moment and visiting and today? Today I am happy to be sitting here with my little family, snug in our house while the snow falls outside, our animals peaceful, with Miso purring next to me, and it is a perfect ending to this week that we have had.