Hello everyone!! I hope you are all having a wonderful December so far! Things here are beginning to look like Christmas. Snow outside, our indoor decorations are up, I have some Christmas homeschool in the works, and we have been watching Christmas movies.

My grandma made that white tree. It had reddish orange bulbs before, but I replaced them with clear lights and I like it better. I do need to replace the star that was at the top. I think I can find them on Amazon, more than likely.

That little Christmas tree, the green one, is covered in ornaments that Wyatt and I have made together every year since he was old enough to help. I need to pick an ornament for us to make together this year still, but I love this little tree.

I have been hiding little bits of Christmas places this year. A little teapot ornament with mice tucked in among the plants on the sill, a tree ornament from 1978 on a shelf near my books. I like running across these little bits of the holiday as I go about my day.

I decked my dresser all out this year as well, with Christmas books and a plaid wool runner, and my vintage Regency Christmas romance books. The stuffed Highland Cow was a gift from my son this year; I have named him Sir Reginald, as he looks like a down on his luck member of the gentry.

I am not quite done decorating, but I am so close.

This area is a little blah still, so I want to add some greenery to it.

The tree is Wyatt’s favorite, hands down. He loves when the tree goes up, and loves helping to decorate it. I love our assortment of ornaments. We have more than we can put on, with many leftover from my childhood, and from life before Wyatt, really. So we try to do a mix, some childhood, some Billy and Erin pre-Wyatt, then the ornaments we collected when he was born.

I even decorated Miso, much to her annoyance.

I took the hat off after the photo, and she forgave me. She got all cuddly and warm and purred away, which is always nice in the winter isn’t it, a nice warm cat on your lap?

We watched A Garfield Christmas the other night, and there is a scene that touches my heart and makes me tear up so much now, as an adult.

I am not quite done decorating, but I am so close.

We also watched Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, which is one of my own personal favorites, and Wyatt is beginning to love it too. Billy, he tolerates it for me, but we do have our own little jokes that we say to each other all year from the movie. We watched it last night, and I wanted to make it a whole thing. So we set up the den all snuggly and cozy, and I had a little plate of Christmas treats, goodies like cinnamon stars and almond windmills and vanilla peppermint pretzels. It was magical.

I have some other posts coming up, but I thought this would be a good one to kick things off.

Happy Holidays everyone.

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:

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A post shared by Erin B (@foxandfirthco)

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!