Chocolate Box Cottage Diary Vol. 1
Week 51: December 25, 2021

Merry Christmas, friends! Hoping your Christmas is filled with the peace and joy that God gives. I want you to know that I count you among my blessings, whether we have met in person or not.

We celebrated Christmas Eve; since most of our kids couldn’t be here with us we simplified the holiday dinner to soup, salad, and homemade apple pie and it was delightful.

As a grader operator Sam is responsible for plowing snow to make the roads safe for holiday travelers. He leaves the house a little before 4 AM for the duration of this weather, even on Christmas. Now, enjoy some pretty pictures of Chocolate Box Cottage in the snow, and Merry Christmas and hugs to you!

Sam serves up the family favorite soup: Tuscan Kale and Sausage Soup for Christmas Eve dinner using a myrtlewood ladle, my Christmas present from Miriam. After dinner Sam read the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2 in the Bible. This is a cherished family tradition from the time when I was a little girl and my Dad would either read it or ask one of us kids to read it to the family.

I bought a special beeswax candle from our local beekeeping store to serve as a Christmas candle. At the end of each work day I light a candle to signal the shift from work to home. (This is really helpful if you work at home.) I’m sharing a peek at a very special ornament that my Mom painted for me when I was about 5 years old.

Homemade pies, complete with apple “ornaments.” I learned to bake pies using Crisco, as my Mom taught me, but have since switched to Butter Pie Crust. I rolled the pastry scraps and, using a small paring knife, created apple and leaf shapes, which I then “painted” with food coloring to decorate the tops of the pies. There’s nothing quite like homemade apple pie!

The garden sleeps beneath a cool, fluffy blanket of snow, while lemon trees and geraniums bask in the greenhouse. One small rooster braves the snow for breakfast; meanwhile, the Painted Desert sheep are unbothered by snow.

Tea and a new book with a view of the snowscape on Christmas morning. Miriam is thrilled with her new yellow hutch. She had her heart set on a yellow hutch to organize her art supplies and amazingly, God provided!

One out of five kids home for Christmas is very poor odds, but we made the best of it and had a very blessed and beautiful white Christmas anyway!