HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM HIDDEN MEADOW

It feels like we say it more and more with each passing year.

“I can’t believe it’s Christmas next week!” Or “I can’t believe it’s almost 2020″, or ” I can’t believe it’s (insert any upcoming month or holiday)”.

As children, Christmas couldn’t get here fast enough, but these days it seems to steal up on me with increasing stealthiness. Honestly, what just happened? I could swear that just last week I was enjoying sunny days by the pool and dreaming about fences and barns and the whole host of things we want to do here on the farm.

Now here it is Christmas and we find our to-do list still monstrously long, our patience short at times (anyone who’s owned goats or a puppy, you get it). And our hearts full, for the most part.

It seems right and good that my Christmas post will go out after Christmas day–the lead up to, and few days over Christmas so full of family, laughter, impossibly delicious food and puppy cuddles. In fact, it was strange but refreshing to spend a few days hardly checking my phone at all. No photos, no posts, just soaking in sweet time together.

Now here we are for a brief two days back at Hidden Meadow before we zip up to NYC for New Years Eve to take in some holiday sparkle and see my best friend Eleni who is in town visiting family. (She’s flown in from Cyprus so you better believe I can make a six hour drive into the city) We’ll be staying in our sweet CO friend’s apartment near Columbia and Central Park. They are out of town for the holidays and have generously opened their doors for us to stay in their home.

So what’s new? Well buckle up for a LOT of cute puppy pics later in the blog, but first let’s talk about the home. Tim tackled a quick refresh of the downstairs bath as it will become our only bathroom soon with the extensive upstairs bath remodel on the docket. What was meant to just be fresh paint and new fixtures became a little more in depth as we discovered upon pulling off some random trim in the corners that the walls weren’t properly joined up and were sporting some rather alarming gaps. Aha. THIS must have been one of the entry points for those blasted stink bugs.

So of course, just replacing the trim and forgetting about the giant holes was not an option. Tim skillfully sealed up all the gaps before painting the walls and ceiling for me. I love the way the mistake color (BM Sea Salt) came out. Its warm but modern and fresh. Tim also wired in a new light, and plumbed in a new faucet. He’s becoming quite the handy man and I love it.

I mean, that’s a huge gap. Just knowing that the stinkbugs can no longer marshal their troops through here fills me with quiet satisfaction and deep joy.

Who doesn’t love those sexy 90’s glass cubes? Amiright? No they’re not great, but the filtered light they let through isn’t the worst.

Love the wall color against the white ceiling and the wood beams. Just yes. We also added a new shower head and towel hook. Details matter and I love this little cast iron hook.

So that’s the bathroom for now. The bigger projects down the road will be tiling the shower and picking one of the THREE wall textures to be the only texture. Currently we have smooth, a rough stucco look and my fave: popcorn.

We rushed to get the bathroom ready for our many gatherings this month. My sister, her husband and my nephew all stopped in for a visit on their way home from a Connecticut Thanksgiving. It was so nice to tromp through the woods, show off our town a little and of course play games. Our rescue cat took a special shine to my nephew Gideon. I’m hoping they decide to offer him a forever home soon so our poor Maine Coons Atticus Finch and Oscar can focus all their hatred on their adorable new puppy sister. More on that later.

Also this month we hosted Christmas parties for the VMI Women’s Rugby team that Tim coaches, and his International Studies department at VMI. Entertaining in a new space is always fun. You see how well the space flows and accommodates a crowd and having a party is always a great excuse to go a little above and beyond with the decorating. Both events had 15-20 people and our space managed reasonably well. Thankfully the weather was good both days which helped, and bonus no one got lost on the way out here!:)

My food table got a homemade victorian dressing with local hemlock and cedar branches, winterberries from the pasture, and oranges with cloves. It was fragrant and festive and cost me nothing except for the oranges and cloves which I had left over from my mulled wine. Tim’s cathedral sculpture that he created in high school proved a lovely addition to the window decor especially with twinkle lights woven through the branches below. Fun fact, the teacup candle in the center was a left over favor from our wedding. We poured the wax ourselves into assorted teacups we scavenged from local thrift and antique stores. It was fun to bring it out now 10+ years later for part of our Christmas decor.

This is only part of the spread, we had a LOT of food. I rolled out my baked brie with cranberry and apricot, bacon wrapped dates, mulled wine, and cranberry meatless meatballs. (so good!) I also tried a new recipe this year for soft gingerbread cookies (bottom right). I was so pleased with how they turned out I think they’ll become a holiday staple.

We kept the decor simple, natural fibers of burlap, denim and evergreen, and of course threw the buffalo plaid in there as well as it just so happens to match our adorable new puppy. Speaking of. Let’s talk about little Islay (eye-luh) named after the Scottish island in honor of her Scottish lineage, and its a place we both fell in love with last year on our 10 year anniversary tour.

Islay will be 11 weeks old on Monday and is now more popular and beloved by our families and friends than we are. We get it. She’s pretty great. Now yes potty training is not a walk in the park, and she’s teething, and has SO much energy. But she’s also the sweetest, and the smartest (she knows sit and lie down already, working on shake and roll over now).

We took her down to Tennessee for Christmas and she got to meet our families and experience a new farm with a very large goat (my quarter horse Ama). She was excellent with the little kids and all the new animals. She even won over Vegas, my mom and Roger’s Belgian Malinois and they became the best of friends by the time we had to leave on the 27th.

The weather was a ridiculous 65 and sunny. So we all headed outdoors for most of the day to play together. I love few things as much as introducing my nieces and nephews to the joy of horses and horseback riding. Niece Haley is fearless and always game for a ride. Afterwards she and nephew Luke came down to help feed and muck stalls. Just the best.

How cute is nephew Ryker here with his overalls and wellies? I can’t even.

My mom made her famous orange rolls, think homemade cinnamon rolls but with orange zest to brighten and lighten them, so you can eat oh about 12 before you realize the irreparable damage you’ve just done to your arteries.

On boxing day* we headed over to Tim’s sister’s new home: a lovely ranch on 5 acres with so much room to run and play for their four girls, and the prettiest sunsets around. Islay was again the star of the show all day and loved giving kisses and cuddles to each of the nieces.

*A ‘Christmas Box’ in Britain is a name for a Christmas present. Boxing Day was traditionally a day off for servants and the day when they received a ‘Christmas Box’ from the master. The servants would also go home on Boxing Day to give ‘Christmas Boxes’ to their families.

This Christmas our gifts to each other from our families leaned more to the practical which was just what we needed. I was honestly thrilled to receive some thermals and carhart gloves. Tim received flannels, a chainsaw and a shotgun. Now I’ll save our thoughts on guns for another post, but just know that this is the first gun we’ve ever owned and while so grateful for the gift, I brought it home with just a little unease. But it’s pretty much a necessity living on a farm as inevitably you’ll have to protect your critters from predators, and for that peace of mind, I am grateful. BIL Steve took Tim and brother Matt out for some target practice with the new gun at the farm.

I’ll leave you with one final photo in this photo-full blog. This month has been busy and overwhelming and stressful, and I think we’re all used to chalking that up to the holidays. We all take hurry and stress as a badge of honor, but is it supposed to be that way?

Every once in awhile, I think God tries to shake us out of our busyness, slow us down, get us to look up at the sky, the stars, feel the breeze and the grass between our toes. He did that for me this month by painting the sky with a beautiful rainbow over our pastures. He is faithful, He is enough.

Until next year friends.