News from the Nest, December 2

Happy December!

I feel as if I may have a wee bit of whiplash. Last week, I was all about preparing for our trip to celebrate Thanksgiving out of town: making pie crusts, gathering stuffing ingredients, and packing the harvest-themed plates and terra cotta napkins. We had a lovely Thanksgiving in Durham with our children and our son’s girlfriend. Coincidentally, a friend who lives in Pennsylvania was also in Durham for the holiday with her family, so we all gathered on Saturday to watch football!

We returned home yesterday, unpacked, and did the necessary laundry. Today, I’ll drape the mantle in evergreen boughs and hang Santa’s portrait over the fireplace. I also hope to decorate the faux tree and line up my nutcrackers on the transom window in the den today. I have much more decorating to do, so I’ll keep chipping away at it as quickly as possible so I can enjoy it as long as possible.

This is what the mantle looked like two years ago, I’ll do something similar this year.

A fire place sitting in a living room filled with furniture and a fireplace

Table of Contents

Most of my neighbors have fully decorated the exteriors of their homes, while I still have a big plump pumpkin and fall-colored echinacea blooming on my front porch. Clearly, I have work to do.

New on the Blog

Whether you’re a seasoned seamstress or just starting out, this step-by-step guide will help you create beautiful embroidered flannel Christmas stockings. The simple embroidery patterns add personalization and personality to your stockings.

If you’re a fan of tangy sourdough bread and crave the soft, nooks-and-crannies texture of English muffins, this Sourdough English Muffin Bread is the perfect recipe. With minimal effort and a little patience, you can create a versatile loaf that’s just as delicious toasted with butter as it is served with your favorite jam or honey. Its golden cornmeal crust gives it an authentic texture, making it a delightful addition to your bread-making repertoire.

Sourdough English Muffin bread with butter.

From the Knit + Crochet Studio

This Lattice Lace Baby Blanket Pattern creates a lovely, snuggly blanket knitted with machine-washable yarn. Read the tips for success when knitting this sweet blanket.

Blue Knit Lace Baby Blanket on White blanket.

Crochet a bookmark crafted with your favorite embroidery floss colors. This crochet bookmark pattern brings a touch of nature and whimsy to your reading routine and makes an excellent gift for your favorite bibliophile! And not for nothing, you can start and finish a bookmark in thirty minutes! With this quick and easy crochet bookmark pattern, you can quickly create a whole garden of colorful bookmarks!

From the Kitchen

Only good things happen when you make a cheese ball of cream cheese, goat cheese, and rosemary. And even better things happen when you spread ginger preserves over this cheese ball. This Rosemary and Goat Cheese Appetizer is an easy and foolproof recipe that will surely impress.

Goat Cheese and Ginger Preserves appetizer

With all the decorating, baking, shopping, entertaining, etc…, an easy, healthy, and hearty meal is all the more appreciated. This White Chicken Chili brings all the comfort food warmth and coziness without heavy cream or fat. If you have leftover turkey, go ahead and use that instead of chicken! (Guess what we are having for dinner tonight?)

Healthy White Chicken Chili in a white bowl.

This Turkey Soup is another simple and healthy meal that has the added benefit of helping you use up any leftover turkey. This delicious creamy turkey soup has a secret ingredient that gives it its creaminess—and it’s not cream or flour! Curious?

Use any leftover fresh cranberries in this Cranberry, Apple, and Banana bread. We thoroughly enjoyed two loaves over the holiday!

Sliced Cranberry Apple Banana bread on a cooling rack, with fresh cranberries sprinkled around.

A lightly spiced gingerbread cookie paired with pear caramel sauce makes this Linzer Cookie beyond delicious and unique. In the cookie hierarchy, this would be classified as a ‘bougie’ cookie; everyone needs a few bougie cookies in their repertoire.

On the other end of the cookie hierarchy are my Grandmother’s Pennsylvania Dutch Chocolate Cookies. Wholesome and chocolatey, these cookies have a hint of cinnamon, a chewy interior, and a crunchy exterior. They are a family favorite.

Dutch chocolate cookies with snowflakes drawn in icing.

Take a humble sugar cookie recipe, add a bit of edible metallic paint, and you have sugar cookies dressed up for a night on the town!

These Chocolate Sugar Cookies sandwich chocolate ganache and raspberry filling. Tie a ribbon around the cookie package to turn these filled sandwich cookies into darling little presents.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies that look like presents on a tray with a white box wrapped in a pink/red ribbon.

With their rich, velvety chocolate coating and the satisfying crunch of roasted almonds, these Chocolate Covered Almonds strike the perfect balance between sweet and nutty. Make up a batch and give as gifts to your friends and neighbors.

A Few Cyber-Monday Sales

Some of these links may be Amazon affiliate links and I may earn a small commission from the sale of these products to help defray the costs of operating this site, but the price you are charged is not affected. You can see my full disclosure policy here.

If you like Mrs. Meyer’s, some of their Christmas-scented hand soap refills are on sale. I just nabbed a refill of my favorite, Iowa Pine.
Swarovski Annual Edition 2024 Snowflake Ornament is 44% off.
23andMe Ancestry Service – DNA Test Kit is 50% off
Columbia Men’s Watertight II Rain Jacket is 25% off.
If someone on your gift list has Apple Beats Studio Pro headphones on their wishlist, they are more than 50% off today.

Holiday Gifting Ideas

Many of us are still searching for ‘the perfect gift’ for someone special on our gift list. Read through these articles; a few ideas might surprise and inspire you!

If you want to make a few gifts to give this year, check out this ever-expanding list of Handmade Gifts.

If you have young adults, new parents, or anyone on your list who needs to save money, check out this list of 28 gift ideas that will help them do just that!

Image of Meal Delivery box, rechargeable batteries, cloth napkins, dryer balls, coffee maker, and popcorn and movie night as examples of gift ideas that save the recipient money.

Download these free designs, cut them out, and add a wee bit of glue, and you will have charming Gift Envelopes in no time. The five different designs of these DIY Christmas Money Gift Envelopes make the gift of money much more festive.

Christmas Money Gift Envelopes on a tree

Last week, I shared the Thanksgiving wine tags, and because of a wrinkle in time, today we have Christmas Wine Tags to make the gift of a bottle of wine a little more special. Next week, I’ll share Easter Wine tags…😂JK!

Three bottles of wine with Christmas wine bottle tags, on a hutch with small lights.

Whether you knit, make, or bake a gift, attach one of these printable gift tags.

If, like me, you have wine enthusiasts or oenophiles (I just had to work that word in somewhere!) on your gift list, then this list of the 9 Best Gifts for Wine Lovers will be handy. These gift ideas reinforce the art and science behind wine and its enjoyment.

If you are stymied for a great gift idea for your dad, father figure, or other deserving guy, check out these mostly useful gifts for the men in your life.