Christmas Tea at Cindy's

🎶O Come All Ye Faithful🎶

Cindy, Chris, Carol, and Cathy gathered at Cindy's house for this year's Christmas Tea.  Edie, unfortunately, was unable to join us because her husband was in the hospital recovering from surgery.  

Cindy's house was decorated for Christmas. . . .

Christmas Tea at Carol's

🎶We Wish You a Merry Christmas🎶 

The Take Joy Society got together yesterday for a Christmas Tea at Carol's house.  Here is her lovely table set for our festivities.....

Hygge

“To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty,
a picture which was never seen before and which shall never be seen again.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

🍁For those of you who follow Morning Musings you know that I spent a week in the English countryside last May.  Walking on the Lake District paths along moss-covered stone walls, through pastures of sheep and cows, over hill and dale had a profound affect on me.  I've always loved being outside.  Whether it's hanging clothes on the line, gardening, or hiking in the woods, I've always felt it to be a place I belonged.  The first thing I do in the morning is open the blinds and whenever I can I open the window to my bedroom bringing the outdoors in.

🍁Upon my return from England I began seeing articles, blogs, and books on the value of getting close to nature and realized I needed to be even more intentional about it.  I was introduced to Emma Mitchell's blog, Silverpebble, through Twitter and am excitedly awaiting her newest book, The Wild Remedy:  How Nature Mends Us - A Diary, due out in January.  About it she writes:

This is a diary of the curative effect of my walks in green places & is full of my illustrations. I hope it will encourage others to get outside.

❤️ of the Home - December

❤️ of the Home - November

Susan Branch's illustrations capture Autumn at its best.  By November Autumn is well on its way to becoming winter in the northern climes.  We start thinking about Thanksgiving, making our menu, preparing bedrooms for our guests. . . .

❤️ Of the Home - October

❤️ of the Home - September

❤️ of the Home - August

❤️❤️A monthly post dedicated to Susan Branch❤️❤️

Growing herbs is fun because you can grow them in pots near your kitchen door. . . .

Norwegian Get-Together

Yesterday we met at member Chris's home to get a taste of Norway--a country she has visited several times and from which her ancestors migrated.  We started the afternoon with cold cantaloupe soup--especially refreshing since the temperature was in the 90s. . . .

❤️ of the Home - July

 July 4th is a BIG holiday in America--our Independence Day.  It represents all that we hold dear about America--our freedoms for ALL.  Susan proudly hangs her flag. . . .

❤️ of the Home - June

June is the month you get out of prison--otherwise known as school.  Even as a parent I looked forward to the end of the school year so that I could have my children home with me.  What I didn't look forward to was the heat and humidity.  Susan Branch writes about how she dealt with hot summer days when she was a child. . . .

❤️ of the Home - April

Now that March winds have simmered down we can look forward to April showers bringing May flowers. . . .

❤️ of the Home - March

March is a transition month.  It's the month that can't make up its mind between Winter and Spring!  Susan Branch's March 2017 calendar page encourages us to keep a diary, which is a good way to deal with fickle March because it gives us a way to express our feelings. . . .

❤️ of the Home - February

    

          

February is the L❤️VE month because of Valentine's Day.  Susan Branch shares her recipes for a romantic dinner for two HERE.  Click on the recipe title to go to it.

Great Britain Adventure Get-Together

The Take Joy Society met this month at Edie's cabin to experience a British afternoon tea followed by a slideshow of her visit to England and Wales last September.  Edie shows us the box of Yorkshire tea she brought back from England. . . .

❤️ of the Home - January

How do you bring in the new year?  This year on the first of each month I'm featuring Susan Branch's ❤️Heart of the Home❤️ sensibilities using illustrations and quotes from her calendars and books.  She is an author/illustrator, and whether she intended to be or not, a lifestyle maven for her many followers, affectionately known as Friends of Susan Branch (F.O.S.B.)   She keeps in touch with her "friends" via her BLOG, FACEBOOK page, and TWITTER.  Do not be surprised if she responds to your comments because she values hearing from us all.  You will soon feel as though you ARE a friend!

Besides her many cookbooks and memoirs she has calendars, scrapbook pages/stickers, journals, stationery, and a host of other things which can be found HERE on her website's shopping page.  And while you're at her website print out this year's Full Moon Bookmark found on her FREE STUFF page. . . .

Italian Adventure Get-Together

The Take Joy Society gathered at Cindy's house yesterday to see the pictures from her trip to Italy in September. . . .

Simple Abundance - November

Simple Abundance

November is the pause between Autumnal color and Winter white in many parts of the country.  It can look bleak and dreary oftentimes.  Perhaps that's why November was chosen to celebrate Thanksgiving--to give us something to look forward to that encourages us to be grateful for what we already have.  It is also a time to gather family near and far and celebrate the bond of kinship.  I've hosted Thanksgiving for so long that the few times we've been invited to another's home it just did not feel like Thanksgiving to me.  Tradition carries with it heart memories.

My menu is always the same except I like to try different vegetables every year.  Sometimes I add soup.  I also like to vary the way I make the sweet potatoes.  I've not changed the Sausage Sage Dressing or Shaker Corn Pudding I've made for many years now.  I've always made Heavenly Hash (also known as Ambrosia) and pumpkin pie--two things my mother always made.  And of course the Turkey!  But we did try Splatch-cock Turkey one year.  Since this is the only time of year we have a whole turkey, it is special.  I love making the table look festive and always use the tablecloth I made many years ago.  Last year I added name tags with my own illustration. . . .

As a young child we always went to Mamaw's and Papaw's farm in Mississippi for Thanksgiving.  I remember going along to pick out the turkey at a farm down the road.  There were always lots of cousins to play with.  By the time I was a teenager we'd moved north and we'd usually go to my other set of grandparents.  One Thanksgiving, however, my mother hosted her parents and four siblings and their families.  There were cousins galore that Thanksgiving.

This month Sarah Ban Breathnach suggests these Joyful Simplicities from "Simple Abundance". . . . 

🦃   Write your own personal grace and offer it for the first time on Thanksgiving.

🦃   Fill a basket of food and take it to a shelter the day before Thanksgiving.  If you have children, let them help you shop, load the basket, and deliver it with you.

🦃   Don't rush out the day after Thanksgiving to do holiday shopping with the rest of the world.  Instead, make a pot of homemade turkey vegetable soup, write out a shopping list for the Christmas pudding ingredients, create an Advent wreath, and start listening to holiday music.

The Thanksgiving before my mother died I had everyone write what they were thankful for on the back of an artificial leaf.  I put them in an arrangement that I bring out each year.  Her leaf is always there to remind me of that Thanksgiving.

We often still have family the day after, but once they leave I will start thinking about Christmas.  I'll put away my autumn decor and bring out the winter things.  Then I'll start making lists of what needs to be done when for Christmas.

If you need a Turkey Soup recipe here is one I posted last year from Mary Mason Campbell's book, "The New England Butt'ry Shelf".  Drag it to your computer desktop to print. . . .

What about you?  Do you have Thanksgiving traditions?  Would you rather host the dinner or let someone else host it?  Do you have any special memories from your childhood Thanksgivings?

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Take Joy!

August Celebrations

Mary Mason Campbell writes in "The New England Butt'ry Shelf Almanac," illustrated by Tasha Tudor, that, "A day in August is the day to go blueberrying.  A full lunch basket, a blue sky and soft breeze, and a favorite blueberry pail are the only requisites."  She goes on to say, "A farmer's wife once told me, 'Blueberryin' is just like miklin' a cow; you pull the berries off the branch just the same way.'  A bunch of twenty-five or thirty blueberries is a good handful to grasp and pull with a quick gentle motion that does not tear the berries."

Ms. Campbell gives us her recipe for Blueberry Jam. . . .

For many of us Blueberry picking season is over, so I'm also including her Summer Squash recipe. . . .

In "A Time to Keep" Tasha Tudor tells us August was the month to celebrate her daughter, Bethany's birthday.  But it is also her own birth month.  This year we celebrate the anniversary of her 101st birthday on the 28th. . . .

The big surprise at the end of the day was the birthday cake floating down the river. . . .

Bethany's birthday celebration was delightfully told in Tasha's book, "Becky's Birthday". . . .

In Tasha's "Around the Year" August is the signaling of the end of summer. . . .

 It was also a time to do some canning of summer's bounty. . . .

This concludes my year of monthly celebrations with Tasha Tudor.  

The Take Joy Society is taking a break from our monthly activities as we gather around one of our members whose husband is under treatment for a serious illness.  

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Take Joy!

July Celebrations

Illustrated by Tasha tudor

Mary Mason Campbell writes in her book, "The New England Butt'ry Shelf Almanac" illustrated by Tasha Tudor, "On the Fourth of July, we tug at the bell rope in the barn and put up the flag to wave in the hot breeze, remembering that after John Adams signed the Declaration of Indepen- dence on the first American Fourth of July, he wrote his wife Abigail that he hoped Americans would always make this day one of rejoicing and merry- making.  We follow his wishes willingly."

Ms. Campbell tells us that the Fourth of July signals the start of the clambake season in Rhode Island.  Here is her recipe for Clam Fritters. . . .

Drag to computer desktop to copy

Tasha Tudor shows us how her family celebrated in her book "A Time To Keep" with the traditional firing off of fireworks as well as watching them being set off at the fairgrounds in the village from the vantage point of their high pasture.   A picnic on a little island in the Black River reached by canoe was also part of their celebration. . . .  

In Tasha Tudor's "Around the Year" she celebrates the 4th of July. . . .

When I was a child we'd always go to my grandparents' farm to celebrate the 4th.  The cousins would be there and we'd have sparklers and firecrackers.  The cats would hide under the porch and us girls would cover our ears.  Watermelon and homemade ice cream could be counted on being a part of our celebration. . . .

How did your family celebrate the 4th of July when you were growing up?

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Take Joy!