Hello Darling People! HAPPY NEW YEAR! End of the year, time to wish everyone all the sparkle, cozy, and love our beautiful world can provide✨💖🌟💫🧨, and if you don’t feel the world is providing, which can be most noticeable this time of year, then my darlings, you must never forget that God made us with all the power to provide for ourselves. Do what must be done.☄️ MUSICA. 

Hot bubble baths, warm slippers, favorite books, naps with a cozy blanket, a furry petty-pet to cuddle with, musica, potato pancakes, fresh air and nature, a healthy respect for gratitude, and your very own thought processes, these are the gifts you can give yourself.💝 You will love them. Such fun unwrapping. And from me to you, an end-of-the-year, get-ready-for-a-new-beginning

I’m actually writing you from my old Studio on Martha’s Vineyard, in my old House, where we are to celebrate Christmas (the house hasn’t sold yet, so why not!) and bring in the New Year!!! Seems like old times!🎄

It’s freezing on Martha’s Vineyard ~ I’m even wearing fingerless gloves … my darling nuns sent me that heavenly wool plaid blanket you see across my lap and wrapped around my legs ~ I love it ~ it’s keeping me cozy and warm, along with the six layers of everything else. And it makes for great naps! When I hold still for a long time, I get cold, but I have Mother Seraphima to keep me warm. I wrote about our visit to Mother Seraphima, the Holy Nativity Convent, and how we met quite a long time ago (“The True House of Creativity”), and we have stayed heart-sisters ever since.💖

I have been nurtured by the very best.♥️ And feeling pure gratitude.💞 

Joe brought me LUNCH!! Kale soup and homemade sourdough bread that was actually left here by my darling girlfriend Martha. Bountiful bounty!!!♥️♥️♥️ SO! I promised you some pictures of our cross-country Amtrak train-trip in our room with a view . . . so here goes . . .

Here we are, just leaving home, waaaay back on December 8, seems like months ago! A lovely start with the sun coming up outside our train window, speeding along next to the Pacific Ocean on the first leg of our trip, from San Luis Obispo to Los Angeles . . . Look at that fog bank! Nature is just insane with beauty, and so fun to watch slide by from a train window. The whole trip went so well, right on time, funny train people, interesting dinner partners in the Dining Car, heat worked, hot-water showers were good, and of course, the view of America . . . 

In LA we transferred to the Southwest Chief for the two-day trip from LA to Chicago … changing terrain is always wonderful to see, from sunny big city and palm trees, to hillsides covered with  windmills, to dirt roads to nowhere that make you curious, who, what, why, where, and when!🤔

The changing view turns panoramic in the dining car, while eating the BEST French toast, the train winds through brown corn fields, past barns, farmhouses, through small towns, across Main Streets alive with twinkle lights, our train whistle blowing . . .a most romantic to travel!

As usual we brought everything to make us cozy, including my pillow, and oranges from our California orange tree . . . no scurvy for us on this trip!😊

 … we had our tea kettle and our cups (which we wanted anyway for when we got back to our ransacked house ~ which we personally ransacked when we packed up ~ Our California house holds only a third of what the old house held, so I got to take ⅓ of everything, which I actually loved!) and our favorite tea ~ Joe likes Lipton with lemon, oranges and sugar. For me it’s my “Fine Romance” loose tea, with honey and milk … Yup, we brought it all and made it a morning celebration. If you do this, don’t forget to bring a short extension cord for your tea kettle! But remember they DO have coffee accessible from your train room. Unfortunately it’s Starbucks,🙀 too bitter for my tender taste buds, but fine in a pinch.🤓 (PS, we still have those Santa Cups in our store! I just found out! I thought they were all gone!)⭐️

We made ourselves cozy while sugar plums danced by our window, snowy cottages and Christmas lights blurred by speed . . .

We wound our way through the bright lights of Chicago, put on our hats and gloves for the freezing walk from the train into the station to wait for the overnight train to Boston on the Lake Shore Limited, heading for Woods Hole where we would catch the ferry boat to take us home . . 

And here we are . . .! We drove our rental car onto the ferry for the 45 minute ride, went upstairs for coffee in the snack bar, and here’s the view from our table . . . you can see the beginnings of the island there on the left . . .

So excited! . . . getting our first view of Vineyard Haven Harbor since last August!

Joy! How could it be any other way ~ we’re there!! On go the coats and hats . . . as we drive off past  . . .

. . .this, the ferry ticket office, officially welcoming us home to Christmas on the island! MUSICA

And an almost full moon to greet us as we backed into our driveway. You know we only “moved away” 4 months ago, but thinking this was probably the very last time we would be staying here touched a crazy bone in our bodies! The house was dark when we got there, but it has been lit up every night since. Our way of saying “Hello, we’re Home!” to the neighborhood!🥰

I have taken so many photos of our lit up house! My friends tell us it’s been sad to see it so dark. Even the moon was helping us this night. (When we leave on the 5th of January, we’re leaving timers on some of the lamps to make for a smoother transition to the next lucky people to live here.) We’ve been making up for lost time, that’s for sure, doing all the things of the season and seeing everyone we love.💝

Our walk … as so many of you know (because you’ve been coming along with us since my Willards began and have seen it in every weather) we started going here to walk around 1990 … we’ve listened to so many books out here that very often now, the characters show up to walkk with us! My favorite are the ones from the magical book, Wind in the Willows . . . and I’m thrilled when Dickens makes an appearance. (Which he does, not only on our walk, but at almost every party we’ve attended while we’ve been home ~ that’s another thing I love about this place ~ it’s all here, all the history, the old houses, very much like it was when Dickens was alive ~ this year our house saw its 185th Christmas, 35 of those years belonging to us.💝 The gift of a lifetime. If we turn off the lights (except for the Christmas Tree), make a fire and light all the candles, it can look and feel very Olde English, complete with snow and plum pudding!)♥️ 

Lately we’ve been reading The Alice Network. Really good, time travels between WWI and WWII in the lives of women spies, we only have an hour and a half left! Don’t tell me how it ends!📖

But our first day out we went bookless. We wanted to talk, listen to the wind, feel the feels, delight out loud in the magic of this place we’ve decided that someday we will haunt. Since we love it the most, we claim it. And when we do our haunting, our prayer is that we meet everyone here we’ve known and loved for all these years. What a total treasure it has been.♥️

Here’s my boy, bringing in the holly from our trees! We couldn’t wait to make Christmas in our house.🎄 I started checking around for all the red things we left behind, 📕🍎🌹♥️ added some poinsettias too. 

We’ve had a fire most every day  . . . The house comes alive when  candles are lit and there’s a fire burning.🔥

I thought we might not get a tree this year because we were trying to “keep it simple” ~ but here he is, Father Christmas, tree on top of the car, Christmas flowers in hand, and mini cokes for a guest at our Christmas dinner. 🎆 🎵🎶 May your days be merry and bright . . . .🎶🎵

We drove into Edgartown just after the yearly “Christmas in Edgartown” weekend …they weren’t keeping it simple either ~ the town was quiet, but decorated and lit-up to the nth degree, every store, even the bank! I’m sure it brought out the child in everyone!

Such an elegant town! We went to Alchemy, there on the corner, with old friends for our traditional once a year dinner.♥️

Our town looked wonderful too, frosted like a Christmas cake . . .

This is our old movie theater, the Capawok, opened in 1913 in the days of silent movies! The stories this theater can tell! This is where I first heard that two of our friends were getting married! I still see the bride-to-be, her eyes lit up, running up the aisle toward us! It becomes a Christmas market this time of year with handmade things from all over the world!

How’s THIS for scary driving, me and my girlfriend Martha, on our way to Annie’s for a TGIF ~ she’s driving about 2 miles an hour, we’re laughing ourselves silly at how ridiculous this was ~ snow coming at us in long streaks making it very difficult to see. Nature’s fireworks! Luckily we had a very short drive. But, this is one of my favorite sights on dark snowy nights when driving. Something you never see in California! Luckily I have it memorized!💞

We pulled up right in front of Annie’s little cottage, so we could carry in our wine and snacks without slipping in the driveway and killing ourselves. Overcoming one disaster after another to hang with our girlfriends! Totally worth it! My favorite thing about this beautiful island is my GIRLFRIENDS, and the very next thing is the CHARM!!! Because that’s what it is!♥️

They are the gift that keeps on giving. We all take turns having TGIFs which we’ve been doing since the ’90s ~ I’m having one tomorrow! On New Year’s Day👏 ~ but we just LOVE Annie’s cozy fireplace! Can you imagine the years of stories told here, the fun, the laughter? The food? It’s been 30 years of heaven! Everyone wanted to know who’s watching what … Bad Sisters won! If you haven’t seen it, do! You’ll love it! (Apple TV+). We even cried at the end! And now I have a whole new list of things to watch!👏 I also learned, among other things, that the very BEST socks are made by a company called Darn Tough, and you get them on Amazon! If they grow a hole in them, they will replace them!!! Guaranteed for life! Isn’t that great?💝💝💝 I love Girl Talk, always have, and always will.💖

I also love Annie’s tiny kitchen ~ had to show it to you. Annie lived in London for years and years, very apparent in the cozy way she decorates! Her couch was given too much kitty love 😽, just like the couches belonging to the rest of us.💞

And despite everything, all the love I have for this place, I love our home in California too. I miss my kitty SOOO MUCH. Kitties have always been my best decorations!😿

The house, once we got it all together,  looked like we never went away . . . It was fun “redecorating” ~ you know how much I love it! And with mostly empty rooms, all we really had to do was add RED! ♥️

Surprising what a few roses and poinsettias can do . . .

I set the table for Christmas Dinner . . . had to borrow cutlery from Elaine, but we found a good assortment of glasses we left behind, all the red Copeland Spode dishes are still here ~ I had two sets of napkins to chose from. One has “I scream, you scream, we all scream, for ice cream” embroidered on them. Not very Christmasy. But the other set were for backyard dinners, there were black ants embroidered on them. So I chose screaming for ice cream over bugs. And I only had 10 of those, but there were 12 for dinner, so Joe and I got linen dresser scarves for napkins! It all worked! It was the people on the chairs that mattered anyway!

IMG_8860  Dinner was fantastic! Everyone brought something! Joe made roast beef and gravy, I made spinach salad with apples and pomegranate seeds. The most fun was the lighting of the plum pudding Lowely brought … note we have readied ourselves for the inferno by placing the fire extinguisher on the sideboard, everyone is leaning away from Joe and what we imagined could be imminent danger! But Joe did it! Nothing blew up, next year we might get even MORE reckless, and it was DELICIOUS! (click on that link for live action at the table!) It has been such a good trip. We haven’t stopped connecting with our history here. More today, tomorrow, and all days until it is time to go.💖💖💖

My mom was with us at this long-ago Christmas dinner, and the moms of two of our friends were there too, and the children in this picture are all grown up with kids of their own . . . the echoes of this Christmas and all the rest will live here and in our hearts forever . . . a person can’t help but remember at this time of year, all of the wonderful joys of her life.💝 MUSICA! (My friend, Kate Taylor, James’ amazing sister . . .🎵👩‍🎨🖼️)

 I have so many photos, this post could perhaps never end! It could be more of “Our Family Vacation” than it already is. But this picture above captures the essence. The being together, catching up with everyone, one lovely dinner after another, potlucks, cocktail parties, visits, walks, going to the MV Museum to hear Margot Datz, Girlfriend extraordinaire, talk about her art (yes! She made the skirt!), the hugs and kisses good night under cold starry skies, naps under my blanket with TCM to lull me to sleep, drives around the island to look at the lights (and watch the ferry go), and even a touching memorial for our friend’s darling dad, Jim Norton, beloved island mainstay (look closely at the beautiful old church built in 1883), with Jim’s inspiring words and favorite quotes related by his family, like this, one of my favorites too

“Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,

The world is too full to talk about ideas, language, even the phrase “each other” doesn’t make any sense.

Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing, there is a field.

I’ll meet you there.”

♥️Rumi

 

I couldn’t possibly leave without showing you Ripper. This is my girlfriend Elaine’s dog … remember Elaine? I wrote about her in Fairy Tale Girl. She and I have been friends since we met in 1971, she was my boss at the time, and had a dog then named Boxcar. Her newest baby is this good boy here.💝

Here we are this wonderful Christmas home. The least judgmental of dear friends. Whatever we choose to do is okay with us, with love, forever. And that does include never letting go. 💝

So, I come bearing gifts to help celebrate 2025! The first? Your yearly “Full Moons Bookmark.” No, I didn’t forget . . . and you can depend on Kellee to make sure that never happens! Just click on it and follow the directions, and voila! It’s yours. Makes a good gift for kids and grownups alike.🌝

Another gift for your mom, your aunt, sister, or BFF ~ is a subscription to this blog ~ it’s free, and mostly all good news, and in this day and insane age, all good news? Is what we need! Subscribe in the upper right corner of this page. It’s so much easier to sign up than it used to be!! And my blog will be delivered into your box whenever there is a new one!💌

Goodbye for now. Check in with me at dearsusanbranch on BlueSky for photos of our train trip back to California!🚂 We leave on Sunday on the 6am Boat! My darling Joe and I, out of the snow and freezing we’ll go, noses pressed to the windows in our room with a view, from the mountains to the prairies, to the ocean white with foam, more sunrises and sunsets, until home, JACK💃🏼, garden, 66º, and who knows what? It’s a new beginning!👏 Happy happy 2025 my forever friends!💞 Prayers for peace, love, and connection. Let’s you and I meet you in that field, of no judgement and forever love.💞