We’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving tonight on board the Queen Mary 2, out here in the wild North Sea, feeling very grateful! It’s been really hard to get anything up here on the blog, but for some reason, Twitter seems to be okay! I’m sure you’re too busy today to care . . . but I wanted to send Thanksgiving blessings to one and all. SO excited, we arrive in New York …
On Saturday . . . then it’s home sweet home. Wishing you all a wonderful Turkey Day! Thank you for being you. 💖
XOXOXO
So much respect for you stating your views on the absurd election !
Thank you for your courage.
Thank you Donna. You too.
Love how you always look on the positive and shed light on what truly matters! Love and Kindness always!
Welcome back, Susan! I am inspired by your love of home-making. The visuals, artwork and words are delicious. I have begun some of my own Christmas preparations, but want to keep it simple. I think the simple things are the hyggee-est 😘. Merry Christmas!
I like simple too, a little here, a little there, but I live in this house with Santa himself who needs the house to be in full Christmas workhouse mode! Gotta do what ya gotta go! Happy Hygging!
So happy you and Joe are home safe and sound. Sounds like a wonderful trip!
glenda
It was, thank you Glenda, I’ll be showing more of it in the future!
Merry Christmas to you and yours! Love your newsletter!
Welcome Home, Susan! Loved hearing just a bit about your trip & looking forward to reading more. Happy Holidays!
Love your style!
Welcome home, Susan! Always enjoy reading about your travels & wonderful finds along the way! Happy Holidays to you & yours!
Same to you Karyn!
You made me smile today and it was wonderful!
Love reading your blogs, so interesting. I also enjoy using your calendar every year.
Thank you for sharing with us! Love the art work too!
Merry Christmas,
Theresa
Susan,
It’s wonderful that you & Joe are back home.
Have loved reading your wanderings across the pond.
I enjoy reading your blog, Willards and keeping up with you.
Have a blessed Christmas & a New Year filled with happiness and good health!
Celebrate,
from another “1947” gal!!!
Thank you Elaine!
you must be thrilled to get home after your adventure,happy christmas to
you both-will we be seeing Joe in a kilt?
Nope, there was no way, the subject could not even be broached. This is a man who won’t even wear sandals. He knows what he likes, and believe me, that’s the way it’s going to be!
Thank you so much for sharing your entire trip with us . That was really fun and so inspiring. Also really enjoyed the new Willard. Now I want to start my 74 year life story. Hope I can learn from your books. Just finished Isle of Dreams and loved it. Thanks again.
I loved finding out how it all came together, writing about it truly helped! There’s insight in them pages!
So happy you & Joe made it home safely in this crazy world of ours right now!!
Your writing fillsl our hearts & minds with so many wonderful thought & ideas, it always makes my day better after reading your blog or an email I may have received from you.
Loved your Christmas “Willard”!!!
A very Merry Christmas to you & Joe & your Dad in heaven!!!!
Thank you! We send best wishes back to you and yours. xoxo
Sending a thank you for all the beauty😍
Love your heart.
💞
Joy and excitement. That’s what your writing make me feel.
Lovely compliment, thank you Terry. xoxo
Welcome home Susan! And thank you for always writing from your heart!
i just love you…and i think so often about your dreamy life…sigh. what an amazing life you lead…it truly is the stuff of faerie tales. welcome home.
Sometimes I feel like it’s a fairy tale too… almost always, but then the roof man calls with the estimate for the new roof! Fairy tale Crash, must rebuild! Bake cookies! xoxo
I still love all you write. Used to own a few books but had to sell them and everything i owned when i moved to Thailand. Now back in my home country and again had to sell everything unfortunately 🙁 Hope to get a better start in 2017 !! Wish you and yours a happy Christmas 🙂
Wishing you a shower of good luck dear Marian! xoxo
Rabbit, Rabbit. Happy December. Glad you are back. You have been missed. I can understand why you were away for awhile. My husband and I visited Scotland and England this past June for 10 days. It was not enough time to see all the beautiful places in those 2 countries. Hopefully, we will be able to go again. Can’t wait to see more of your photos. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and
peace on Earth to all.
No, now we have just gone for another 2 months, and STILL haven’t begun to see everything! But oooh-la-la for what we DID see! Did you get to Edinburgh? I don’t think I’ve ever been so impressed with a city. Normally, they all look the same to me!
Yes we did and I loved it too. Loved the architect of the old buildings covered in soot and the chimneys. We put a lot of miles on our shoes exploring the city.
Yes, the color of that city was amazing!
Welcome Home! I hope the snow falls soon for a tranquil respite on the island. Cheers to you and Joe!
Me too, very much looking forward to that winter white that’s bound to come!
I love your blog and books. Always enjoyed seeing you at Titcombs!
One of my favorite bookstores!
Welcome Home! Your books are a part of my Christmas tradition. Love the ideas and recipes!
Hello! Lovely post, as usual.
Welcome Home..
Hello Susan,
I am so glad you had a wonderful trip and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!
Just wondering if you have ever thought of creating cute pens with your artwork (and maybe adding some sparkles to them too!). I love having special pens to write with and they are so hard to find – would love to also give them as gifts! Thanks!
I’ve had them in the past…we may still have them in our webstore, ask Kellee or Sheri at customerservice@162.240.10.175/~susanbs3/susanbranch/ if there are any pens left and where you can look to see what they look like.
Great – thank you!
Hey Susan! My sister and I have been following you for years. We love all of your books, recipes, etc! I have your Christmas Memories book in my kitchen now as part of my holiday decorations. Glad you trip was fun and that you made it home safely. Merry Christmas to you and your family!
So enjoy reading your blogs and about your adventures via the Willard updates. Your drawings, books, ideas, etc. are delightful and make me smile. 🙂 Hope you will have a book tour that brings you to Tennessee sometime soon. Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas.
We were in Memphis just last June! Loved it and will come again!
How absolutely wonderful to sit down, shut everything else out and spend some cozy time reading your blog!! It’s a little bit of heaven in my otherwise hectic days.
Thank you so much for giving me these times of respite where I can be recharged!!
I love getting all your updates on your adventures!
I have been a fan since forever…. And wish you and your joe the best holiday season🎄
Your blogs since the election have been so on point emotionally and practically (CSPAN has become my go-to news source), and each one has provided the life affirmation that I’ve needed at the time. Never more so than today, as I struggle to get back to my peaceful center so that I can Be the Change I want to make. So as always, always, thank you so much, Susan.
Your comment makes up for any and all of the nay-sayers, thank you Gale for taking the time to tell me. Yay for CSpan and what they bring to the world with common sense and some sort of clear vision. Happy day to you and yours dear Gale. xoxo
Welcome home
Welcome home….Christmas love!
Lynda
Merry Christmas to you…and all your family. Welcome home! xoxoxo
love your Blog!
Welcome home, Susan and Joe. You have warmed my heart with your messages and art.
Happy Holidays!!
Happy Holidays from California!
Love Susan Branch!!!
XOXO Ramona!
Been away from the blog for a while, it’s nice to be back! Condolences on the loss of your dear father.
Thank you Fran. xo
What a wonderful way to take a quick break from today’s busyness! I perused Willard and so look forward to rereading him when time allows. Thanks so much!
Alice
I hope my sisters buy me the charms and cookbook.
Now it feels like the start of the Christmas Season!!!
Welcome Home!!
Love, love, love your calendars, cookbooks, and well….everything!!
About you dear Dad; when my husbands and son “passed” my mother sent me a poem about the loved ones being in a better place and one of the verses ended with:
“Please wipe away that tear,
for I am spending Christmas
with Jesus Christ this year.
Love all your wonderful stories of your trip. Please keep on going and keep the love in your heart and then all may learn how to participate.
Love everything here!
What a wonderful Willard. I feel like I am with you. So cozy and happy. I love all your pictures and art. Merry Holidays!
Welcome back! And happy holidays! 🎄 It’s true, my hygge is grilled cheese and tomato soup! Works every time! 😊❤️ Thank you for your beautiful books and blog and sharing your fairie tale life with us all!
Welcome Home!! So thrilled you will be catching us blog reading fans up to date on your trip. I so enjoy your posts…..especially at Christmas. Have fun decorating your home. xoxoxoxo
Hopeful!!!
Welcome home Susan & Joe! How you were missed! I know you had a wonderful time & will share it with us soon.
Your talent is amazing! And such a heart warming, smile inducing experience to read your stories.
Thank you!
Still enjoing all of or cookbooks from the past–the remain my favorites, and have cheered me through good times and bad.
Welcome back Susan! 🙂 Thanks for sharing all the news, tidbits, pics, beautifully painted/created bits of “you”, recipes & other goodies you so generously sprinkle on us.
And…Merry Christmas~
Hi Susan,
What was your favorite part of your trip? My husband and I went this summer to London,
Scotland and Ireland. My favorite was staying in and air bnb and having the wonderfulEnglish breakfast prepare for us every morning. We also loved the walks in
Country side.
Thank you.
I so enjoyed the Thanksgiving blog and thrilled to find a new Willard letter
in my email today. Following your trip to England was so much fun!
Welcome Home!!
A perfect hug for a dreary Dec day!Thank you!!!
I’m so pleased you are home, showing your lovely rooms and kitty. It just wasn’t quite the same following you around the UK on Twitter.
Welcome back, Happy Holidays, and thanks for sharing so graciously!♥
PS. I absolutely LOVE Jack!!♥
Welcome back Susan. So happy that you and Joe had a wonderful trip.
Wonderful!
Love reading your blog when I can find the time. Jan
There’s the rub! 😘
Love your blog, your books, all of it! Thank- you!!! I’m putting my husbands website – he is a Psychogist – & writes books about primary relationships, covering numerous topics. They are great!!!!! Have a Happy, blessed Christmas. Thanks for sharing the incredible things you do. Always look forward to hearing from you!
Forgot to say – I will use your many wonderful recipes for the holidays
Thank you for always inspiring a happy heart. May you and your family have a very blessed Christmas season and a happy and healthy 2017.
Oh how I miss my New England. Thank you for helping me feel like I’m there by reading your thoughts!
Welcome home Susan. I have missed your newsy letters!!
So lovely and warm
Your blogs are so inspirational and I love reading them. Glad you had a nice trip. I’d like to enter in your giveaway. So lovely for you to do. If I don’t win, do you have the bird in the cage for sale on your site??
Thanks
Jane
So happy to have the opportunity to win one of your beautiful books. Love your newsy posts, they remind me of letters from my mother.
Hi Susan, I came home after work and having a dead battery in my car to an email of Willard! Made my evening brighter! I get your Heart of the Home calendar every year.
Love your blog! I have Heart of the Home but not the one with Cranberry Cake in it. So disapointed, but I’ll copy the recipe from the latest Willard and add it to my book. Also have Vineyard Seasons which I was lucky enough to find at a book sale. Yippee for me!
That’s why I wanted to share it … I know some of you only have the old one. But I have to say, there are lots of wonderful new recipes in the newer version!
I received your e-mail today and enjoyed every bit of it. I then went to your blog where I noticed you are selling prints of the recipes that you published in the Country Living magazine. I was so excited because I have saved Fourteen of the recipes. I had planned to divide them and give them to my two daughters but I am now 82 and have yet to do that. Now I plan to frame them and do just that for Christmas this year. Thanks for getting me so excited again.
Your life’s work brings happiness to me! I’ve been collecting your books for twenty years and look forward to your beautiful illustrations and stories. I’ve also purchased your books as gifts dozens of times. I hope you have a beautiful holiday season and a wonderful new year!
Wonderful give away!
So happy you had a wonderful time on your trip and excited to hear more about it.
Welcome home to you and Joe! Looking forward to reading more about your wonderful trip! And Merry Christmas!
Grateful
A dear friend introduced you to me with one of your books several months ago, I am hooked! Now enjoying your blogs & feel like I’m on your trips with you. Reading this newest one is my special Christmas time for me.
Thank you
You are a treasure!
Always a joy!
Love getting your email and now coming to your blog to find what hygge means. Cozy is one of my favourite words! Greetings from Canada, Susan. And welcome home.
Shirley
So lovely hearing from You.I thought I had lost track of You.Good to know You went to England again and Scotland.I last heard from You when You were in Pasadena,seems ages ago now.How about taking Us to the dreamy English and Scotland Countryside with an art journal We can decorate and write in it Ourselves, but of course with Your photo’s, paintings and words added.A dreamy art or junk Journal we can use Ourselves.Maybe even for planning Our Own imagination trip and who knows, maybe some of Us will go on it for reals someday.
Thank you for another lovely Willard!
Dear Susan,
Having you back again leading us through your wonderful peaceful blog is such a welcome change from a very stressful election year. It always comes down to our friendships whether personal friends or friends like you from your blog. I share your blog with a long time friend and she always is so grateful for the time to sit with a cuppa tea and enjoy your blog. You are truly a lovely caring person. Thank you for what you bring to us.
Your books inspire me! Thank you!
I have followed you for years and never enter a new season without the appropriate book by my side. Have been on the Vineyard many times as dear friends have a home not far from you. Have a lovely photo taken 7/4/2013 of your beautiful flag hanging in glory over the front of your home. Welcome back to our bountiful shores, your trips adventure tails as delightful. Happy Holidays !
Welcome back. Glad you had a great trip. And Jack. I know he is so happy.
Oh how I love your blog and books! No house would be complete without a cozy stack of your books to loose oneself in on a rainy afternoon! You are the Christmas gift that keeps on giving! Have a peaceful holiday season and a very Merry Christmas!
I love to get your email in my inbox and letting me in to your life. It’s such a treat. I just visit England myself and loved every minute of it. Wishing you and yours a Happy Holiday,
Welcome home
I just adore when I open my email and there is a note from Willard. What a wonderful trip you had and how lucky that we got to share a little bit of it with you. I have been a fan for many many years. Thank you for sharing your positivity, talent and love with all of us. 🙂 Love, Mary
Love your blog. It brings calm to a sometimes crazy world.
I absolutely love the cookie jar of recipes!
Thank you for sharing such cheer. Some folks have difficult struggles to cope with and your beautiful spirit is a breath of fresh air !
Hmmm, posted a comment last night, but it must have thought I was in Scotland, because it’s not here this morning! I always enjoy your blog posts and Willard, too. Sheryl Baker
Harrumph. Gremlins!
So good to have you back, always enjoy your newsletter, and the wonderful photos of England. My oldest son took his daughter to England as a high school grad. gift this year end of May. Such wonderful photos. A trip that was planned upn her birth. I have sev. of your books. Have been to Martha:s Vineyard once end of May in 1991. Hopefully I can come againe someday.
Merry Christmas to you and Joe and the kitties
Dear Susan,
I have asked my friends and family to read your post election blog. It made sense and like a great movie, left a long lasting impression. As you said, it came from your heart and that is what matters. Thank you for being the person you are and for sharing your thoughts and talents with your “girlfriends”. You have made this world a better place!
I’ve read over all the comments from those blogs, you’re right, it’s like a movie, and those thoughts and comments, both positive and negative, told a wonderful American story. Thank you Cris. xoxo
Welcome back. Was thrilled to cone to your recent book signing in Pasadena and meet you and Joe. Have and love every book you have written and look forward to more!