HELLO from Christmas Island!!! Look how HAPPY I am!!! That’s because (and not at all discounting my daily dose of delicious anti-anxiety medicine (Lexapro for inquiring minds)) I started after 
Covid and worry-about-the-world almost did me in 😃, but I digress) ~ I’m happy for many reasons as you will see below, but first, THIS: my girlfriend Martha’s brilliant husband WROTE a brand new CHRISTMAS SONG.💖 Who DOES that? He’s usually so normal! It’s a totally original song 🎹, and I do believe you are the first audience to hear it! In fact, this is the only place on earth where you can hear it! He let me because we are old friends who live across the street, and when he sang it for us, before he’d even had it professionally recorded, I immediately thought of you!💞 “They’ll love this” I said. He didn’t even try to resist my begging ~ and graciously said, “Of, course, I’ll send it to you! That’s why I wrote it!” 💖💖💖💖💖
Here we go, this is it . . . The Mistletoe Waltz!
Perfect for Jane Austen movies! Right? Can’t you see Mr. Darcy dancing with Elizabeth to this? Molly has a gorgeous voice! It could be in the next Love Actually! Or Mariah Carey could sing it! Kelly Clarkson! Or Taylor Swift, Times Magazine 2020 Person of the Year, who fills our world with happiness and light! This song is like that! Happiness and Light. Good job Ivan!👏
So here we go, from me to you. . . a Willard filled with happiness and light, giving love away, very like A Christmas Carol, doing season past AND season future! Freezing here this morning, had to warm my hands over the toaster! Which of course was a win-win! Toast and warm hands! MAS MUSICA . . .
Our fall here on the island was gorgeous . . . with flaming skies at sunset, church bells rang, wild geese flew over, the wind blew chimney smoke 
around, leaves curled and turned orange, garnet, and gold, mini murmurations of grackles flew in low black clouds over and around the trees, the Harvest moon shone down with golden light … the freshened Autumn air, as Gladys Taber wrote, was “cool as an old coin teaspoon” …and whipped the leaves up behind the tires of our car. Just as it has been since the beginning of time. Perfection.
I decorated inside to match the outside. . .
But Nature does it best, inside the house too: Sun and leaves made shadows on the walls that fell differently in the shortening days . . .
Church bells rang the hour across the street . . . Between that and the boat whistle and the early morning blast of lighthouse foghorns, I am reminded constantly of how lucky I am . . .
Joe brought in branches of bright leaves to hang over mirrors . . .
We hung our wreath of leaves on the front door and dried corn on the kitchen door . . .
It’s that time of year when it’s FUN to carry the basket of wet laundry across the crunchy leaves in the fresh air to hang things out to dry in the wind, where a slight fragrance of leaf mulch and woodsmoke spice the airy sea-smell of our sheets. Even a speck of time in nature is good for what ails you ~ it carries forever the hum of ommmmmm in it!🍁 I spent the end of October and the first of November nursing around the house, getting it ready for company. I washed and . . .
…hung things on the line while Jack watched and waited in the kitchen window . . .
My shadow!
He watched while I starched and ironed tablecloths . . .
. . . sprinkled dresser scarves and table runners, curtains and napkins. Sssssss, the smell of hot iron …👏
Joe polished my wand and all his little silver things for his bar.
Jack helped me fold the starry sheets in his own inimitable way of helping . . . that is, sitting on them, making them his own.
He watched me arrange flowers, make beds, and freshen and make the guest rooms cozy for my people . . .
I stopped off in our room, Jack’s favorite shooting grounds, to shoot rubber bands for him ~ I stand at the door, grab a handful of hairbands, aim, and shoot over the bed, he waits on the workout bench, HIS workout bench, not mine . . see that rubber band in the air over his head? I do this at least 3 times a day, which is how I know I will be going to heaven. God loves those who take care of his creations.
He also likes me to shoot down from the top of the stairs, in freezing bare feet, when I want to go to bed, while he runs up and down the bottom stairs catching them . . . he catches them, but doesn’t bring them back anymore. That’s my job. He has made that very clear . . .
As it was getting closer to Thanksgiving, and our guests were on their way, I set out bread on the ironing board in the pantry to dry for my grandma’s stuffing; Joe is there choosing bottles of wine… . . . we wanted to make it special . . .
Because we had family coming! And suddenly, hooray, they began to arrive ~ I found I just wanted to LOOK at them!👀 But I was trying very hard not to be scary Aunt Sue!😜 This happy guy is my nephew Matt Stewart . . . you might recognize him because…
. . . in the way-back machine, Matt flew over to join us on our trip to England and Paris with two of my other nieces Holly and Heidi the day after he graduated from high school in Durango, Colorado in 2001! We had these three for six weeks! Best trip ever!
The gang’s all here and out to dinner we went … that’s Becca on the left, Matt’s girlfriend who I had never met, then Joe, then my niece Jessica, my nephew Matt, Cory (Jessica’s husband), Maggie, and Eliza (Jessica and Cory’s daughters), and Eliza’s boyfriend Justin, who I hadn’t met either, but new people at the table are always fun! And I, as a strict Morning Scientist, like to study the younger generation to see what the future will be and talk about it with Joe later. (It’s okay, they never noticed.😁 They think they’re normal.)
We walked out to the water, through the woods, with the smell of decaying leaves … looking for shells and beach glass . . .
Then downtown to tiny La Choza on the corner of Main Street to get the fattest, yummiest, homemade (except in a restaurant), Burritos on earth!
Cory entertained us with hilarious pirate stories of his sailing days. I analyzed, of course, and found them very very good.😱😅😂🤣 Little bits of information, here and there, from every one of those kids make me know the future is in good hands. They are as passionate as we were, but much more motivated and powerful, and ready to take it on. And they have Taylor Swift on their side! (MAS MUSICA … my Grandma’s Favorite)
I’m STILL analyzing this move by the mother of children!😂 What EVER it means (it could be a kind of dancing), it IS cute! After all, MY mother said, “Boss!” when she liked something.🙄 Some of them stayed 4 days, some of them stayed 3 . . . and all of it was wonderful. Matt and Jessie, the children of two of my brothers, Chuck and Jim, both grew up in Durango, Colorado, but because they were five years apart in age, they had never really spent any time together before they all moved away, so this was extra special (for me) just for that reason. I like the cousins to know each other. 💖 And I like to know them! (Have you read the most wonderful “knowing people” book that’s just out, written by David Brooks and appropriately called “How to Know a Person?” SO GOOD, so smart! A great Christmas present! Order it HERE or HERE and make our small Independent Island bookstores crazy with happiness❤️). Oh the power!
Jack found a comfy perch where he could keep his eyes on everything!
Time to make the Stuffing! My grandma’s recipe and HER mom’s, which means that, for Eliza and Maggie, this stuffing I’ve been eating since I was little, came from their great-great-great-grandmother Sarah, born in 1870 in Adel, Iowa! I don’t know where she got the recipe! Probably HER mom!
The recipe is in my Autumn Book . . . we dipped the slices of bread we dried in the pantry in a sinkful of the hottest water we could stand, and squeezed the water out, as you can see above, so you have chunks of bread with finger marks in them.
You keep dipping, squeezing, and tearing into chunks, till you get a bowlful, then add chopped celery and onion that’s been sautéed and softened in lots of butter, salt and pepper, then a whole jar of sage. Mix it well with your ands and voila! That’s all I do to it, I love it simple, just the way my Grandma made it, smothered in turkey gravy ~ and from there I put it right into the turkey … but some people will make this basic recipe and add sausage or oysters, whatever means Thanksgiving to you is what you should do!
Matt knew how to make it and helped me! (BTW, see Matt’s long hair? Both he and Becca grow their hair and donate it to people stricken with cancer. If you have an abundance of hair, and need somewhere to put it . . . here’s how you do it!)
Matt and I have been good partners in the kitchen for a long time!
I made the cranberry sauce and popped it in the oven, and we are STILL eating Christmas Jam on the delicious scones Matt and Becca brought us from Shelley’s Tea Room in Plymouth, MA where they stopped on their way down to the island from Boston! Now I need to GO there! Jam’s so simple:
Maggie, who is 16, peeled the potatoes . . .
Maggie and Eliza have helped me in the kitchen before!💝
This was one of their creations! How did the world survive before cameras? This cookie is still fresh and beautiful! We always wish that time would stand still, and look at this blog full of standing-still moments that will never come again. Thank you camera inventor!
And suddenly it was TIME! Joe’s Beautiful Turkey 2023 was done!
Kids set the table, Joe sliced the turkey, I heated the rolls so the tops were crisp and the insides were soft, and we all carried the food to the table . . . I did not forget the most delicious French salted butter for the rolls.
Have you tried this yet? OMG it is beyond delicious… everyone LOVES it . . .
And Voila! We did it! Together, we made it happen! My mom would be SOOOOOO happy to see this!!! 💞
So fun, I got to be the Grandma and read the words to MY grandma’s favorite hymn of gratitude and celebration…
I wanted, with our togetherness, to honor these people, most of whom our kids have never met. (I’m the little face with the white barrette with Jessica’s dad on my right 😍, you can only see the very top of Matt’s Dad’s head, in his high chair toward the back.😂) That’s my Grandma on the left, and her dad (on her right), Merrill James Orr (he’s the fourth child of seven, father of ten, and my mom’s grandpa) ~ and he’s Maggie and Eliza’s great-great-great grandfather. He was born in 1871 in Stacyville, Iowa. This is the thing I love most about growing older, now I’m the connection between long long ago, and today, and even the future. Merrill’s g-g grandfather was born in 1745 in Plymouth MA, where Joe and I are going for a little Christmas get-away/shopping (and Shelley’s Tea Room) next week. 
I told the kids that our old house was built in 1849 and how I can hear echoes of stories of the families and their friends that lived here before us, their birthdays, the Christmas trees, tea parties, soups bubbling on the stove, their school days, changes of seasons, children, new babies, pets, and how this was our 34th Thanksgiving in the house, but it was the House’s 164th! The history! I thanked them for helping us add to the house DNA by being there for this one. Our house hugs back and I’m convinced this is the reason why. Doing our best to leave it ringing with memories, for the next people.
Of course, what do you do after Thanksgiving? You find out if you’re taller than your mother! I literally remember when I was finally taller than my mother, and I think it might even happened at Thanksgiving!😊💃🏼
Beautiful Girls ~ Jessica is the daughter of my brother Jim and his wife Kate; and her daughters, my great nieces Liza and Maggie.❤️
Jessica with her mom, Kate.💖
Yes, this photo was at least partially staged, that’s why all the smiles . . . because we are a modern people! After dinner we all snuggled into the wood room to watch the wonderful NY stage play production of Hamilton on Disney+! They knew ALL the words, made me so happy, they sang all the way through it.🎵🎶🎵
All too soon we were at the boat waving goodbye to Jessica and Cory on the ferry, time for the kids to go back to school and for them to go back to work . . .👋💗💗💗
Then it was time for Matt and Becca to go . . .
Matt told me I would love Becca, and I definitely did! We’re going out to California in January and hope to see them there! 👏 And then, deep breath . . . tick-tock, dastardly clock never stops … it was back to normal . . .🧡
No one took a picture of my cute outfit, so I did. That flannel skirt turns 40 next year! Tip for the day: Always buy skirts with elastic waists.👏 I’ll let you know when I get myself into that buttoned skirt I wore on my first date with Joe! A whole OTHER story!😊
Cruel children left us with this … seriously dangerous . . . after one relatively short fork-frenzy, I cut the rest of the Pumpkin Cheesecake in half, took half up the street to Lowely’s, and the other half over to Martha’s! (Wish I had it this moment!)
Then back to THIS, trying to get Thanksgiving OFF me . . . doing my planks. Which I started a few months ago by doing one plank and holding it for 3 seconds.🤪 Now I have worked up to doing three, 
holding each for 50 seconds. You know what that means… if I can do it, you can.💝 All of Google agrees that if you can only do one exercise, this is the one! And one of the secrets to happiness… and maybe not planks, but there is always something we can do to keep those joy levels going strong. Life has been more than complicated these last years, turns out it’s up to us to MAKE it the way we want it. Turn on the music YOU like, make the cookies YOU adore, have the tea YOU love, if you want green hair, HAVE it … because if mama ain’t happy, ain’t no one happy.🧑🎤 And you know, life is short.😘
With a little help from my friend. Then I turned the calendar to 
So first thing, because the holidays are upon us . . . I want to give you your Full Moons Bookmark for 2024 . . . so you can make your stocking stuffers! 💖 Just click, print it out, and then cut it out.
And then, I mentioned that Joe and I are taking the train to California in January? So excited!! 🚂 We’ll get there around January 15th and stay probably a month (or for as long as it takes), because we’re MOVING our California Studio a LOT closer to where Kellee lives ~ and we’ll be selling the house we’ve owned for 22 years, in Arroyo Grande, just below San Luis Obispo, on the Central Coast.💖 We actually spent most of our time there for the first 10 years of the 2000s … I loved it, despite the double-wide aspect of the house. I didn’t care, while I was there, it was the House of Creativity! It’s where I saw my first bluebird. One year we brought in a bunch of sand and made a beach next to the creek! We made a firepit down there, put a long table under the trees and had Thanksgiving dinner outdoors. My brother played the guitar and we all sang.🍁🍁🍁
THEREFORE… because we think about lightening our moving vans, we’re having a MOVING SALE …. starting now, all December long, until midnight December 31 ~ All my books, the calendars, recipe cards, post cards, art prints, and giclees, are all ON SALE for 20% off! We’ve never done this before, but I promised Kellee we’d make it as easy as possible! We might add more, so check back . . . she’s still figuring out what we have enough of! So we have a lot to do when we get out there!
Sale includes Christmas Memories, Gratitude, Enchanted, Grandma’s Story, ALL my books!
YUP, Home for Christmas too! AND if any of YOU need to make your own little farm in the country on the Central Coast of California on 8 flat acres, completely fitted with an overhead irrigation system that comes from a year-round creek running through the property that comes from Lopez Lake and passes through to the sea, let me know. Everything grows there because it is an ancient river bed. Arroyo Grande means Big Ditch, but now it’s a beautiful wine, artichoke, and avocado producing area in its own micro climate . . . where good weather is even better there. There’s a back road through the wine country to SLO, so I never had to get on the freeway to go there; and the house is about 3 miles from Pismo Beach. Trader Joe’s is about a 6 minute car ride away!
OUR CALIFORNIA PARADISE IS ACTUALLY FOR SALE! 😲 TELL EVERYONE! Because I’d like to sell it to someone who will love it as much as I did.💝
This is how the picket fence garden looked when I lived there all the time! It’s still pretty, but not as flowery without me around. I will love seeing it cared for again!
Photo by Christopher Gardner. Aug 2004
Susan Branch at her AG home and garden
This is the house from the road . . . The house itself isn’t great . . . it’s usable, two or three bedrooms, depends on how you look at it, and 2 bathrooms, with its own well. But you’d really want to build a house out back where you could hear the creek running at night ~ that’s what we would have done if I hadn’t gotten so homesick for New England. Very difficult to be in two places at once.
At the end of this hedge that we planted, turn left and you’re at the creek, it winds along that row of trees back there . . . and the property continues a bit on the other side of the creek.
This is the property from the back; the creek is about this same distance behind me . . . A tractor comes with the property!
When we came home from our first garden tour of England we went fairly crazy planning the garden. . .building hedges, a long walk, and garden rooms around the house . . .
I laid it out on paper, and it’s all there along with several out buildings.
Artichokes grow so well there, the best I ever tasted! We grew them behind the garage next to the back wall of it. It was toasty warm and they were ecstatic and prolific as you can see! There are citrus trees, avocado trees, a walnut tree, a plum, fig, apple, and I can’t remember what else.
We planted lots of roses . . . they love this little valley.
Oh yes, we planted tiny Christmas Apple (or Lady apple) trees there too. Because unlike Martha’s Vineyard, things bloom and grow in California year-round. And those that don’t grow well on our Island, like Sweet Peas? One year I had them blooming in California from March to August!!! Oh yeah.🥰
Joe planted corn and all sorts of veggies . . .
The plum tree in springtime ~ it’s a property with SO MUCH potential, everything between farm, winery, estate, wedding venue or garden nursery . . . Although zoning, I have no idea . . .there was a nursery on that road about ½ mile up from us . . . it’s gone now, but there are still wineries and a farmstand. I’m going to love being there for January! I like to walk, 9 times around the property equals 3 miles. It’s not on the market yet … I don’t even know what things are selling for out there, but if you have interest, email [email protected] and we’ll pass your note to our realtor, which we don’t have yet!😜
I received a sample of our new cup for approval! It looks beautiful! I’m so excited to send it to my people. They should be arriving to the new Studio toward the end of January . . . I love it, I know you will too. I drink my Fine Romance private blend Tea (Earl Grey with lavender), with honey and cream, out of it everyday and looking at this new cup, I celebrate how our country got started. And for a moment in the quiet morning, I treasure the peace we have always felt in this country and promise to do everything I can to make more of it.💖
Yes it is! So don’t forget to enjoy the deliciousness of this 
Holiday Egg Nog. I changed it a bit this year. Love milk so much, I reversed the measurements, and made a much lighter version, now it’s ⅔ c. milk over crushed ice, splash of eggnog (too taste), splash of bourbon, shake of nutmeg. I think it’s better! Just plain YUMMY, and easy! And there’s calcium in it! Now light the fire or the candles, make a toast to peace on earth, and let the daydreaming begin.
It snowed on our walk yesterday, blasted us actually . . . it didn’t stay on the ground, but it was the first one, and it came down pretty hard for a while, coming straight at us and sticking to our eyelashes. Of course we loved it. We were listening to 
Dickens Pickwick Papers . . . We decided December goes perfectly with Dickens. It’s a really funny book, written more like short stories (it was originally a magazine serial), but in some places it’s VERY hard to understand. The reader is excellent at accents and voices, but some of ye olde 19th century English accents might as well be Hungarian. We need subtitles which Audible does not provide. Because that would be “a book.” Still it’s fun to be in the wind, in 1829 England, and ALSO, at the same time, in the first snow of the season in 2023. When we get home from Plymouth we’re going to listen to A Christmas Carol. 
I’m decorating again!
Decorating with all the little things that have become our traditions . . . old books, old music, old friends . . . and with all our years together, you know some of them as well as I do!
Using all the things we have in common, like sparkly things . . .
. . . candles, bunting, and angel chimes . . . things found, and things made . . .
Homemade things and memories 💞
And this . . . 💖💖💖 Big Magic!
Yes, I’m getting ready for Christmas and my Girlfriends Gift Exchange. Probably one of my smallest parties, because as we get older, we have SO MANY beloveds, it would take something miraculous to do it with everyone! And my beloveds includes you! My first gift to you all, wasn’t even mine, it was Ivan’s new song! Want to hear it again?
I’ve also planned very tiny gift exchange with just one of you. Problem is, I don’t know WHICH one yet❓❓❓So far, it’s a mystery! Your part is to leave a comment, from which we’ll draw names and whichever name I get, I have a present for. Would you like to know what it is? Okay … It’s not this:
But you know how I always love to decorate with quilts? They are so festive and charming and add a bit of coziness, wherever they are,
with their old-fashioned, handmade, historical nature, . . . I put them in the kitchen (no matter that it doesn’t make sense, they make it cozy and I love the color!), hang them over the backs of chairs . . on quilt racks in the bedrooms, I stack them on the top of the hutch in the living room . . . drape them over sofas . . . . everywhere I can think of . . . because they’re so pretty!
And I’ve painted them into my books …
Since the very beginning . . .
Sharing this thing I love has been easy. I’ve collected vintage quilts pretty much all my life, since my Grandma gave me one my great-Grandma Sarah made and opened my eyes to this gorgeous homemade art of our foremothers, who by the way, could do ANYTHING and wasted nothing . . . and that is why . . . 
Jack and I thought it would be nice to give away one of my beauties to a good home.💝
YOURS! This beautiful quilt is my secret Santa gift to a very special universal YOU 💞 . . . Just leave a comment (at very bottom of this post there are a bunch of tiny words… at the end you’ll see “comments” ~ click there) to be entered in our drawing, and soon this 64″ x 77″ handmade 
quilt (there is nothing standard about the sizes of old quilts!) will be winging its way to the lucky winner. Always remember you have a LOT better chance of your name being drawn here than you do with the Lottery and, creme de la creme, we don’t charge for tickets.💞 Another win-win!😃 I’m sorry, but I already know I won’t be able to answer all your comments this time, as you can guess, but believe me, I will read them and make sure they all get entered.💝 Are you signed up to get my Willard Newsletters mailed to your box? This would be a very good time to make sure. Sign-up is at the top left of this page. I’ll announce the winner in the next Willard!
And so Tra La, another Willard, AND another year under our belts my dears . . Wishing you all, from my heart, the very Merriest of Christmases, Happy Hanukkah, Joyful Kwanzaa, Feliz Navidad, Joyeux Noel, Mele Kalikimaka🌴, Seasons Greetings, and any other thing I might have forgotten,😃 and God Bless us every one.💞
With love from me and Joe! Hoping you 
So enjoyed your wonderful blog just before bed!! Thank you and Merry Christmas!
What a lovely visit with family!
Thank you, as always, for another amazing Willard. They have been a delight through the years. My mom and her mom were our family quilters. I treasure the few I have. What a wonderful gift idea. Indeed, “God bless us everyone.”
Thanks sooo Much Susan for all Your Willard’s you send to your loyal Fans, you are a Blessing. I too Love quilts and enjoy those that I have. I also Love Gladys Tabour and have 11 of her Books and I’m looking to give them away to a good home But I live in British Columbia and the postage to the USA 🇺🇸 is Expensive. Any ideas? God Bless and Keep you and your Dear Joe and Happy Christmas
Contact the Gladys Taber Fan Club… If you look at the top of my blog you’ll see “ABOUT ME” … you’ll see a link when you click on Gladys Taber!❌⭕️
You, Dear Susan Branch, Are The Personification Of BEAUTY! Beauty Of Heart. Beauty Of Word. Beauty Of Spirit. May Your Days, ALL Of Them, Treat Most Lovely You With Great Kindness And Hold You Ever Soo Tight In Great Love. With Sparkly JOY, I Send You Smiles Across The Many Miles: )
Merry Christmas to both of you. I enjoy reading your newsletter. I also love quilts. My daughter made me a quilt for my bed. It had a different patch for each month in the year. She also gave me a framed patch of one of the months to hang in my bedroom.
Merry Christmas to you,Joe,and Jack.
Finding Willard in my inbox is a gift of hope ,a chance to relax and destress for awhile. Like a visit with a dear friend. Thank you.
I confess with every williard i hope to read that Enchanted is done and will be in bookstores soon.
The best to you and yours
Old quilts give me so much comfort! So many memories wrapped up inside them! ❤️
And now I feel caught up! My daughter and I visited the island last October which makes reading your Willards really come alive!
I had been wondering what all you were up to these days! I so enjoy your posts, you seem to make the best of everything! Thank you for your inspiration and may you and Joe have a safe and joyous holiday season!
Beautiful quilt!! I love vintage linens!
Such a lovely Willard…so much fall and Christmassy too, two of my favorites! I would be certainly pleased to win a pretty quilt. I have a few, and a memory of one from my childhood, so much history in a quilt! Have a fun getaway…so nice for both of you! P.S.I made my favorite steak fajitas from The Black Dog Cookbook last week! 😋
Hope you and Joe have a fun time in Plymouth!
I love the Willards and always look forward to them. I’ve been collecting your calendars, books, etc for a long long time. I love all of your art drawings. God Bless and Happy Holidays
Hurrah for Family! It was lovely to be a part of your family through the wonder of photos. I love the heritage connections. Thank you for sharing with us. A very Merry and Blessed Christmas to you.
A Very Merry Christmas to you both!
I absolutely love this quilt! ❤️ I went to
Bunch of Grapes and purchased some of your items
there, many years ago. I can’t wait to go back and if
I’m lucky maybe you’ll be there when I am! 🥰
Merry Christmas to you and your family, Susan! Wishing you a happy and healthy 2024. ❤️
Hi Susan – You have always enlightened my life as you share your life with us. “Walking” thru your blogs bring fresh air into my life and gives me inspiration to be creative. I tinker in many crafts and belong to a Friday Knite Nite group where we share a potluck dinner and knit/crochet the evening away. My daughter and I create and personalize quilts for family and friends. It would be wonderful to add one of your quilts to our collection to enjoy the beauty of it. Again, thank you for sharing your life with us.
💝💝💝💝💝💝
Merry Christmas Susan and Joe. I forgot where I was while reading this Willard and kept looking for the “like” button after each photo you have.😄 Lovely family Susan❤️
I took a two year hiatus from quilting because I started making JACKETS❤️
The person who gets your quilt will be so happy❤️👍🏼
Reading Willard is like taking tea with an old friend. Thank you for sending it out to us. May you have the Merriest of Christmases and stay warm this holiday, perhaps wrapped up in a beautiful, old quilt. ☺️
Love everything Susan Branch!🥰😎
I misspelled my email name in the previous comment.
👏👏👏👏👏
A happy Christmas to you! From my island off the coast of Virginia to yours off the coast of Mass., may the new year bring us peaceful times. Have you read “the keeping quilt” by Patricia Polacco? It is a children’s story I used to read to my daughters. The handwork of quilts enshrines the traditions of comfort and family like no other craft. I treasure mine as you do yours. Again your post has brightened my day. Bless you.
Secret to happiness….put a little love in everything you do.
Merry Christmas!
Such a positive message of hope. For this world and this country. I always feel better about the state of things when I read your writings. How nice that you were blessed to spend thanksgiving with young people who have the future in their hands. Have a wonderful Christmas. I would love to have your beautiful quilt and make it part of my family’s surroundings. Thank you for this opportunity.
I’d love to win!
Another beautiful post. Thank you for sharing your love of life with us ❤️. Merriest of Christmas to you, Joe and of course Jack.
So happy to hear about your trip to Sebago Lake. I live there, quite close to Migis Lodge. Moved to be able to see the sunsets, they are divine all year round.Wishing you and Joe and all of us on this Willard a Happy and Healthy Holiday and every day in the New Year!
Dear Susan, I’m so grateful for the opportunity to tell you how precious your art and words have been throughout my life. Like an treasured friend they have brought joy, comfort and inspiration time and time again. Thank you for the generous outpouring of so much love. Like a WONDERFUL big sister you have made a forever difference in countless lives! May your cup always runneth over.
Christmas Blessings!
Roxanne
Hi!
Thank you for sharing the wonderful time you had with your family. So special. We cannot take these things for granted these days.
❤️❤️❤️
Quilt Lottery Millionaire!!
Love that you’re making beautiful memories with your family while sharing stories, traditions, & family recipes! I bet they all love to come out to visit you & Joe! Quilts are such a warm welcome to those who come to visit … so soft & cozy, lovingly handmade and a cherished treasure! What a sweet share! Merry Christmas ~linda, from Nevada
Hi Susan!
I only (very) recently discovered you by spotting The Fairy Tale Girl randomly on the library shelf. I was so intrigued, I ended up borrowing it… and shortly after bought the other two in the trilogy which I’m really looking forward to reading! That of course led to your blog (and reading past Willards).
You’ve carved out such a wonderful, magical space in this corner of the internet, on MV, and even on my tiny local library’s shelf. I’m grateful to have met you through your work!
pick me please! My birthday is the last day of the year….December 31. Everyone parties that day. And if you don’t like one party, go crash another one! LOL
Hi Susan,
Oh wow, you are SO generous and sweet to have this give away, thank you so so much!
Loved reading about the visitors, and my heart melted when you told us about Matt donating his lovely long hair to people needing it….I have thought about it too, but I have heard they cannot use hair that has been colored….and I’m not ready to be grey yet.
Our 2 cat girls don’t sit on laps or knees, but Kitty ( the ginger one) sits on my legs but ONOY when I have a quilt covering my legs…I think, she thinks she’s not “really” on me, haha…She has started to work her way upwards, starting out on my feet, then my knees, and recently she was on my tummy, of course staying there untill my bladder is almost bursting haha….I love it though!
Lots has happened this year, so excuse me for not commenting so much these last few months…
Sending you both lots of love and hugs from both of us! Merry Christmas!
Nicoline
xoxo
Ha ha Nicoline, Jack doesn’t like to sit on my lap unless I’m covered in one of my mom’s knitted nap blankets! What little TEACHERS they are! Love hearing from you, lovely as always and forever. xoxoxo
I love everything you put your hands to. Thank you for so generously sharing your life!
Season’s Greetings, Susan & Joe and darling Jack!
LOVED sharing your Thanksgiving vicariously. My mother and her mother made the same simple, classic stuffing you do. But, we don’t dip the bread in water… I kept looking at that shocking picture, thinking that can’t be what it looks like! It doesn’t make the stuffing too wet or gloppy? Inquiring minds want to know.
The beautiful pictures of your house in AG lead me to gently nudge you to please continue the story of MV, Island of Dreams, and get your memories of your third and best act down on paper. Your legacy awaits you!
Wishing you a wonderful winter wonderland Christmas with those you love best. Thank you for SO much JOY and BEAUTY you spread this year.
xoxox Coco
No, the bread is doughy … it’s a very FAST dip … you get the feel for it by the 3rd dip!🤗 I have this book Enchanted, a trip to England … all we learned … there’s a lot of wonderful things to write about that trip. Then I have a nudger (just like you) inside me that says if I only have one book left in me (we don’t know) a book called HOME would be best. All about New England, people and places, and finding our house here on the Island. What shall I do???????💝
Darlingest Sue, since you asked…write both!! Of course!! Enchanted is already started, and we, your Dearly Beloved Kindred Spirit Sisters, are all ready to order it as soon as you send it to the printers! If there is anything else we can do to support your during your authoring process, you have only to say!
Do you remember the TV commercial showing a woman looking wide-eyed through the glass doors of a department store, her hands and nose flat against the glass, chanting “Open!Open!Open!”? That is how I have felt since you first mentioned Enchanted!
Of course, any books you write will be eagerly anticipated and deliriously happily ordered and read by us (your DBKSS). ~ just sayin’… with SOOOO Much Love❤️❤️❤️
But which one first, just in cases it’s my last . . . 💝xoxoxo
Enchanted ~ pretty please!💖💖💖
…and as much as I really really really (open open open) want to read your Enchanted, if your heart has a stronger desire to write Home first, dearest Sue, you know we all will want to read it first, too. (Notice that I am not giving any energy to that particular ‘just in cases’). More love, Christie xoxoxo
🤣😂😂 LOL! Problem is, I want to do both of them, and way more. Tick Tock!
I vote for HOME!!!
How lucky you are to have space to have family for Thanksgiving and family who can travel to you. Thanks for letting us be part of the joy.
Nothing could be better than curling up in one of your quilts while reading once more a beloved book from your collection. A cup of tea. A plate of assorted nibbles including homemade cookies. Vintage holiday music in the background. A blessing, indeed. For gentle times like this are to be remembered.
Wow, Sue! Great blog post! You’ve come a long way since the early Facebook launch of FOSB! I remember the excitement of the grand opening of your darling shop on Branch Street in Arroyo Grande! The journey has been so successful! If I was decades younger, I would definitely jump at the chance to move to Arroyo Grande! As changes evolve, I hope you will continue to keep in touch with your Girlfriends! xoxo peg
I’m pretty sure that will be the last thing to go Peg!🤣 So many years, I feel so connected to everyone . . . maybe they don’t realize it, but I do recognize names of long-time blog girls, even those I’ve never met . . . there are those I worry about, and those I’m extra proud of, but I do LOVE everyone. The kindness in their letters and comments over the years has been amazing ~ they were wonderful to Blog Daddy too . . . as you know. What a GIFT!!!!!!🥰🥰🥰 ❌⭕️❌⭕️
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I love Willards. The timing of them is always impeccable, and by the end of each one I have smiled, laughed, and oftentimes cried (happy tears, of course😊.) Your ability to reach out from your beautiful home, (or wherever other lovely place you may happen to be) is truly magical in that it instills in me a sense of calmness, of peace. Sending a heartfelt thank you to you, your family, and your many friends, for touching my life in the most beautiful way possible. Happy Holidays!🌲
I just loved❤️ this Willard….I always love them, but this was extra cozy❤️
I have a very small stack of quilts and blankets on a small wooden rocking chair that has been handed down several generations and is now tucked in next to my bed. I hope you have a wonderful, peace filled holiday season and I look forward to the next Willard. Merry Christmas!🎄
What a cheer-y newsletter, and full of heart-warming pictures! Makes for a wanting to draw close to those far and near. Thank you for sharing with us.
I think you have inspired me to put one of my heirloom quilts out… my husband keeps my kitty’s claws clipped (bless him!) so she can’t do too much damage and what joy do they bring tucked away?
Merry Christmas Susan and Joe. Thank you for such a wonderful and heart warming blog.
I love old quilts!!
God bless you dear Susan, and your lovely Willards…. a gift to us already❤️I loved reading about your Stewart nieces and nephews and have a gut feeling that somewhere down the line we are connected with family. That quilt looks just like one my grandmother Gladys Stewart would have made. So much history and beauty! Thank you entering me into the secret Santa and if I win I’ve got your Secret Santa gift all picked out😊🎄Merriest Christmas to you and your sweet Joe😘
What a happy Willard! I enjoyed getting to meet all the family members you had over at Thanksgiving. What a grand time! Joe’s turkey looks spectacular! The stuffing sounds divine, as always. Your former home in Arroyo Grande has the most beautiful grounds! I hope the lucky person who buys it makes the best use of all that produce. What a gift!
Thank you for sharing so much joy with us, Susan! I would love that happy quilt, but I will be happy for whoever gets it. Just looking at it is giving me inspiration to finally attempt my first one!
Merry Christmas, Susan, Joe, and Jack!
Love, Melanie in Texas
Susan, the joy in your post is palpable and I love it. I think I am finally emerging from the crushing fog in my life which started in 2020. How wonderful that you were able to have your nieces and nephews and their significant others with you. Over the past few years I have been blessed with being able to spend time with my children and grandchildren also and it is so wonderful. Something I missed while I was living in the U.K. and recently, some one on one time with my middle boy, which was just the best time ever. We cooked, we played guitar, we just enjoyed being mom and son, as adults. It was wonderful. I have read every word here this morning. Twice. And once yesterday. So heart warming and soul enriching. I hope you and Joe have a happy time away this week. Happy Christmas to you and Joe and Jack in your lovely New England Island home from me, Cinnamon and Nutmeg (my two gingers) in my little home here on almost Island Nova Scotia. May 2024 be very good to us all. As Tim would say, God bless us every one!
Susan, I always love reading your newsletters, but this one made me happy and sad all at the same time. Is there a word for that? Melancholy, perhaps? All of your music gave me tingles up and down my spine. Christmas Island sung by Ernest Tubb brought back memories for me. Years ago, I took my Mom and Dad to an Ernest Tubb concert in London, Ontario (which is about an hour from me) My Dad, especially loved it. And watching the video of Andy Williams and the Osmond kids was so cute. Little Marie was a doll and it reminded me (which I really didn’t need..haha) , how quickly our lives pass by. I just turned 65 on December 4th, and cannot wrap my head around that. I can remember “old” people telling us kids, “enjoy your life now, because it goes by in a flash!” How true that is, huh? However, my hubby and I have a motto. Do NOT let the old man/ old woman in. Once you relent and give in to them, life is over for you. Think young, stay healthy and keep active. So far, so good on this end. Last winter, (while on vacation) we walked over 1200 miles in 4 months. Have a very Merry Christmas!
Oh to be 65 again…🤗😘😘😘
I thrive on your blog and have for many years. At almost 82 come the end of January 2024 your cheery words bring a brightness to my busy life. Commercial graphics have been my livelihood for over 60 odd yrs now and I still find pleasure in the work, although I have had to slow down to part time now. Thoroughly enjoy the visits through your art and words. Keep up the good work and may God continue to bless your daily lives with love and beauty.
How many Willards have you written? I’ve read every one!
A billion! 😆
I savor your posts like visiting an special friend.
Happy Holidays to you and Joe. You look very happy and I smiled back seeing your joy! It is always good to find a message from you. Thanks for making me smile.
Best wishes for the Holidays!!
Thank you for sharing parts of your life with us.
I too have a kitty who loves to fetch. Her preferred toy is a rubber clown nose! So grateful for furry angels.
Lovely painting! Enjoy your posts! And love the moon book mark! Have a happy new year!
I’m so glad we all share the love of old quilts. The time and love someone put into their craft needs to be loved and cherished. Not only beautiful and comforting but stunning artwork and like a hug from the past ❤️. Susan I love how you respect the past and remind us all of the simple pleasures 💕💕💕
This was heartwarming to read 🥰 thanks for the cheer and the nog! Merry Christmas!! 🎁🎄
What a wonderful Christmas (and Thanksgiving) Willard. I love to read them. And I wait till I don’t have to be in a hurry to do so because they deserve to be savored. I love the Mistletoe song! I love your decorations – and your quilts! And a chance to receive one as a secret Santa gift! Yes, please! What a generous thing to do. I don’t play the lottery because what are the chances to win those? — but I will put my comment in the ring for this one. Win or lose, thanks for the chance and thanks for your lovely Willards. 😍🥰
Merry Christmas Susan, Joe, and Jack. We loved your neighbor’s/friend’s Mistletoe Waltz♥️. I picture it being sung around the piano in Little Women. The scene where Beth is gifted the piano from their neighbor and then Christmas carols being sung by all while Beth plays the piano. This song would be perfect! Thank you for sharing this 🙏😘
Would be PERFECT!👏
A mug of hot cocoa, sitting in front of my newly decorated Christmas tree, my cat Luna at my side, and quiet time with your beautiful post. This is the perfect way to start my day of comfort after a tough week. Thank you Susan!
You see many people, but I’m the daughter of Donna Reed that you signed a calendar for in Kansas City. She has cherished it this year!! Was so thrilled to see your birthday wish on her special date. You both have a lot in common, you both put chairs in difficult spots (I see the one behind your kitchen door) and display things on stairs. You both make life special. Thank you!
Ha Ha, Joe really hates that chair there! So wee tug of war when he moves it and I move it back. I know, makes no sense there, but when you love an old chair in a certain place, you love an old chair in a certain place, and there’s nothing to be done! Say hello to your mom! Tell her she and I are the normal ones!💞
Very enjoyable❤️
Absolutely one of my most joyful moments this time of year is unwrapping my precious Susan Branch Christmas goodies & decorations. Love your words of wisdom, moments to ponder & constant reminders to live in the moment & appreciate. Thank you!!!
Oh, my, dear Susan. I could write a book. I took the train from Seattle to visit you in SLO with my friend, Sue. I own everything you’ve ever written and have a stack(s) of quilts for summer AND winter at my house. We own the same dishes. We have traveled to Martha’s Vineyard three times, stayed near your home, snuck into your yard and my husband took a pic of your kitchen garden —- on and on and on. I adore you. I am ready the Martha’s Vineyard book and dug out the Heart of the Home cookbook, given to me in 1986, as I wanted to see again the result of your first writing. You are my friend. Did I say I adore you? Thank you for taking the time to do these Willards. I am up in the dark, dark morning (4 a.m.) to drink delicious coffee, listen to your neighbor’s delightful new Christmas song, and savor each and every good word that sets my day for church and decorating and a cozy dinner with my hubby of just 50 years (Nov. 10) to start my week. Did I say I adore you? Xoxo
Darling Jane . . . 🥰🥰🥰 😘😘😘😘 ❌⭕️❌⭕️
Thank you for the full moon calendar, and for sharing your family Thanksgiving, and the Mistletoe Waltz!
It is always an oasis in my busy life when Willard arrives! I take the time to enjoy it with a cup of tea and with my cellphone ringer off. It truly is a gift. Merry Christmas to you & Joe!
Thank you for this! Something so nostalgic about reading your blog. Makes me feel cozy. And I love seeing Jack so involved 😘
I sure love your words….quilts are beautiful, too. A fan for a very long time and kindred spirit that comes on this blog or to your books any/every time I need to remember all that is good and beautiful in this world. Enjoy your moments this season….as always, thank you for sharing them. 💗
I love quilts, but I dont have a red one,I hope i win, I hope I win! Thank you for your heartwarming blog and Merry Christmas to you and Joe.
Thanks Susan I love your beautiful. Blog and beautiful heart!
Christmas Blessings to you and Joe and kitty!!
Willard is so good for my soul and bravo to Ivan! The Love in Your Heart verse has been a favorite of mine forever 🙂 and I would love to be the caretaker of that beautiful quilt. Thank you, Susan, for always making us feel the warmth and love from the Vineyard.
Thank you Susan for sharing your joy and spreading cozy comfort.
Merry Christmas to you and yours and best wishes that all the love and happiness you’ve given others will envelope you in the New Year!
Ever since I discovered your Willard, when I see the notice in my email, I savor the anticipation of reading it! I have just finished this one, lying in bed at 5am. It is quiet, the snow falling muffles any noise and it glows through the window. How I’d love to snuggle up with your beautiful quilt.
Have a wonderful holiday Susan. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Thank you so much for the beautiful artwork and family photos. Willard is a delight each month.
A Christmas gift from YOU Susan would be the most special of the season! Also, thank you for sharing the beautiful Mistletoe Waltz song and the Locks of Love information – I was actually going to get my haircut tomorrow, so the timing was providential!
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Your grandma and I have similar tastes as that hymn has always been special to me. Have a joyous Advent and a wonderful Christmas.
I am so grateful for all the joy you have brought to me for so many years, since my Mom bought me Heart of the Home. My husband and I took a few days to enjoy all that the Vineyard has to offer in November, and attended a couple of programs sponsored by the MV Museum; it was wonderful. I always think of you warmly when I’m there!
We took the kids there too! ❌⭕️
Love your newsletter Susan, beautiful as usual and I’m so glad that you are close to your nieces& nephews! Thank you for the inspiration to do planks more routinely! I need it, and I do love quilts.
Your property in Arroye Grande is beautiful- I hadn’t realized there was so much beautiful acreage with it. I’m hopeful that the new owner will become a dear friend of the family. 🤗❤️
Merry Christmas!! 🎄 this is such a lovely Willard ! You make us feel like we are there with you. What a generous gift you are giving ! Put my name in the hat please ! Holiday Blessings to you and Joe and snuggled to beautiful Jack !!
Good morning, finally getting caught up on emails. I was so excited to see a new Willard; do you know I have an email file to keep all the Willards tucked neatly away? So, on ” I need a happy note” day, I can go back and read! Thank you for your lovely Willard, always a gift and the new song, beautiful. Have a wonderful Christmas.
Love your Willard posts, look forward to them so much. I think your Christmas Willard’s may be my favorite! 💕
Reading these Willards transports me to another place in time. The fast paced world we live in seems to disappear for a bit when I can sit and enjoy these little stories. Thank you for sharing your art, your stories, your pictures, your cute family to the rest of us that just need a pause in time. Thank you for the Full Moon bookmark. I print it and put it in my planner each year as a reminder to enjoy Gods beauty when that potent light illuminates the world. May God continue to bless you abundantly. Enjoy your journey to California and Merry Christmas.
Thank you Susan for each and every Willard, and for sharing your life with us. They are a gift that keeps on giving! I honestly feel great joy while reading them and seeing all the pictures. I savor each one. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Beautiful song. Thank you for sharing. Your Thanksgiving looked absolutely perfect. Safe travels to CA and good luck with move. The quilt is surely very special. Merry Christmas🎄
For all the Beauty of the World and Home, it is nothing without another heart and soul to share it with…family and friends! Thanks for sharing yours! Love!
And as much as I cherish the Seasonal Fall Holidays and Hoopla (and I DO!),
I just can’t wait for JANUARY! Best time for Hygge and Hibernation!
Doubt it’s just me, so wanted to share- I can’t get the shopping link/ page to load on Edge or Chrome on two different laptops on two different wifi connections…
It’s not everyone, so we don’t understand what is going on quite yet, but working on it. Until then Kellee can help if you call the studio at 805-801-9730 ~ so sorry Jazmyne!
Such a sweet, festive, post! So fun to read! Would love that beautiful quilt 💛
I so look forward to your posts – they make me smile for at least a day, maybe a week.
Your blog posts are so beautiful! A delight to my eyes. Have a blessed Christmas
Oh please pretty please pick me❣️Eyes fingers and toes crossed😵 merry christmas❌⭕️
I make and give away most of the quilts I make. Would love to win one of your old quilts.
Omg you are my cheerleader every month, just as I think I don’t have time for this, ha ha decorating, cooking tree trimming I read your letter and go, of course you do. Standing at 70 I’m a bit nervous about how many more Christmases are out there. I’m determined to make each one lovely. Thank you for being you! If I win the quilt so much the better I’ll finally have a family heirloom 🎅❤️🎄
Merry Christmas Susan, Joe, and Jack!
I am reading The Quilter’s Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini! It is wonderful and makes me laugh out loud. Thank yo for sharing your Thanksgiving with us. Just delightful.
,
Susan,
I love all the Willards, esp when they used to come in a paper envelope to my mailbox! Thank you for all your sharing, for the pictures, for the inspiration!! Merry Christmas to you and Joe…and may this coming year be your very best one yet!!!! It IS possible, you know❤️ Tracy
Those were the days Tracy!!💝
Great quilts! I enjoy making them.
Oh what fun to read your Willard! It always brings happiness to my day. You touch many hearts with the sharing of your world. Thank you! Happy holidays to you and yours.
Lol! 892 comments! Apparently, we all love old quilts! 😉 I also love your wonderful newsletters! Every time I get one, I feel like I am reading a long chatty letter from a dear old friend! They truly do make my heart glow. Thank you for being our friend, dear Susan, and I am sending much love and many wishes for a wonderful holiday season and New Year ahead! ❤️
Hi Susan! It looks like your Christmas season is off to a wonderful start! I’ve been reading your Willard newsletter and collecting your cookbooks since I was a teenager! Merry Christmas!
Willard with my coffee on a rainy Sunday morning in Pennsylvania, perfect! It’s the simple things that make sense.
I would love the opportunity to be gifted that beautiful quilt, many thanks for the opportunity! I would love to start quilting but haven’t yet taken the plunge – I am at the “admire beautiful fabrics but too scared to cut them stage”! I enjoy reading your books and posts so much, they give me much inspiration and joy as a younger homemaker and mother. Merry Christmas!
Okay, thanks… a FAST dip on the bread it shall be when I experiment with this. My Grandma and Mom’s recipe does add liquid moisture back in to the stale bread, in the form or chicken stock. Not too much, so it doesn’t get too wet, and only after you’ve mixed everything together first, because all the butter that the celery and onions are sauteed in adds moisture too. You are the very voice of my dear mother on the whole jar of sage — exactly!!!
Well since you asked, “What shall I do???????💝” my nudger replies to your nudger: You should bring the story HOME. You have already written an England book, A Fine Romance ~ Falling in Love with the English Countryside. Countless people have written books on England, and more will do so. But ONLY YOU can write the rest of the story of your incredible life… of you and Joe after your charming start, your continuing career as an artist (and publisher and business person), about outgrowing Holly Oak and finding the house to end all houses, your decade in California post 9/11, whether you had to overcome a quite reasonable fear of marriage to eventually marry even the love of your life, about your friends, about the kitties, what you were wearing and cooking, and of course all the best particulars of the deep love and contentment of your life in New England, for that is as knit into you as her geography was into Gladys Taber. And in case HOME proves to be the final book you write, you might just find yourself sharing some wisdom on aging, what you see looking forward and looking back.
We fell in love with you in Fairy Tale Girl, couldn’t believe your luck (the Beatles, need I say more???), learned your hopes and dreams, and were bereft when they were demolished. In Isle of Dreams ~ a book for the ages ~ you then deeply examined the crisis and beautiful catharsis and gave your kindred hurting spirits a road map of how to heal from devastation, how to find beauty, how to hear and follow the wisdom of one’s own quiet heart, how to dare to dream and venture to hope and be open to love, how to work, and overcome, and then soar. I truly believe that the book you write of your third and best act is vital to your legacy. There’ll always be an England, and people writing about it. Only YOU can finish your memoirs.
So sayeth Coco & her nudger! xoxox
The difference in the dipped bread is the texture. You’ll see.😄 But it all tastes good!!! HOME!!! Thank you for in input. I really do appreciate it.❌⭕️ There’ll always be an England. . . . xoxoxo