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 
The hours of love in each quilt bring warmth to any home. Happy Christmas and thank you for the wonderful blog.
Happy Holidays! So enjoyed this wonderful Willard. Thank you for sharing a bit about your life, your artwork and so many wonderful quotes.
I’m not sure if the opportunity to win the beautiful quilt is open to people living in the UK (Winchester, England) as it’s big item to post! However, just on the off chance I’m going to leave a comment 🙂 Wishing everyone who is a part of this lovely community a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful, healthy and happy 2024! 🎄❤️
How exciting! LOVELY, beautiful quilt give a way. ❤
It would be such an honor to have a Susan Branch quilt! She’d go to a very good home😊 Thanks for such an enjoyable cozy Willard🥰
Always a joy to read your books and blog! I love your home, garden and family time. Jack is such a cutie. I love old quilts and especially ones with red- gives a cozy holiday feel. Take care and happy holidays!
A treat through the seasons to get your Willard! (I was on the cusp of yesteryear mailing you my home address via USPS when you put Willard online!) A glimpse into the rhythm of your life delights! What voice you have in your writing and along with all the visuals one is slowed for a bit…many thanks!! (Ironing the treasured linens while still damp is helpful, btw!!) Yes, spritzing works, too! Merry Christmas!
I love when you share your beautiful home!! It gives me such inspiration!!
What a true treasure the quilt will be for the lucky winner!!
It reminds me of the quilts my grandmother use to make.
Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year!!f
so happy to get your December blog!!! it was like a Christmas gift!!! glad you are feeling better and feeling happy!!! I really appreciate all the hard work you and Joe have done, over the years, to keep your girlfriends happy!!! you both have gone over and beyond!!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
Festive greetings! Family time is everything glad you all had a smashing thanksgiving best wishes Andi Geary 🎄🤍
I loved every bit of your blog entry! You’ve inspired me in so many ways. Sending you love and all the best for a Merry Christmas and Happy 2024!
Merry Christmas Susan, Joe and Jack!
I collect your books and would love a vintage quilt!
Beautiful vintage quilt ❤️ My grandmother used to make quilts, they symbolize such love and caring! Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas!! 🎄⭐️🕯
This is such a Susan Branch time for me — I just think of you at Christmas anyway, just because of all the warmth and wonder of the season, but also because I begin filling out my Christmas Memories books of yours – such a wonderful investment of time over the past (almost) 25 years. Thank you for all the joy you bring to us.
ALL beauty and hope and inspiration! How good you are to us! Thank you, dear Susan!
What a wonderful season this is. Thank you for the opportunity to win a cozy quilt
Beautifully written post, full of love & family. I always enjoy your writing. It brightens my day. Lovely quilt. Merry Christmas blessings.
What a beautiful gift, dear Sue. Merry Christmas to the lucky winner and to you and Joe, and of course Jack!
What an absolutely beautiful post! I pulled out my “Christmas” book, a tiny one of yours, on Dec 1. It is my beginning of Christmas!! Keep making us smile!!!
My Grandma and Great Grandma made all my clothes growing up. My Great Grandma would take the scraps and make quilts. I loved laying in bed under one of her quilts looking at all the fabric pieces and remembering what dress the fabric was from.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year!!!
Please put my name in for the quilt! Yay!
I love all your Willard’s but this one felt real good. I loved seeing you and Joe and Jack with your family over Thanksgiving❤️I got a goodly amount of goosebumps reading it all., Merry, Merry to all
Love from Carol in Central Massachusetts
Love that you began with Christmas Island. I know that’s how you feel about your Christmas at home. I’m still pulling out decorations; I can’t stop myself! Decorating for Christmas is definitely a joyful occupation! Merry Christmas to you and Joe! 🎅🏻🎄
Our cape cod home has Christmas on the outside… now working on the inside. So love your sensibilities and recipes and warmth. Thank you!
Merry Christmas Susan,Joe,&Jack🎄That beautiful quilt is such a lovely color you can’t help but get lost in its history! Who made it, was it made from flour sacks, and old dresses! I wish it could talk. All that to say I would truly love it and it would love me back!!! XOX Much love and hugs.
I always feel better after reading one of your posts, Susan.
Thank you for all the joy and inspiration you’ve shared over the years!
I hope you and Joe have a Merry Christmas!
What a fun share!! So fun to meet your family! And I love that skirt!! I’m home sick so I will be brief. Thanks to your introduction I now have 3 of those mugs and I love them so much I don’t want to use them!! Since my English ancestors were here right after the pilgrims I am a proud American and must get that mug!! Have a wonderful trip to CA! I didn’t know you had a spread out there! Who do you get to maintain its beauty when you are not there? Merry Christmas and a blessed 2024!
I honestly don’t know what happens, and why, but when I read Williard, I just smile and smile and smile. Love you Susan Branch
Just what I do while reading through all these wonderful comments!😀😃😄😁😆😁😄
I love your blog and your lovely chap of a cat Jack! The quilt giveaway is a brilliant idea. Thank you for all your charm, wit and savvy. I purchase all of your calendars every year and I always get so many positive comments about the desk blotter calendar!
Jack will love being called a chap!💝😘
Thank you for sharing the lovely Christmas song, I drive my family crazy playing music starting the day after Thanksgiving! Wishing you a white Christmas!
Hello. This is Claudia. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting you twice in Hudson, Ohio. I knew Ramola B. from whom you purchased your beautiful home. I appreciate all your beautiful books and stories. Thanks for all you do and the joy you bring to all of us. God bless and Merry Christmas.
Mrs. Bowditch, my hero.❌⭕️
They are lovely! I am a quilter and would love to have one of them in my home. 💚
I’m a little late to the party as I just started following you on Instagram a year or two ago. I always enjoy your posts and think, “Wow, I wish my home looked like that!” So cozy and inviting. Right now I’m sitting among the Christmas clutter with the flu wondering how it’s all going to get pulled together. Thank you so much for the respite you provide from all the noise and chaos right outside our doors. I hope you have a lovely Christmas!
Get well soon, and do only what makes you happy!❌⭕️
Oh how I would love the snuggle up in that cozy quilt with my babies on a winter night 🥰 there is just something about a homemade quilt that feels extra special 💕
Merry Christmas Susan! Thank you for the joy you bring to our world ✨
Happy holidays to you and your family. Oh my goodness, the quilt is so lovely! I have never owned a quilt but it would be a dream to have one day. Thank you for being such an inspiration.
I could not imagine a world without these blog posts. What a gift. They elevate my day when I see a new one has arrived. Oh, my sister has green hair! She embraces life to the fullest. Merry Christmas to all. 🎄
I love the peek inside your cozy home especially at the holidays! It’s inspiring. What a dream to go to Aunt Susan’s home on Martha’s Vineyard for Thanksgiving!😍😍😍
Your Novemeber sounded lovely. I do believe I would move back to my native California if I could move into your home! Merry Happy Christmas to you, Joe, and Jack.
Thank you for your endless creativity in decorating tips, seasonal recipes, and watercolor inspiration! Wishing you and yours a blessed and wonderful Christmas season.
The joy of Willard becomes mine and is embraced in every word and illustration. Thank you Susan Branch for all the warm cozies you have given me over the years…so many years I won’t say, but what a gem you are and have been. Merry Christmas to you, Joe, and Jack!
Love the Mistletoe Waltz and You🎶
Thanx for sharing. Merry XMas❣️
What a beautiful Willard this month. It’s the cozy time of year that we all love you for!!
A very generous giveaway Susan. I will keep everything crossed!
I’ve been feeling a bit of the Christmas blues and your blog is helping me feel a bit more festive. Your quilt is beautiful, I know it will be cherished, I certainly would!
Love a new Willard! Following you and living your art forever. Thanks for bringing a sense of beauty and calm to my everyday.
Your blog is like a cozy quilt, filling me with warmth and comfort. The Andy Williams song transported me to my parents living room so many decades ago. Happy Holidays!
I’d be honored to have a quilt of yours in my home. I collect all of your books and read them each season. Thanks for being my happy place!
If my name is drawn to win that beautiful quilt, I will cherish it forever!
Oh Susan. How I would love this quilt. It is one of those things I ALWAYS wanted to collect; however, life got it in the way. And now, at the age of 67, how wonderful it would be to start my collection with one of yours! Merry Christmas!
What a fun, intergenerational Thanksgiving you had! Thank you for sharing your art and fun things with us! Merry Christmas!
I waited to read your newsletter until I had time to sit quietly and savor it – and that was today! I cherished the description of your family get together as my extended family has become spread across the country and most of us just gathered together for my niece’s wedding and it was bliss! I noticed 2 items in your photos that my grandmother used – the top in the bottle to sprinkle laundry (where does one find those now?) and the big yellow ceramic bowl you were using at Thanksgiving! That was always her potato salad bowl and held 10lbs. of potatoes 🙂 My mother has it now. Thank you for always warming my heart. p.s. I know about where your home in CA is as I lived in SLO and frequented Pismo Beach back in the ’70s as a young teen.
I so loved seeing you and your adorable kids. And I’m sad about selling your AG home. We just moved in March from our 138 year old Queen Anne tower home where we raised our five children to a “new” home (17 years old) in an Indianapolis suburb. It is 3x the size to accommodate all 21 of us. I ache for my vintage home but now making this new home ours including having all of the brown walls that the owners were so proud (!) of to a soft white – and we are antiques ourselves (69 and 70)! I’m unpacking boxes of ornaments for our three trees. All of our kids will be here in just a few days – 9 of our 10 Littles ranging from 10 to 10 weeks! And 11 adults!
I got so excited about your sale I ordered two prints that Ive eyed for years and will hang in my new kitchen , more rusty birds and one of each of your recipe cards! I think that’s all. I have ALL of your books!
I would love and cherish the quilt – I think it’s a Lemoyne star – I love star quilts – I’m a quilter and I promise to not cut it up! I must get back to decorating my trees – have a wonderful time celebrating, dear Sue!
xo
Oh Susan and Joe!! You lovers of LIFE and the LITTLE things that make life so sweet!! I LOVE reading about your gatherings and walks to the beach! You continually inspire me to TAKE JOY!!!….as Tasha Tudor used to say as well!! I feel SO fortunate to have found you in this life!!! I am SO glad you got to have your family for Thanksgiving and to carry on your family traditions!!! Have fun in your upcoming train ride across country to California! I will look forward to hearing about your adventures!!! …. and MERRY Christmas and ANOTHER HAPPY New Year!!!!! I cherish you both!!
I’m excited about your quilt giveaway! It’s beautiful and reminds me of your books! I display your books that I own year round and my visitors always ask about them. Pure joy!!
Susan, I have been following your artistic growth for years. I have met you at least three times! You are truly an inspiration for living a creative life. I love it when I see a WILLARD! in my emails. I was so fortunate and happy to visit your “Happy” island this fall! You can’t help but feel creative in your surroundings. I wish you continued HAPPINESS and unbridled creativity!!
So lovely! Thank you for all your wonderful words and pictures. Such a joy to read!
Sweet Peas! I can’t grow them here in Louisiana, so I named myself Sweet Pea, in honor of them!!! It’s my grandma name!!!
I feels like we have been best friends for years!
Merry Christmas!🎄
Merry Christmas! I don’t know how you have the energy to do all the decorating, it’s probably because you’re doing all the planks and are in shape more than I am! What I did notice amongst all your many many photos is that picture of your ironing with the bottle and the little sprinkling thingamajig at the top! My mother had one of those and she had her water in a Coke bottle with the same thingamajig. I learned how to iron by doing my dad’s hankies, t-shirts and pillowcases. I wonder where you would find something like that. Maybe you just have to run across it in an antique store. 🤷🏼♀️ I would love to receive that quilt, but you will have thousands of people to pick from so good luck to all of us!! But please pick me 🥳
Antique stores! They are always the answer . . . all about the hunt!💝
Merry Christmas!! I too love old quilts….have since I was a little girl. Used to ask my Gramma if I could have one of her quilts on my bed when I stayed….have been buying your calendars for years and just dore your artwork!!!
Looks like you had a lovely Thanksgiving with the young ones in the family. How great for them to see and take part in your MV traditions. Thank you for your wonderful Willard on holidays, family and that fun quilt you are giving away! Thank you for all you do!
I “saved” this latest “Willard” to enjoy with a nice hot Americano this morning. I sat and read with my 30-pound-dog-who-thinks-she’s-a-cat on my lap – Oy! Sure makes using a mouse to scroll challenging!
I, too, love vintage quilts, and that’s quite a beauty you’re offering! I’d love to win it! Thank you for the opportunity!
I was so happy to see that you put out another Willard and it was a looooooong one 🙂 That always makes for happy reading. What a wonderful gift you are sharing with one of us and at exactly the right time. Have a wonderful holiday and new year to you, Joe and Jack!!
Merry Christmas Susan! The quilt is lovely and a great gift your giving away.
Dear Susan,
Your posts are always my “comfort place”….thank you for sharing and for all the joy you bring to so many! You and Joe (& Jack, of course) are such a delight and I save all of your Blogs so I can revisit them often. I have many of your lovely books and reread them often to bring me the pleasure that is so needed in today’s crazy world. Merry Christmas to all and thank you again for all you give! Lin
Love this! It’s my first Willard! I don’t know why it took me so long to find and sign up for your mailing list, I’ve been a fan for years! So precious. Can’t wait for the next one!
❌⭕️❌⭕️
Love the quilt and would be proud to have it! But, I sure would like to have Jack too! He is certainly one of a kind!!
Dear Susan,
I loved loved loved loved loved loved loved loved loved loved loved loved loved loved loved loved loved loved loved loved loved loved loved The Mistletoe Waltz.
Merry Christmas and thank you for all the years of your inspirational writing an beautiful art work.Terry
Susan you bring the happiest feeling with you to every Willard I read (and I’ve been reading them awhile). All the meaning there is in everything you do-I’m inspired to do the same. Hope you have a wonderful holiday season. And thank you so much for the opportunity to care for the beautiful quilt.
Dear Susan,
I recently spent the last year living on Martha’s Vineyard (I followed love there, and now my love and I have made a home a bit down the coast to be nearer to family.) Your books, art, and creations kept my mom and I close when I moved away from home, and she learned the unique joys of the island only through your eyes! We get a wall calendar each year, sending pictures to one another at the first of each month when it’s all filled in; we’ve even got my aunt on the calendar train!
This post makes me feel so cozy, and that quilt is darling. Thank you for sharing your perspective, gifts, and talents so humbly with us!
Love,
Lucy Caroline
Love reading your newsletter! Thank you as I know how much time it takes to write it.
Lisa
My mom (“an old hippie”) has loved your art as long as I can remember and it’s so nostalgic to me! I’ve recently started following you on instagram and reading your blog from time to time. I too am a collector of vintage quilts, after my own grandmother gave me my first from her collection! My husband lovingly teases me that we have no more room, but you’ve given me so much inspiration for how to use them!
Merry Christmas from Wisconsin!
Susan,
I have bought your books and calendars for years. My daughter now loves all your books. I will be giving her your small Christmas book and 2024 calendar for Christmas.
She would be so excited if I won the quilt drawing. I would give that to her for a Christmas gift also if I won. You are such an inspiration, and your original story of getting to the east coast is awesome. Sounds like something I could have done .Would love to meet you someday, but I’m on the other coast.
Susan from Oregon.
What a fun and heartwarming Willard, as usual. Would love to be entered in the giveaway for the gorgeous quilt. Thank you for all the beauty you share!
Always love receiving a new Willard! The whimsy it brings! Love to see all the faces you had at Thanksgiving! As the years go on our family circle gets smaller and smaller. I miss the big gatherings the most!
Love your house in California! The garden is just gorgeous have always loved the little picket fence around it!!! Can’t wait to check out the sale!
Did you make the Christmas tree garland on your mirror? I love it!
Merry Christmas!!!
Somehow this giveaway feels meant to be. Ironically, I was recently gifted most of your books from my mom (best birthday gift ever!) AND I am just getting started with quilting! To say I’d love to receive this quilt would be an understatement. But even if I don’t, I know it will find it’s home 🙂 I just want to say thank you for sharing your words, art, quilts, and more with us. They have truly changed my life.
Thanks for the tip about putting live branches above mirrors and windows. I usually just use them for table decor. I share your love of the “first snow.” In NE ours was Thanksgiving week. Merry Christmas to you and Joe and all your loved ones.
Joan
Merry Christmas to you, Joe, and fluffy friends! Thank you kindly, Susan. These newsletters are surely gift enough, and your thoughtful giveaway is the icing on the Christmas cookie. I get out your Christmas book every December to gather inspiration and reread your stories. Thank you for inviting me into your home and heart this way. Merry Christmas!
Love,
Rebekah
“The Best Gifts Are Tied With Heartstrings” I display the little keepsake book Christmas Joy each Christmas Season and love the explanations of the Christmas gifts! So sweet as is the whole little treasure book, chocked full of stories and recipes for the holiday! Hoping you’re family is well and blessed now and through out the new year too!
O my goodness! You absolutely look happy! And also younger, thinner, and so filled with joy because you’re grounded in what you value: family, love, and simple beautiful things that have stood the test of time. You’re my hero!
Whenever a new Willard comes out. I bookmark it to savor it slowly. I so enjoy your celebration of every day. Thank you!
Hello from Oregon! I was just introduced to your blog by my friend – another Susan! Count me in as your newest fan 😊 I would love to be in the drawing for the quilt!
I’m a quilter who is pining for a vintage quilt and that one is the bee’s knees. I’m
sitting by my woodstove in Maine enjoying Willard. ❤️
I love your work and my daughter and I have enjoyed all of your books. I would love to be the winner of the beautiful quilt! Love your kitty too!
How thrilling to have YOU for a secret Santa! I would love your quit, and will be busy thinking of what I could gift back to you! 💜💜💜
Blessed be! Merry Christmas from San Francisco,where I will be having dungeness crab with champagne on Christmas Eve. Thanks for mentioning this on Instagram,otherwise I wouldn’t have read the blog. Quits and SF go together..lots of foggy nights here but so lucky to have my tabby kitty and dog to cuddle with. Keep on your journey….and Happy 2024!
Always brightens my day when a sharing from you comes my way! Love your entusiasm for life & love. Thank you Shelley Griffin
Ahh, such a perfect post for this time of year. My teacher brain is almost out of power, but this revived me. And that quilt! Would love to win 😊
Your newsletters warm my heart in a way I can’t begin to describe. ♥️ If I were to win this beautiful quilt, I would cherish it always! What a beautiful gift for you to offer, Susan… Thank you for your kindness! Wishing you the merriest Christmas ever. 🤶🏻🎅🏼🎄🌟
I have all of your books and love to read your newletters. They bring such joy.
Merry Christmas! May it be a lovely holiday for you, Joe, and your family! Thank you for all that you share!
Thank you so much for sharing your life and talents with us so faithfully. It brings so much joy to me and I know to so many others! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and those you love!
I love all your decorations for Christmas and the quilts are just gorgeous!
May you and Joe have the best holiday season ever!
I love your blog!
Enjoy your blogs I am a quilter, would love to win the quilt. I see you too are leaving California like so many. Merry Christmas.
It’s a gift you give us to write about your life and show us around. Thank you for being the inspiration that you are to so many of us. Season’s greetings!
What a pleasure to see how you live your life with such grace and joy. You inspire so many of us to live our best life by your example! Life is meant to be celebrated.
Happy Holidays!
Thank you Susan for Willard. I love everything about it. The ironing board picture reminds me of helping my Grandma while she took care of her house- she made everything a fun adventure, even ironing and hanging clothes in the line for that fresh air smell was something she took pleasure in, as you do. Looking forward to seeing your tree. Wishing you, Joe and Jack a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!
I have to ask where you got your silver wand and Joe’s silver Pimm’s cup recipe sticks? They would be a nice addition to my bar cart.
My wand, I don’t know. I’ve had it for years. I’ve never seen another like it! But I got the recipe sticks on Etsy …! They can personalize them! Was a few years ago, I hope you can still find them!
Thank you for sharing all your the wonderful stories and pictures Merry Christmas . 💖💗
Love your blog! Love your books! I have been your devoted fan for years.
Would love to be the keeper of your quilt❤️