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 
Such a perfectly charming Susan Branch giveaway! I adore the beauty and sentiment of carefully crafted old quilts. ❤️
Such a generous giveaway! I love old quilts and the stories they hold.❤️ Two of my aunts were wonderful quilters and quilted until they were physically unable. Merry Christmas to you and yours!
What a beautiful family! That looks so special to celebrate the holiday in your lovely cozy home.
Happy holidays to you and Joe.
Linda
I just want to say that you make my heart smile. I love your energy in your books, on Instagram, and online. It’s so nice to know that someone as beautiful inside and out as you, your sweet husband Joe, and sweet kitten Jack cohabit this world with me (and my daughter who also loves you xoxo)
My mum told me about your books and I read The fairytale girl, it inspired me so much and you are someone that brings me and my mum a lot of joy
. You are a beautiful human 🥰 Have you read the book Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney? You have succeeded in doing just what the book inspires it’s readers to do, “do something to make the world more beautiful” you have certainly made the world a more beautiful place thank you 💐 I wish you and Joe all the happiness in the world 💗
That is so kind of you to give away such a beautiful and cozy quilt! You have the kindest heart. Merry Christmas to you and Joe! And Jack of course! 🥰♥️ 🎄
I love your cozy blog! 💕 Thank you for sharing!
What a generous gift to give a way! Love your Instagram and blog posts. Oh and just so you know, we also have a tux cat that would look perfect on that quilt. 💕🐈⬛
I have been a fan of yours for many years. One of my stress relieving pastimes is quilting. I love seeing your amazing collection. Thank you for sharing your art and life with your fans. Merry Christmas. ~Kelly
Merry Christmas!
Your writing, photos and music are just what my soul needs. You make my heart feel peaceful and hopeful. You are our Christmas gift Susan! My own Tuxedo rescue kitty would love to cuddle in your quilt!
Mele Kalikimaka <3 Always looking forward to your blog post. I wish I was in the market to buy a house, its truly is so dreamy, especially with the garden and all. Love to see you, your family, Joe, and Jack are healthy and doing well. Lots of Love from Maui!
Beautiful! Everything is beautiful in your life!
Always enjoy your uplifting blog. It may be a long read, but ever so wonderful to take time to enjoy all the goodness you lovingly bundle together for your readers. Keep us posted on the CA property. I may need a project in the new year. Wishing you all the best!!
Hi Susan (and Joe!)
I LOVE your blog post. Yes, it did bring happiness and light into my world, just like you planned. Your posts always do that for me and for all of us, I’m sure! YAY! It is so wonderful that your friend, Martha’s husband wrote the beautiful Christmas song that you shared! I wish him all the best and cannot wait to hear it again and again! The rest of your post was filled with happy Thanksgiving memories and photos which brought so much love and happiness that is obvious in all you do, Susan! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing your Christmas joy with all of us. MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Hugs, Sharon
P.S. It’s time to get my Christmas books out and YOURS is one of my favs ever!
Susan,
To be sitting at a table listening to all your adventures would be magical. Your family is wonderful. I know you will enjoy the holidays with lots of visitors. I always enjoy Jack’s antics. He is just a wonderful cat. Quilts have always be a thing that draws me right in. The call Comfort when I see them.
…”kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think… it’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world “..Anne of Green Gables.. ‘so good to hear from you again, dear Susan ! ..we need to stay hopeful and grateful and love, as always ❤️ much peace to you and Joe and Jack 🥰
Hello dear Susan! I am cooking a celebratory dinner for my husband and we will also be opening the bubbly..as I wait for things to cook I am enjoying your words and pictures and music, thank you, you always manage to make me feel happy! Big hug and enjoy this most beautiful of seasons..with love from me, Chris, in the UKxx
Oooh the mistletoe waltz is lovely, as well as your beautiful family! I live in California and your property is gorgeous, it will make somebody very happy! I’m also a quilter so I know the love that was sewn into this beautiful quilt!
XO
Merry Christmas! ❤️💚 Thank you for offering this wonderful opportunity to win a beautiful quilt. 🤞 Oh, what a treasure. Hugs to Jack.
I wanted to tell you that your newsletters are such a happy place for me! 2023 has not been a good year but going to your books and newsletters brings me peace and glimmers of joy in a life that feels like a whirlwind (going through a divorce with two young children and owning a business!). Thank you for what you do. Much love to you this Christmas season from North Carolina!
Susan, as always you are a joyful inspiration. How I’d love to have a non-standard one if a kind Susan Branch quilt to make our home a bit warmer. Thank you for sharing your wonderfulness!
Thank you for that lovely Christmas waltz song! A very merry Christmas to you and Joe, and all your family. I truly appreciate my random Willards (love that name) throughout the year. Peace!
Susan, thanks for sharing your life full of joy and memories with all of us. Always love hearing from you.
Merry Christmas to you and Joe.
Cindy
May you be blessed for your generosity. The quilt is most beautiful. Cannot help wondering who created this masterpiece. Thank you. MarySue
Thank you for your inspiration. I am welcoming into my home my son, his wife and their young sons plus two kitties for the next six months. The youngest has a life threatening condition and they need our close location to the doctor.
God will bless this opportunity and we will grow closer as a family.
God bless and Merry Christmas.
Hilarie Day
I am recuperating from surgery and just enjoyed reading your posts about your wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and the beginning of December and preparing for Christmas! I also enjoyed the Mistletoe song! Thank you for sharing such beautiful snippets of life! And thank you for the entry for the heirloom quilt (minus the kitty, I understand!)
Wishing you a Merry Christmas! Mary Ann
Thank you for sharing your lovely, cherished Christmas memories.
What a beautiful and uplifting blog post. Thank you so much for sharing with us. I hope you and everyone else has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Thank you for this chance to win a lovely quilt. Happy Christmas to you and yours, Susan. xo
I’ve been following you for as long as I can remember, reading your wonderful blog is a gift in itself. You make it so simple and remind us that it really is the little things. Thank you for your way with words as they are magical and a gift!
I tried your dressing for Thanksgiving and it was just as I remembered my grandmother making….delicious it really is the Best recipe ever! Merry Christmas to you and Joe and of course sweet Jack!
Thank you for such an upbeat Willard. I have been struggling with the world lately and feeling so discouraged at man’s inhumanity to man. You really did perk me up and help me to stay calm and carry on. Have a lovely holiday season and a happy and healthy New Year.!
Love the beautiful, early 1930-40’s quilts. I have one, very frayed, done by my father’s aunt Ada, in Indianapolis, early 1930’ or before. Dad was born in 1915. Parts of the Dresden plates have been framed individually for decor. I am a ‘late-in-life’ quilter that enjoys every minute. Just discovered your ‘site’! Merry Christmas!!
Oh my goodness Susan, 1,361 comments already! Well now I kinda know where your house is in Arroyo Grande…have looked for it one too many times while staying in Pismo. Have never had the wonderful pleasure of owning a handmade quilt, but like you, use to paint little treasures using quilt patterns.
Love that Joe shaved his beard, he’s such a handsome guy, no need for the fur nest on his face, lol.
Gorgeous! Love your site so much!
Dear Susan,
Merry Christmas to you and Joe! I just saw your post on IG and I immediately perked up! I am a collector of old quilts and have made a few for myself over the years. I would love to be the recipient of your beautiful quilt as I would treasure it and share it (just a little) with my twin sister and daughter who have been inspired, like myself for your love of cooking and entertaining, family, friends, tips in the kitchen, and the beautiful messages you sprinkle throughout your books. My twin sister and I learned to cook from Heart of the Home until the book started to come apart. So we bought the 30th Anniversary edition. My daughter’s favorite recipes are from your collection of books. I could write on and on. Each of us has your entire library of books and hope you will write a few more. We look forward to your Calendar. Anyway, I am battling Breast Cancer right now and would gently warm my heart and sole if I won your quilt. We love you Susan. Warmly, Amy, Angela and Kortnee. Merry Christmas.
Your quilts are all just beautiful! I am a novice, and hope one of mine will be as pretty as yours! Merry Christmas to you, and all of your family, Susan, and thank you for all of your wonderful posts! I enjoy them so much !!!🎄❤️
Hi Susan,
Your posts always bring happiness to my day.
So glad you had a lovely Thanksgiving with your family.
Wishing you the merriest Christmas!
xo
🎄💗🎄 “If we give gifts, can we do so as an explicit expression of God’s generosity, and perhaps with a modesty that keeps the main Gift clear? If we decorate, can we not adorn our trees and homes as the Israelites of old wrote truth on their doorposts? And if we make merry, can we not also make plain, in both silent and spoken ways, that Jesus is Lord of the feast?”
– Scott Hubbard
desiringgod.org/articles/the-curious-history-of-christmas
Just a thought.
Sent with love…💗
Oh Susan!! Thank you for your posts!! I wait for them and read them over and over again. I know you brighten many lives with your Willard, books, pictures and your way of making everyone feel so “at home” in your posts.
Thank you again for sharing your wonderful life with all of us!
The quilt is absolutely beautiful, whomever wins will be blessed beyond words.
Merry Christmas Susan. The Mistletoe Waltz music touched my heart. Thank you for sharing. I share with you that creative people do have a tendency to “worry”. You are not alone but like Kelly Clarkson said, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”! Hoping you and your family have a blessed Christmas and please give Jack thanks for sitting on the quilt. 🙂
Always anxiously await your new blog! Love Love the Christmas Carol by your neighbor. Would love to be included in the drawing for your quilt Marlynne Snare
The “Mistletoe Waltz” definitely sounds Jane Austian (word I just made up). It is really lovely. I’d love a new antique quilt for our not so antique new home, which is a mid-century rancher. We just moved here & while the new home is nicely updated, I’m sorely missing our former 100 yr. old residence of 22 years. Maybe once we have a holiday here & make some memories, I’ll feel better…
Oh my goodness – aren’t you the nicest! What a wonderful giveaway.
I just love old quilts. Something about the colors.
I always love looking at all of your images, Susan, and reading your writings.
Your life is a good one 🙂
Debra
(in Rhode Island)
Awww, what a delightful post, as usual. Thanks for sharing, thanks for the uplifting and inspirational words, thanks for all the artwork and photos…you’ve MADE my day!
Happy Merry Christmas and Joyful Healthy New Year to you and yours. XO, Virginia
What a joy to read your beautiful post. Rest assured your beautiful quilt would be much loved in this home-of-a-quilter!
Hi Susan, thank you and I’m so happy that you mentioned your quilt giveaway on Instagram, this is very exciting! You certainly know how to make Christmas so special! I really enjoyed your post so much as I always do, I’ve been following you here since you first got your website! I remember getting Willard’s in the mail! Wishing you and Joe a magical and blessed Christmas and keep a song in your heart. ♥️🌲🌟❄️
A note from a friend and with beautiful music. Thank-you. Merry and joyous everything to you and Joe.
I LOVE Earl Grey with lavender tea! My favorite. Quilts are also a favorite, and would love to have this one grace my reading chair!
What a sweet thought to have a quilt of your own. My grandma gave me a quilt that was made by her great grandmother! It always makes me think of the ladies at church sewing on a quilt in the fellowship hall growing up. So many beautiful memories! Thanks for sparking them!
I love all of your quotes, books, calendars and oh just everything. You are an inspiration and I thank you. I would love to be entered for the quilt. Thank you for all that you do. Happy Holidays and Happy 2024!!!
Thanks for the Willard Susan! Merry Christmas to you and Joe.🎅🏻🧑🏻🎄🎄
I am such quilt fanatic and my favorites are old hand stitched scrap quilts!
So what a thrill to see these here!
Thank you for sharing to whoever wins this one!
I love the pictures of you and Joe. My husband passed away unexpectedly a year ago. He was my best friend and I miss him every day! Enjoy every moment you can be together! Learning to quilt was on my bucket list and when I retired I began to quilt. My Grandmother quilted and I cherish the quilt she made me. I am so happy it is not a lost art. I haven’t been able to quilt this past year… my heart just isn’t into it. I hope my desire to quilt returns. Until then, I love looking at quilts and wonder who made them, and who they were for? A lot of love goes into handmade gifts. I hope anyone who receives them appreciates them. They are an everlasting gift of love!
What a lovely Williard! I could smell your Thanksgiving dinner and feel the love of your family around you. Once again reading these notes of your life has brought a smile to my face. Thanks again for the bookmark and a chance to win a bit of your cozy home. Merry Christmas to you and yours!
I so look forward to reading the Willard when it arrives in my email. You make the ordinary days of our lives seem so special…it inspires me to look at my life in a new way. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
So glad you had family to spend Thanksgiving with. We got to have our new granddaughter here this year. It was lovely to have Miss Iris (named for my mom), our daughter, son in love and his folks. We had such a good time! And I know you did too! Merry Christmas to you and Joe and Happy New Year too!
I love your blog; I relish reading it. I save it until I have time to snuggle under a fleece throw next to the fireplace with a cup of tea. Have you tried Harley & Sons “Holiday Tea”? It is delicious.
Thank you, dear Susan, after all these years of reading your books and blogs, I feel we’re friends. Thank you for sharing your home & heart and inspiring me to savor time at home.
Dear Susan, So kind of you to give away a quilt. It brings back memories of my bed as a child with quilts. I like the way you decorate with them and your clean windows with starched curtains. Enjoy December and your January trip to California. Travel safely and get the moving finishe.
Happy Christmas! Love the beautiful posts! Enjoy your train ride!
Hello, I am French but I always read your posts with great pleasure. Your home is beautiful and your family is so warm. Thank you for sharing these human and sweet things. Merry Christmas to you
I love your Willards so much. They always bring me a sense of calm and coziness. Thank you for being you!
Wishing you and Joe the Merriest Christmas and a New Year of endless possibilities! Thank you for your “Willards” from the very first one, that I have kept over the years. Your art and thoughtful insights and collection of inspiring quotes brings hope and joy to many of us who have followed since the very beginning. Take care!
Oh Susan, I love your Willards so much! They are presents unto themselves. So wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing so much with all of us and helping to enrich our lives and make us a little bit happier, especially this time of year. I wish you the very Merriest Christmas and the happiest 2024!! Much love to you! ❤️❤️❤️
and Merry Christmas and wishes for a very Happy and Blessed New Year to you and Joe! I enjoy all your Willards and book recommendations!
It was just lovely hearing from you again. So glad that you are well and have been enjoying your dear ones. Merry Christmas to you and Joe and of course, Jack.
Thank you for making a world a better place by sharing your heart and your art! From one quilt lover to another…
I love getting the Willard, makes me happy! Merry Christmas!🎄
Merry Christmas 🎅 🎄
Thank you so much for being you and sharing so much joy with the world!
That turkey looks absolutely perfect!
Thank you Susan, for gifting us all with a small piece of peace and joy. Your lovely posts make me feel happier and calmer in this crazy world.
xxoo
Suzy
Every time I get homesick for New Hampshire I go to two websites: Cannon Mountain to look at their daily photo as I reminisce about skiing there as a child and teenager; the second website I go to overcome homesickness is yours! The photos of the island bring back visits to Nantucket at my aunt’s house. You and my late mom have the same sense of Hygge and nesting. Reading your blog makes feel cozy like my mom’s house in NH. I can’t believe all the original photos, notebooks, journals, ceramics, quilts you have and love that you post a lot of then and now’s! Thank you for sharing so much of yourself with us. Merry Christmas!
Susan, I have enjoyed this Eillard So, so, so very much. I have read and reread. Some points bring tears. But with tears come such beautiful snd Wonderfully warm memories!! I love my family so much and work hard to keep our times together coming. I love you and Joe for the joy you bring others and myself.
God Bless you both in this Holiday season and have wonderful and safe Trips in the New Year. I do not comment often, but read all the time.
Love receiving your emails. Everything is just so cozy and makes me so happy 🙂
I was just looking at an old copy of Yankee Magazine that you and your house are featured in Susan. It’s such a cozy article and reflects you to a T. I always love your words, they always make me feel cozy and special and glad to be alive! I truly hope that one of your girlfriends purchases your beautiful property in California. It sounds like a dream. Merry Christmas to you and Joe!
Dear Susan, I just love reading all about the beautiful life you and Joe have created together. My husband and I just returned from a visit with our adult children and their families. Sitting on the couch snuggling with my four-year old grandson (and he snuggling back) is a memory I’ll carry with me for as long as I have a memory! 🥰. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, your stories, your beautiful artwork…and thank you to your parents for nurturing such a loving family. Merry Christmas.
Hello Susan, I have followed you for a very long time and love receiving your newsletter. Feel a true kinship with you having lived in the UK way back in the 70’s.
Wishing you and Joe a blessed Christmas and New Year 🎄 Beth
Love your long posts filled with music and photos, Merry Christmas Susan!
As always lovely blog post! The song so beautiful and dreamy! Merry Christmas ❤ 🙏
I so enjoy reading about all that you’re up to. Happy Holidays!
Once again, a great Willard. What a lovely Thanksgiving you had full of memory making fun. Our family started a new tradition this year, and while there was some sadness in missing the old tradition, the day was fun and filled with new adventures. Best wiishes in the New Year.
I love reading this post.. It’s so heart warming and family oriented
As yourself, I have a deep appreciation for quilts. Several family members and friends have gifted me with their beautiful pieces of creative work. Your quilt giveaway is a very generous offer and will be a treasured gift. Enjoy your train trip to California and good luck with the sale of your gorgeous property.
Linda F
Thanks for another heart-warming post, Susan. Gets me right in a festive mood. Wondering if you’ve seen the movie “The Man Who Invented Christmas”? It’s on AMZ and stars Dan Stevens (Matthew of Downton Abbey) as a young Dickens. Also Christopher Plummer as Scrooge.) I’d be surprised if you haven’t seen it…it’s just so you. It came out in 2017 and is now part of my Holiday ritual (I also watch The Bishop’s Wife circa late ’40’s every year while wrapping presents…Loretta Young, David Niven, Cary Grant. An absolute delight).
Wishing you and Joe and Jack a wonderful Holiday Season. And then…2024 here we come!
In Light,
~Elizabeth
Such fun movies!!!
I looked for your blog throughout November. When I didn’t see one, I worried about you! Thank you for the time you take to choose what to write about, and which pictures to use. It delights me. And I also love home and quilts and come from a big family. Born and raised in the northern San Joaquin Valley of California, I am a longtime New Yorker now.
A very Merry Christmas to you and Joe! Love the Willard and feel like you get me. I love quilts, old and new. Especially, since I have no sewing talent. Haven’t touched a sewing machine since my home ec teacher banned me from it back in late sixties. LOL. I do help tie and pin edges on quilts for foster children with the Pocket Pal gals at church. Each quilt has a pocket sewn in and a stuffed animal put in the pocket. I feel so lucky to be a part of a great group of ladies adding a bit of sunshine to a foster child during a scary time. God bless you! Hugs, Rosemary Brandt
Hi Susan – I recently met Kellee in Atascadero at the new warehouse where I picked up my 2024 Susan Branch calendar. I hope you will still come to visit the central coast of California once in a while even though you won’t have your house in Arroyo Grande. I love reading your adventures and especially love New England where my family is from and I still have some who live there. Merry Christmas to you & Joe.
Sorry to see you are selling the house in Arroyo Grande. We live in Cambria and loved it when you had your store in Arroyo Grande and the time you came out and gave a talk at the Madonna Inn and autographed your books.
We’re coming in January … I just haven’t had time to set anything up!!!💖
Sorry to see you are selling the house in Arroyo Grande. Wish we were younger
and able to tackle that much property. Love the old quilts. I inherited two from my husbands grandmothers.
Merry Christmas, Susan!
Thank you for Willard! It’s wonderful and speaks to my heart. My friend told me about it a while back but it took me quite a while to connect and am I so glad I did – it’s a gift – and I hope you find the inspiration your heart needs so you can keep sharing it. Merry Christmas and God bless!
The world needs more of this kind of love. And a new old quilt is such a perfect gift. Love color!:-)
Whew! You’ve been busy!
Susan ~ I cannot wait to get your new calendar and hand it on my fridge! I LOVE your work SO much. I love your books, they are some of the best books that I have ever read AND I love JACK! We just had to put our Kitty girl to sleep. We are heartbroken. 🙁
Merry Christmas!
😢🙏❌⭕️
Merry Christmas! Enjoyed this Willard so much! It’s a big responsibility being the link between generations, but so important that every family has someone to keep our parents’ and grandparents’ stories, memories and traditions alive.
A Fine Romance is truly a vacation for the mind!A warm snuggly memory filled quilt would definitely warm the soul.Merry Christmas to you !
Hi Susan. I’m greeting you from a heat wave in South Africa and absolutely love your artistry in your illustrations and the way you convey your life to us. I’ve been an avid fan for many many years; since the early 2000’s. We don’t have a quilt tradition here in South Africa, although we have many other amazing traditions, so I would dearly love one of your beautiful works of art. Have a beautiful Christmas and New Year and may you continue to adorn your pages with all your wondrousness! Lots and lots of love at this time and always. Vanessa. Xxxd
Hi Susan! I want to tell you what an inspiration you have been for so many years. I have met you at least three times at various book talks and once when you had your adorable store in Arroyo Grande. I visited your happy island this fall and loved every little nook and cranny of it. Lucky, lucky you! Happy, happy holidays to you! Raquel
I enjoyed reading this. I took your advice and did what I have wanted to do and stayed in England this year for three months. It was beautiful, have you seen the photos of the beautiful snowfall they have just had in the Lake District , Happy Christmas.
Oh where did my comments go ?
I’ve been MIA for awhile.
Good to see everything as I left it.
Happiness, whimsy and good will!