Hello, I’m back

I’ve been travelling, starting new projects and getting used to having my daughters live 3 and 4 time zones away from us. It’s a big adjustment for me, but seeing where they live, how they live and conduct themselves in this world fills my heart with gratitude about being their mom. They are good human beings and the world needs more principled people like them contributing their generous spirits to our society.

While I have been away, I have done a lot of thinking about creating hygge. I was lucky enough to spend time in Europe this summer and experiencing lots of hygge in Denmark and Sweden. Although our time in France, the Netherlands, Germany and England had it’s fair share of hygge moments too. I’ll share more of that in the weeks to come.

I am a planner, I love thinking ahead to what is coming next. Planning experiences and events is a lot of fun for me. So when my time in the warm sunshine of my garden is over for the year and all I can hear outside, as I write this, are the car tires driving by on the very wet road, I start to think of creating hygge inside. Inside my greenhouse and inside my home.

One of my favourite yearly events to plan is our family’s Christmas time together. And when I say plan, I only mean that there is food in the house, plenty of dry wood for the fire, a bottle of wine or two in the cabinet and plenty of time without deadlines and expectations. I know that the girls are excited to experience this after their exams, project deadlines and long journeys home. We will have time to cuddle up under blankets with our Earl Grey and hear all about each other’s adventures, share stories and opinions and think big thoughts. I’ll have some knitting and the girls will have time to pick up their crochet. Can you feel my excitement of having my girls close, again? Do you have family you are looking forward to having time with over the holidays?

Last weekend, I made a few little Danish Christmas decorations for a danish relative who is spending their first Christmas away from home in a seniors facility. There are some memory issues and so I thought that if I brought the familiar scent of the cedar and the colours and the decorations, it would bring back distant lovely memories of home. It was very well received.