The Ways of Her Home

Embracing the homeward call

Easy Crudité and Charcuterie Boards for New Year’s Snacking

Anyone else getting tired of eating? I think one of the best and worst things about the holidays is the food! We love it, until it's too much. After Christmas we're ready for some healthier eats, but there's still New Year's to go. Crudité and Charcuterie boards are a healthier option that still looks and feels all fancy-schmancy for New Year’s! A Crudités Board is typically veggies and dips only. I’ve been adding just a little fruit and nuts to ours lately, but the emphasis is still very much on the veggies.Veggies can include just about any you like and are usually served raw, but for the firmer veggies such as green beans, asparagus, carrots, snap peas, etc., I blanch them in ... Read more

Family Nativity Dinner

For about the last ten years, our family has kept an annual tradition of a Nativity Dinner in December. Some years it's just us, some years we invite friends, and some years we use the menu for our small group Christmas party. Since we were home for Christmas Eve this year, we planned our Nativity Dinner for that night, with just us, and it was so special! I arranged my tablescape earlier in the month to stay set up through all of the holidays, New Year's included. My table arrangement is similar to last year's New Year's table, but with a few tweaks. And I kept with the same Christmas Biltmore inspiration I used in the den. This was such a fun and colorful table to put together, ... Read more

Casual Christmas: A Different Kind of Year

Merry Christmas Eve! It might surprise you to learn that as much as I enjoy planning for special occasions, it takes me a few tries to get my Christmas game on. I very much enjoy having festive Christmas decorations around my home, but it's the process of unpacking them and arranging them that I just don't always love. This year took me even longer than usual to get in the groove. But then the girls and I went on our Biltmore trip and that's where I found my holiday spark and plenty of inspiration! I'm pretty sentimental when it comes to holidays and almost always stick with a very Christmasy red and green color scheme and all our traditional decorations. And we love it! However, ... Read more

Christmas at Biltmore

The first week in December, my girls and I had the pleasure of taking a trip with friends (Missy and her daughter) to The Biltmore Estate--a getaway originally planned for last spring which got postponed due to the pandemic. My sister-in-law and niece were planning to join us as well, but, sadly, had to back out at the last minute due to illness. We missed them greatly! I'd like to share some images from our trip, starting today with photos of the house, and following up with two more posts on the gardens and the dining (yes, food is always a big part of the travel experience!). When I've blogged about Biltmore in the past (on my old blog), I always included some history on the rooms and ... Read more

Christmas Morning Coffee Cakes

I love a good coffee cake, but I must admit that my first experiences with this baked treat weren’t too impressive. First of all, I questioned the audacity of a recipe to call anything that was not topped with icing a "cake"! Ha! Secondly, they just seemed a little blah. Until.... I became a COFFEE DRINKER! I clearly remember my first piece of coffee cake with a cup of coffee. My goodness, it was so good! And then it became clear that my problem with coffee cakes hadn't really been the coffee cakes themselves. My problem with coffee cakes was that they were truly meant to be eaten while sipping a cup of steaming coffee. The two compliment each other, and together they are a delight! ... Read more

Christmas Hello!

Good morning, friends! It's been a while, hasn't it? The fall season absolutely flew by and I can hardly believe it's Christmas! It was a very lovely fall season this year, and I soaked up every bit of its color, coolness, and festivity. However, truthfully, I felt I barely kept my head above water most weeks, so blogging took a back seat to other more pressing things. I've missed posting here and hope to get in a few Christmassy posts in the next week. I have some recipes to share and some photos from a fun little Christmas getaway my daughters and I took with some friends to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina! I also have a recap of fall in the works. Right now, I'm ... Read more

Happy Thanksgiving!

This fall, the kids and I have enjoyed lunch on the patio most days which almost always leads to shenanigans with the pets! One particular day, a couple of weeks ago, turned into a silly fall photo shoot with our fur babies, and we thought these photos would be a fun way to say "Happy Thanksgiving" today! Barney, our most exuberant pet, didn’t stick around too long. We were pleased to get him in at least one good photo. To our surprise, the cat and the bunny are pretty comfortable with each other, but, we’ve realized that the cat thinks the bunny is another cat, and the bunny thinks the cat is another bunny. And so now we call them "the sisters"! Happy Thanksgiving from our ... Read more