One of my favorite things to do in winter is star gazing – provided the sky is not clouded, of course. You can turn star gazing into an actual evening event. There are websites that tell you which constellations are to be seen in the night skies. Now, dress yourself warmly, get yourself a hot […]
Advent Calendar December 17: Gifting
Do you have all your Christmas presents wrapped and stowed away either in a hidden place or arranged them under your Christmas tree already? To be honest, it’s not always easy to come up with something original when a recipient “has got everything” and even starts to downsize. Yet, there is always something you can […]
Advent Calendar December 16: Crafting
Do you have a little time on your hands and don’t feel like reading or watching TV? Do something creative and start crafting! You could work on some table decoration for your Christmas dinner. Or you could come up with a new ornament for your tree or evergreen branches. You might even find that there […]
Advent Calendar December 15: Snowflakes
Do you enjoy snow? The very first soft flakes tumbling down from the sky, dancing in all directions, becoming a whirl? Watching them from a warm room – isn’t that one of the coziest things ever? To imagine the cold and wet out there, to observe how the grass gets a thin layer of white, […]
Advent Calendar December 14: Telling Stories
Nothing is more relaxing and creating ties than doing things together – as a family, as friends, as partners in life. One of the coziest is sitting together and telling stories. Whether it is sharing the background of family traditions or talking about an especially funny or tense Christmas, about your favorite things to do […]
In the Book Nook with … Tessa Floreano
Author Tessa Floreano, who works as a content strategist on large corporate websites, lives on Ames Lake near the farming community of Carnation, WA. She has been writing since 2009 and seriously since 2014. Her first book was published with The Wild Rose Press in 2022. Her 1920s romantic mystery, “Slain over Spumoni,” won First […]
Advent Calendar December 13: Winter Walks
Taking a walk is some wonderful exercise, anytime. But during winter, it is something that is a bit taxing as well. We have to layer us against cold and rain (if not snow), and the time window we have is narrow, as the days are so short. But once we are outdoors, it is extremely […]
Advent Calendar December 12: Christmas Cards
Have you written all your Christmas mail already? Maybe even received one or the other card yourself and placed it on a sideboard or a mantlepiece? If you haven’t sent out your cards yet, there’s still a little time. Think about the joy a card chosen with care will create with the recipient. Nobody expects […]
Advent Calendar December 11: Christmas Markets
Has anybody of you ever been to a European-style Christmas market? One that is built like a small town of cozy huts decorated to the nines and located in a town center, not inside a building? It was one of my annual joys to go see the small-town ones around my native town of Stuttgart, […]