The White Christmas Inn by Colleen Wright

Christmas Time Book Club spread.

I am alone now, letting the warmth and flavor of homemade hot chocolate spread through me, sitting by the wood stove, enjoying the quiet that is now here at Wildflower, until a bit after Christmas… Most of the Christmas rush is done and all that remains is a crafting extravaganza on the 23rd through 25th, Dr. Farmer Moomin, is off work now and I can put him to work here at home in the cozy of our little Rockwell stylized life. Outside, the ice, snow, and rain has been beating down most of the day and finally some cold is setting in and strengthening. Gradually building until snow storms will hail down later this winter. It smells like wet ice outside. Inside it smells of fir trees, orange, and warm spices as well as the salted chocolate brownies I made earlier. Soon, cinnamon cornbread will also haunt the other winter time fragrances in the house.

Earlier, the book club gathered. This is our last meeting where two shots will be considered fully vaccinated. As of January, boosters will be required for all hoping to attend. We are a tiny club made up of somewhere between three and eight women depending on the month. We are all quite different, but we all read and enjoy sharing a reading experience together. So we meet monthly to discuss a mutual reading experience. This month we read The White Christmas Inn, which I enjoyed in some respects and was a bit disappointed by in other respects.

Gluten Free Gingerbread

I have to say, this book was at least as predictable as a Hallmark movie. It also kinda toed the culty Hallmark line. No one can kiss under Mistletoe, until wedded in some obscene born again catholic ceremony. Our favorite character was the Molly, the author of children’s books. We also kind of liked the elderly woman who stayed on even after selling the place to Jean and Tim, to run as an inn. She reminded us just a little at times of one of The Golden Girls. So a nice relief. As the story goes…. An inn keeping couple on the rocks, rent out the inn for a wedding only to have the bride and her family and maid of honor arrive. The groom, calls off the wedding leaving the bride distraught and damaged, and the inn keepers Tim and Jean, terrified for their financial future as it seems the inn is about go under. They also have a pair of empty nesters at the inn, and of course in the crow’s nest is Molly a children’s book writer escaping her christmas loneliness and lack of inspiration to go somewhere lovely to try to write. Enter the unforseen event…… A blizzard of epic New England proportions, and a father with two little girls arrives at the inn desperate for a place to stay. He arrives right after the last room has been rented to a cranky mysterious british guest who is also forced off the road by the snow. No beds left so Molly, lets the two little girls take a bed in her room combo suite. Their father takes the couch… The inn is lovely, and each guest goes on a bit of a journey through their relationships with one another. The grand son of the elderly inn helper shows up…. And all kinds of crazy christmas magic happens. I don’t want to say much more about it as I don’t wish to spoil it.

Wildflower Farm Gingerbread Cookies

This was not the deepest read we have ever done together. That honor might go to The Birth House, by Ami Mckay, or perhaps The House Of Sand And Fog by Andre Dubus III. I chose it for us because this time of year is so hectic I wanted something that would be a quick read. A beach read almost only snow rather than sunshine and sand and water.

Vanilla Sugar Cookies, decorated by Dr. Farmer Moomin.

My favorite part of this book is the food. The descriptions of food and foods mentioned have proven inspirational to me on every level as the runner of a B&B. I love this book for the food ideas alone. I made salted brownies a recipe I invented after learning about it from this book. Also made sugar cookies, and mixed up some hot chocolate…. Others brought ginger bread, and peanut butter cookies, and snickerdoodle cookies and more. We had ourselves a sugary naughty snack of christmassy treats inspired by this lovely little Christmas beach read.

Book Club Christmas Yums

We finished our discussion of the book rather quickly. There wasn’t much to say about it really. This was one of those reads that due to it’s empty sweetness, brought us closer together as a sisterhood in that it left room for us to talk about our lives and life in general and touch base about the virus we are all living with these days and so very much more. Often, of late we have been quite small in number, but this time we had a good five of us gathered. So that was really really nice. We had a lovely time chatting in front of the lit up wood stove in a tiny B&B decorated for Christmas, eating snacks from or inspired by this cutesy little read. This was a great read for a busy December, and a lovely discussion for a cold day, and good company. Everyone brought great food to share. Which was really nice. but I think that the blue ribbon goes to the snickerdoodle cookies.

Thank you for reading
Amanda of Wildflower Farm

Tags: Book club

About wildflowerfarm

Wildflower Farm, is a small New England homestead, B&B and AirBnB, in the Baystate. We came out here 7 years ago, when we returned from the better part of 10 years as peripatetic aristotelian nomads, for my husband's post docs. Upon our return, we had a plan. We had a lovely home. Everything was so clear. Then, I got sick. Things I used to eat all the time during our travels elsewhere in the world and even here before I left almost 10 years earlier made me ill. It took a couple trips to the ER and a trip to specialist... It became clear, something had changed in the way food is processed in this country since last I lived here. Some off label things was inevitably going to be my demise.

My husband and I looked around to see the clear path we were on, had exploded in front of us. We decided we had to create a new path for ourselves. We put children on hold. We found a small piece of land with a house we loved in a rural suburb in a right to farm area. I began researching how to do it ourselves. Grow it ourselves, make it ourselves, survive on our own as much as possible. We bought the property, and began plotting a new course. One that didn't involve off label chemicals. Closer to nature, with a lot more DIY, gardens, and animals for the products they provide. We created a life we loved though it hasn't always been easy and has of course come with compromise with each other, and even with ourselves.

Our family thought we had lost our minds. What were we doing leaving the city? We had no idea how hard this would be. They thought we would be back in 6 months. That was over 7 years ago, now. We have been making it work. They were not wrong, it isn't easy. But has anything worth doing ever been easy? And for us, avoiding as much store bought food as possible was simply necessary so I could live given how sick I was getting.

Then Covid hit.... We were lucky to have this place. It has allowed us a lot less need for public use territories which has kept us a lot safer and spared us much of the risk others face daily. This place, has given us a privilege through this of great meaning to us. To be of use in a difficult time. We have been able to help friends family and even strangers in need when things couldn't be found on store shelves. Or money was tight due to not working, rent being due and a child at home, or some other draining situation. We are so very grateful to have been able to not be helpless like so much of society through this miserable time. Our families, got used to it some time ago, us being out here. They made peace with it the day there was no bread and they had to ask me for some. Or when fresh vegies were rotten due to supply chain issues but they could find plenty in my garden.

Wildflower Farm, was a place I dreamed of. One of those sweet pastoral dreams a city dweller grows up knowing will never come true, that became unavoidable when I became ill. I never expected to get to do this. I never thought I had what it takes to make this work. I have learned pacing myself is important, compromise is critical, hard work never ends, burn out is real so breaks are just a necessary evil.

We are not fully self sufficient, but we work hard in that direction as we create a new path through life for ourselves, always reaching to do even more ourselves and to get closer to the ideal we envision. We are however far more self sufficient than many in this world. 7 years in, we continue to learn and grow in this homesteading lifestyle. We welcome comments and advice and ideas and questions.

We welcome visitors from all over to our home with strict covid policies in place. We spend our time learning to live all over again in a more environmental and sustainable way though even there we are far from perfect always learning and growing doing better as we know better.

This little homestead farm is a magical place named for the New England wildflowers that grow all around. A place where a physicist, watches the night sky on clear nights with the aide of mirror and glass, and a woman, works endlessly in the gardens, the kitchen, and a variety of projects to create and to keep a very unique life style running and functioning. Wildflower Farm, has become so much more than simply a piece of land we can grow a few vegetables on. The longer I spend here, the more alive the land seems, the more I learn about it's function and the more meaning it has. My place in the universe and the next steps on our new path become ever more clear.

We welcome you on this journey with us.

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The White Christmas Inn by Colleen Wright

The White Christmas Inn by Colleen Wright

About wildflowerfarm

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