December 2024 Homesteading Update: Preparing For Holidays

If you want an update on semi homesteading life for December 2024 here in Illinois, Zone 5, then this article is for you! With the garden asleep and the cold weather taking hold, there isn’t a whole lot of gardening going on.

My days are mostly spent caring for my houseplants, preparing for the holidays, and spending time in the kitchen. And also a little relaxing thrown in there between the holiday craziness and the start of the new year.

With these updates, I hope to do more of a “journal” type of post at least once a month to keep you updated on life here. Hopefully, it will allow you to get to know the person behind these articles (me!) and how we run our semi homestead a bit more.

This will allow me to share the loads of photos I take on my phone instead of having them collect dust in my camera gallery. (You can also look for updates on Instagram if you want to follow along with me there, too.) I’ll also try to link to posts that might be relevant to what happened during that timeframe.

Hopefully, you enjoy getting to know a bit more about our life here in Illinois and how the homestead is going – Both the good and the bad!

Our December 2024 Update For The Semi Homesteading Life

We’ve been pretty lucky in regards to the weather. With only a light dusting of snow on the ground and temps mostly staying around 40º Fahrenheit, it still felt like fall.

I know that the arctic blast of winter will eventually take hold once January and February come around. In the meantime, it’s nice not to be stuck inside from snow and the chilly air.

We did have our first dusting of snow. There wasn’t enough to stick around for long, but it allowed the cover crop and mulch to start doing its job in the garden.

The young chickens also got their first taste of snow. I don’t think they were overly excited. Only the young girls even attempted venturing outside! Thankfully, we already had the plastic covering on the run. They were nice and warm inside the run while it was white outside. (Product Link: Flex-O-Glass Plastic Wrap)

The only real gardening thing I did this month was work on my seed inventory list. I wrote down all of the seeds I have saved from previous years as well as the seeds I’ve saved from my own garden. Now I won’t have to worry about purchasing duplicates when I get the itch to buy more seeds for the upcoming spring.

Caring For Houseplants – December 2024 Homesteading Update

Now that there are fewer daylight hours, it means putting more time and effort into our potted plants. Between it getting dark before 5:00 pm and the lower temps, some of them needed a bit of TLC.

A few that we had on our porch now needed to be brought inside. Others that had thrived in the window light now needed the help with artificial light. So rearranging and finding places for everyone is always a bit of a challenge during the winter months.

Oh, and don’t forget the new purchases I may have made since our local garden nursery was selling their indoor houseplants for 75% off. (Who can resist that good of a deal?!)

What’s That Smell?

One of the purchases I made was a large Dieffenbachia ‘Tropic Snow.’ Anyway, long story short, if you ever notice a particular odor coming from near your Dieffenbachia, check the plant for blooms.

We couldn’t figure out why our living room was suddenly smelling like Asian beetles. (If you know that smell, then just imagine.) After cleaning profusely inside and out (including the windows), I found out that the blooms on a Dieffenbachia sometimes emit a lovely odor.

Since the plant doesn’t typically bloom indoors, there isn’t a lot of information about it on the Internet. Anyway, I said goodbye to the blooms and the smell immediately went away! #themoreyouknow!

Some Recipes I’ve Made – December 2024 Homesteading Update

Here, the winter months are all about cooking and baking. Now that I’m not spending as much time outside in the garden or with the chickens, I spend what I can in the kitchen with my oven running.

That includes getting my sourdough starter, Doughlene, back up and going. Often when we are busy with the garden and other events, my starter hangs out in the refrigerator. Now that the temps are cooler, I can get back into baking.

With the holidays at the end of the month, it also means making all sorts of delicious goodies. Three of my favorites are Cinnamon Sugared Almonds, Old Fashioned Divinity, and Homemade Chocolate Fudge. I try to make them every year for the holidays, and they have become family favorites.

I also have the tradition of making cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. Instead of my regular cinnamon roll recipe, I have a “quick” recipe that doesn’t take as long. I can start them later in the morning and still enjoy fresh rolls before lunch.

Lastly, to help say goodbye to the year, our family always makes a “feast” of some of our favorite foods. Some of them are horrible for you like store-bought mozzarella sticks and little smokies while others are better like cast iron steaks and crab legs. Everyone picks a few of their favorites and that is our meal to close out the year. It’s a fun tradition that our family loves!

Miscellaneous Pictures

As usual, I’ll leave you with some miscellaneous homesteading pictures. I take so many different pictures throughout the month that it’s hard to get them all on just one post so I like to do a photo dump at the end of my updates.

I had a goal in mind of crocheting a ton of holiday ornaments. Eventually, I plan to buy a smallish Christmas tree to display them all on. Two of the patterns I tackled were written by Spin A Yarn Crochet for Santa and Mrs. Claus. They turned out a little bigger than I expected, but I still love them!

Every year for Christmas, we put up my beloved Nativity set. This is the Willow Tree Nativity. Over the years, I’ve had several of my family members buy me pieces for this nativity, including my parents, my husband’s parents, my brother, and my brother-in-law and his family. So this is a very special piece for me since it came from all those closest to me.

This year I found the perfect place to put it – on top of a new-to-use vintage pie safe that we purchased this year. The overhead grow light I have hanging up for my houseplants made the perfect atmosphere for the holiday scene.

And lastly, a little picture into our home of what we spent a lot of time doing in December – sitting around the live Christmas tree and relaxing. Although I don’t enjoy the darker nights and cold weather, it’s definitely nice to slow down a little bit.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and have a great New Year! Bring on 2025!!

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!
– Chelsea

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