If you are wondering what semi homesteading life is like here in the Midwest for the month of December 2025, then this update is for you! I’ll show you what is going on with the garden, in the kitchen, with the chickens, and with life in general.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot of homesteading that occurs outside during the winter here in Illinois. The garden is tucked away and it’s too early to start seeds indoors, so a lot of what happens around here occurs inside the home.
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 2025 Update For The Semi Homesteading Life
Winterish Weather
The month of December started out cold and snowy. We had received over nine inches of snow right before the calendar flipped, and it looked to be here for at least a little while.
Thankfully, it wasn’t the type of snow that caused power issues or damage to our trees like some of the snow did last winter. It was really pretty snow, and it made for some really neat ice cycles as it melted as the weather warmed up.
By the middle of winter, we ended up with unseasonably high temperatures and zero snow in sight for Christmas. I really wish we could have a white Christmas. In reality, we only have a white Christmas about 30% of the time. Maybe next year will be the year?
The Chickens – December 2025 Homesteading Update
The hens are doing well so far. Still being freeloaders, enjoying a few months off from laying. They don’t like the snow at all and won’t even step outside when there is white stuff on the ground! I think I have pampered them too much with the enclosed covered run. But at least I know they are safe and dry inside, even when there is a bunch of snow outside.
As soon as the ground thawed out in mid-December, they were back to roaming around outside and making a mess. With the rain we received towards the end of the month, they were drinking out of mud puddles like it was springtime.
They also got to enjoy a little treat that we picked up from our local Christmas tree farm. The love snacking on pine needles. I’ll also eventually put our real Christmas tree in their fenced-in area now that the holidays are over so they can snack and play on that.
The Crochet Christmas Tree
One of the hobbies that I like to do as the weather cools off is crochet. I don’t make as many items as I used to now that the kids are older. In fact, I hardly pick up my hooks anymore, but I wanted to get back into it this year. (More crocheting and less scrolling.)
I decided last year that I wanted to decorate a smaller tree and add as many of my crochet ornaments as I could. So I picked up a 4-foot tree on clearance after the holidays last year that would be perfect to put in my office.
(My husband likes to frequently remind me that we now have five trees in our house during Christmas – a small one for each kids’ rooms with their ornaments, a large real Christmas tree, a large fake one for the basement, and now this one for my office. I personally love all of my trees!)
I already had a few ornaments made from previous years, but I got to work adding a few more this year. Some of my favorites are the little chicken, Mr. and Mrs. Claus, and the Christmas tree dessert snack cake. I still have plenty more patterns printed off for additional ornaments if I get bored now that the holidays are over.
Baking Away – December 2025 Homesteading Update
The kitchen is where I’ve spent most of my time lately, and a big part of that involves baking. I’m working on waking up my sourdough starter again and trying to perfect my boules. It’s still a work in progress.
I have gotten to the point where I don’t buy bread products in the store anymore (95% of the time anyway). I make a loaf of yeast bread usually every Saturday morning that lasts us most of the week. However, I still haven’t gotten into the routine of baking sourdough bread. (Discard recipes like bagels are another story.)
Besides bread and bagels, I’ve also been perfecting my cinnamon roll recipe. I think I’ve gotten it down pretty well now and should be publishing that here soon. My family hasn’t complained too much about my trials and errors, thankfully!
Christmas Goodies
Besides baking, I’ve been making all sorts of other goodies in the kitchen. Most of which have more than expanded my waistline, so that will be a goal to work on for the new year.
Some of the Christmas goodies that were on our counter this year included my late Grandma’s English Toffee, rich chocolate fudge, chocolate peanut clusters, pillowy sweet divinity, and, of course, cut-out sugar cookies that my kids helped decorate.
We eat our fill of the desserts and then bring some along whenever we go to a family’s Christmas. Thankfully, most everything is gone when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s.
Miscellaneous Pictures
I don’t have any fun pictures of flowers blooming or the garden growing in December, so there aren’t as many fun miscellaneous pictures as I normally show. But as usual, I’ll leave you with a few miscellaneous shots.
We ate the last of our garden tomatoes on December 8th. While they weren’t quite as amazing as those harvested during the season since they were picked when they were green and allowed to ripen in our basement, they were still a delicious treat!
While I was putting up our Christmas tree in the basement, our cat took full advantage of the new climbing toy! Since we have two big trees, I now make sure to place the fragile ornaments on the real one. For some reason, the cat doesn’t climb the real one. (I learned this mistake the hard way last year when she used the fake branches as ladders and broke one of my favorite ornaments.)
Well, I’ll close the December 2025 homesteading update by saying “Goodbye” to 2025 and “Hello” to 2026! May your new year be the best one yet!
Until next time, thanks for stopping by!
– Chelsea
*This post may contain affiliate links. These are products I have used personally and highly recommend. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases if you purchase items through my links. These links and the ads on this page help to support my family and our semi homestead, so Thank You!
Discover more from Semi Homestead Life
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.