I was recently asked by a fourth grade child if I believe in Santa. My answer was, “Absolutely”! Santa Claus is one of my favorite things about Christmas. In fact, I think we need more “Santa Claus” these days!
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Debbie Bosworth
is a certified farmgirl at heart. She’s happily married to her beach bum Yankee husband of 20 years. She went from career gal to being a creative homeschooling mom for two of her biggest blessings and hasn’t looked back since. Debbie left her lifelong home in the high desert of Northern Nevada 10 years ago and washed up on the shore of America’s hometown, Plymouth, MA, where she and her family are now firmly planted. They spend part of each summer in a tiny, off–grid beach cottage named “The Sea Horse.”
“I found a piece of my farmgirl heart when I discovered MaryJanesFarm. Suddenly, everything I loved just made more sense! I enjoy unwinding at the beach, writing, gardening, and turning yard-sale furniture into ‘Painted Ladies’ I’m passionate about living a creative life and encouraging others to ‘make each day their masterpiece.’”
Rebekah Teal
is a “MaryJane Farmgirl” who lives in a large metropolitan area. She is a lawyer who has worked in both criminal defense and prosecution. She has been a judge, a business woman and a stay-at-home mom. In addition to her law degree, she has a Masters of Theological Studies.
“Mustering up the courage to do the things you dream about,” she says, “is the essence of being a MaryJane Farmgirl.” Learning to live more organically and closer to nature is Rebekah’s current pursuit. She finds strength and encouragement through MaryJane’s writings, life, and products. And MaryJane’s Farmgirl Connection provides her a wealth of knowledge from true-blue farmgirls.
Cathi Belcher
an old-fashioned farmgirl with a pioneer spirit, lives in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. As a “lifelong learner” in the “Live-Free-or-Die” state, she fiercely values self-reliance, independence, freedom, and fresh mountain air. Married to her childhood sweetheart of 40+ years (a few of them “uphill climbs”), she’s had plenty of time to reinvent herself. From museum curator, restaurant owner, homeschool mom/conference speaker, to post-and-beam house builder and entrepreneur, she’s also a multi-media artist, with an obsession for off-grid living and alternative housing. Cathi owns and operates a 32-room mountain lodge. Her specialty has evolved to include “hermit hospitality” at her rustic cabin in the mountains, where she offers weekend workshops of special interest to women.
“Mountains speak to my soul, and farming is an important part of my heritage. I want to pass on my love of these things to others through my writing. Living in the mountains has its own particular challenges, but I delight in turning them into opportunities from which we can all learn and grow.”
Dori Troutman
Dori Troutman is the daughter of second generation cattle ranchers in New Mexico. She grew up working and playing on the ranch that her grandparents homesteaded in 1928. That ranch, with the old adobe home, is still in the family today. Dori and her husband always yearned for a ranch of their own. That dream came true when they retired to the beautiful green rolling hills of Tennessee. Truly a cattleman’s paradise!
Dori loves all things farmgirl and actually has known no other life but that. She loves to cook, craft, garden, and help with any and all things on their cattle farm.
Mary Murray
describes herself as a goat charmer, chicken whisperer, bee maven, and farmers’ market baker renovating an 1864 farmhouse on an Ohio farm. With a degree in Design, Mary says small-town auctions and country road barn sales "always make my heart skip a beat thinking about what I could create or design out of what I’ve seen.”
Rooted in the countryside, she likes simple things and old ways … gardening, preserving the harvest, cooking, baking, and all things home. While you might find her selling baked goods from the farm’s milkhouse, teaching herself to play the fiddle, or sprucing up a vintage camper named Maizy, you will always find her in an apron!
Mary says, “I’m happiest with the simple country pleasures … an old farmhouse, too many animals, a crackling fire, books to read, and the sound of laughter … these make life just perfect.”
Alexandra Wilson
is a budding rural farmgirl living in Palmer, the agricultural seat of Alaska. Alex is a graduate student at Alaska Pacific University pursuing an M.S. in Outdoor and Environmental Education. She lives and works on the university’s 700 acre environmental education center, Spring Creek Farm. When Alex has time outside of school, she loves to rock climb, repurpose found objects, cross-country ski on the hay fields, travel, practice yoga, and cook with new-fangled ingredients.
Alex grew up near the Twin Cities and went to college in Madison, Wisconsin—both places where perfectly painted barns and rolling green farmland are just a short drive away. After college, she taught at a rural middle school in South Korea where she biked past verdant rice paddies and old women selling home-grown produce from sidewalk stoops. She was introduced to MaryJanesFarm after returning, and found in it what she’d been searching for—a group of incredible women living their lives in ways that benefit their families, their communities, and the greater environment. What an amazing group of farmgirls to be a part of!
Nicole Christensen
Suburban Farmgirl Nicole Christensen calls herself a “vintage enthusiast”. Born and raised in Texas, she has lived most of her life in the picturesque New England suburbs of Connecticut, just a stone’s throw from New York State. An Advanced Master Gardener, she has gardened since childhood, in several states and across numerous planting zones. In addition, she teaches knitting classes, loves to preserve, and raises backyard chickens.
Married over thirty years to her Danish-born sweetheart, Nicole has worked in various fields, been a world-traveler, an entrepreneur and a homemaker, but considers being mom to her now-adult daughter her greatest accomplishment. Loving all things creative, Nicole considers her life’s motto to be “Bloom where you are planted”.
Happy Holidays to you and yours. Thanks for all the Santa.
Hi Marlene! Thank you and Happiest of Holidays to you and yours! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
LOVED your Santa Claus blog…It made me ” HAPPY” to read it… I really hadn’t felt the Christmas Spirit this year, UNTIL I saw your pictures and read your enthusiastic words about past Christmas memories…
HOPE your Christmas is Merry…
Hi Julie! Thank you! I am so glad you enjoyed my blog and that it made you happy – that makes me happy! I hope you have a very, Merry and Joyful Christmas! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Thank You Nicole for this lovely post. My twin sister and I were afraid of Santa. When we were very small we waited in line for a long time. When our turn came we cried and refused go up to Santa. To get to Santa we were suppose to go through a little village and then get a gift from Santa. After waiting so long our late father said we are going to get the gifts,so he went through the village to the delight of all the spectators. Nicole sorry about your bunny. That book you have from 1897 is precious as is your dollhouse. Wishing you and your family a Blessed Christmas and a Happy,peaceful 2019.
Marilyn
Hi Marilyn, Merry Christmas! I love your story about Santa! I can just picture it all! My mom was also a twin, as were my grandmother and my grandfather. My Grandmother always dressed up my mom and aunt so adorably!
We once waited in a huge line with my daughter to see Santa, only to have her “melt down” right at the steps up to Santa, lol.
Thank you for your kind words. We are missing our bunny but happy to report that Pip’s condition has improved, thankfully.
Thank you for reading and sharing, and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year!
Hi Nancy, thank you, and to you, as well! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Merry Christmas Nicole and family; Happy New Year also. It should be a good one for all of us as things have been improving the last 2 years or so. Losing a pet is hard on everyone but there’s always joy when a new one comes for Christmas. I love to see the Christmas lights that people decorate their homes with; I have many lights this year just need to get them up and on; no tree yet; we always like to have a live tree we plant in the ground and I love to decorate them outdoors too. Maybe next year I can do it up great like I want to, with music. I loved all the Santa statues you have posted. My son and my father both have played Santa’s in the past for the children. They have always loved it to.
Hi Sandi! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Your decor sounds beautiful. We also like lots of lights. We have the inside done; a few more things to do outside but it has been getting dark so early and it is so cold. We just need a few more strands of lights. We cut our tree at a local farm and got it up. It is tall and thin but beautiful and the branches are sturdy. It was the first time I have been able to put ALL the ornaments on. So far so good, as long as the kitties stay away. Love that your husband and son have played Santa. Mine used to go “Ho Ho Ho” on Christmas Eve outside my daughter’s window when she was little. So cute. Have a great holiday season, and thank you for reading and sharing with me! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
My sister-in-law got me the Mary Jane magazine for my birthday several years ago and I love it!j
When it comes, I set down and read every page right then, and, then I save every one of them!
Best magazine I have!
Have a Merry Christmas, and, a wonderful year!
I just had my 80th birthday and it has been a wonderful year so far!
Hi Marjorie! Merry Christmas! And a very, very Happy Birthday! Welcome to “all things MaryJanesFarm”! I am so glad you visited here, and isn’t the magazine awesome? Wishing you a very wonderful year! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
I love this picture of you with Santa so many years ago. You sent the one of you and I in front of our tree on Christmas morning to me when you were 5 years old. Love the Gene
Autry song which I sang when I was a child. Love, Mother
Hi Mama! I just remember how terrified I was of Santa. Maybe because he was so large. Glad you liked the blog. Thank you for always making Christmas so magical. Love you! Nicole
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours as well. 🙂
Thank you so much, Vivian! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
thank you so much for those photos that we all share from our childhood. May 2019 bring you joy, peace in your heart and great health! I look forward to wonderful writings from you in the new year. Winnie Jackson 🙂
Hi Winnie, thank you so much! I am glad you enjoyed the post. Wishing you a very happy New Year as well. I am packing up Christmas (slowly)…I hate to see it go, but will be so excited to put it all out again next year! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
So…”the” day has passed now. What was your special gift!? Will you share?
love to you and all those you hold dear,
ann
Hi Ann, yes…it was the best part of my holiday! My mom is in her 70s and has always reminisced about her best childhood Christmas, and the joy she and her twin had on Christmas Day when they opened their gifts and my grandma had bought them both a Toni doll. (Being twins during WWII they did not have a lot, and shared much of what they had). My mom’s doll was lost later and she always wished she still had her. I was able to find one that looked like the one my mom had, and I fixed her up and sent her to her. She loves it! Her happiness made me sooo happy! Thanks for asking! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole