Winter is coming. And this year, even before the temperature drops below zero in New Hampshire, it’s already feeling colder and, let’s just say it, a good bit darker than usual. For many of us who have been lucky enough to be able to stay home since March, the sameness of the days has been a small price to pay for living with less risk. Over the summer there were actually weeks when I barely gave the pandemic a thought. With an ambitiously planted garden to tend, long walks to take, and leisurely family dinners to savor on the screened porch, it was possible to forget, every now and then, that we were homebound for a reason. Other than slipping on a mask to go the grocery store and washing my hands every twenty minutes (a habit now ingrained forever), life at home in July and August could resemble something close to normalcy, albeit a quiet, isolated normalcy. That, I know, was a matter of both privilege and luck.
But with the virus surging across the land and cases in our small community on the rise for the first time, winter arrives this year with a menacing shadow. The other day my friend, gardener, writer, and popular podcaster Margaret Roach and I were chatting about how we might make it through this long season of short days, freezing temperatures, and doubled-down quarantine.
We discovered that we each aspire not just to survive these next few months, but to somehow rise up and meet their challenges with grace. To create good days at home, we agreed, would require a strategy. That means making sure we stay connected to small, tangible ways to take care of ourselves.
As someone with a bit of a prepper mindset, I’ve got the shopping part of my winter plans covered. There’s plenty of rice and coffee and toilet paper in the basement. I have long underwear and warm socks; there will be no excuses for not bundling up and getting outside in every kind of weather. That’s the easy part.
It’s the emotional demands of a long, fraught winter that will require a bit more advance planning. As always when I need to bolster myself, I turn to books. And although there will be no dinner parties, family get-togethers, houseguests, or evenings out in our future, I realize how much I’m looking forward to the opportunity to spend time this winter in the company of a few special books that feel like friends. I may or may not take a deep dive into a long novel come January. But right now, with so much loss and uncertainty in the world, I find myself reaching for books that simply offer comfort. Turns out Margaret has been doing the same.
And so we decided we’d continue the conversation we began on the phone on her popular podcast at A Way to Garden.
You can listen in here.
For a full transcript, and to enter to win one of Margaret’s favorite books, the quirky and poignant memoir How to Catch a Mole, visit her site A Way to Garden.
As Margaret said, “It’s the week before Thanksgiving in the midst of a pandemic. No one is thinking about planting petunias.” It’s true. Instead we’re figuring out how to dial back even modest holiday plans, improvise on time-honored traditions, create more with less, and hunker down for the long haul this winter. With a little intention, we can nourish our spirits and turn our homes into spaces where we feel safe, content, and cared for.
Making a list of books that inspire and console seems like a good place to start. Together Margaret and I came up with a companionable group of writers whose books are in some way a balm for hard times, reminders that our own attitudes and everyday choices have the power to make our lives happier, more fulfilling, and more in tune with what really matters.
My own comfort list is as follows.
COZY: The Art of Arranging Yourself in the World by Isabel Gillies
My husband read an excerpt from this treasure of a book in The Atlantic near the beginning of last March’s lockdown and was so charmed he immediately ordered a copy. (And I’ve just bought another one to give away to a lucky reader, details below.)
Cosy turned out to be the rare book that everyone in the family was happy to read. We even organized a dinner around the theme, complete with candlelight, comfort food, and written questions to answer and discuss.
Learning what makes each of us feel cozy turned out to be the perfect way to set a tone for the enforced intimacy that followed. How else would I have known that choosing a sweater vest to match his shirt each day makes my husband feel cozy? Or that my son Henry’s idea of coziness is seeing me pull out the KitchenAid mixer in the evening and set about making banana bread or muffins for the next day, something we now refer to as “after-dinner baking,” and which I’m much more inclined to do knowing it makes him happy.
When we talk about being cozy, most of us think of a favorite sweat shirt or a steaming cup of tea on a rainy afternoon. But Isabel Gillies suggests that coziness goes beyond mere objects.
To be truly cozy, she says, we first have to identify some truths about what makes us feel held, at ease, and at one with the world. And if we start to notice what feels cozy to us, and how we can create coziness for ourselves, then we can carry coziness into our day, bring more coziness into our lives, and know how to make ourselves cozy even in hard times.
HOME COOKING and MORE HOMECOOKING by Laurie Colwin
Ever since we started grocery shopping less often and eating every single meal at home, I tend to think about food morning, noon, and night. Many mornings I’ll read the front page of the New York Times and then turn straight to recipes to calm my nerves. My Ina Garten cookbooks have been in constant rotation since March. There’s been a lot of cheese.
But for the feeling of having a best friend hanging out with you in the kitchen, there is no cosier, more encouraging, or more enjoyable companion than Laurie Colwin. When I was a young editor in New York in the ‘80s, Laurie was both a cherished acquaintance and hands-down my favorite writer; her stories and novels were at once intelligent, entertaining, and deeply touching, and I avidly collected and read them all. Later, as I negotiated the transition from single working woman picking up take-out on the way home from the office to a mom making dinner every night for a family of four, it was Laurie Colwin’s two beguiling collections of memoir-ish recipes that helped help me find my way. Laurie died in 1992 at the tragically young age of 48, but in the years since, Home Cooking and More Home Cooking have become true classics, inspiring a whole new generation of cooks and writers.
Laurie was never a person who went out much. She took pleasure in being home, in making do, in cooking simply and then squeezing in around a table to share a meal prepared with love. Her books are as much about eating as cooking, more about the pleasures of the kitchen than about creating perfection there, which makes her something of an anti-Martha Stewart and an ideal friend for these times. Yesterday, just before Margaret and I spoke, I paged through my time-worn paperback of More Home Cooking. There near the end was Laurie’s Thanksgiving chapter, with her recipe for Rosemary Walnuts, which I’ll be making next week. It reads as if it were written yesterday, except for the lines at the end, in which Laurie looks forward to one day traveling to her own daughter’s house for Thanksgiving and creating new traditions to carry on. Lest any of us need a reminder that life is precious, unpredictable, and can turn on a dime, there it is.
WHEN WANDERERS CEASE TO ROAM: A Traveler’s Journal of Staying Put by Vivian Swift
I’ve given Vivian Swift’s enchanting celebration of place to many friends over the last few years, especially those who, because of illness or injury, have found their lives severely curtailed. But now, of course, it’s the perfect book for everyone. We’re all staying put. Vivian Swift spent a lifetime trekking around the world; she had 23 different addresses in 20 years. And then, at last, she stopped moving, settled down in a small town, and began taking stock of her life and what it means to put down roots and call a place home.
It’s impossible to convey the appeal of this hand-written, gorgeously illustrated, quirky and completely engaging book, but I can say that everyone I’ve given it to has fallen under its spell. Each page is a collage of writing, journaling, recipes, quotes from literature, odd bits of observation and natural history, and charming watercolors. The effect of it all is irresistible, a highly personal yet surprisingly universal ode to the joys of puttering, doodling, daydreaming, noticing. And every time I open it, I’m reminded that there is so much to see right here in my own home and outside my own window, even in the darkest days of winter. This might just be the coziest, most appealing book I know. It’s definitely the perfect book to curl up with on a cold December day. (Update: Alas, since I posted this blog, most of the available copies of Vivian Swift’s book been purchased and the publisher has none left in stock. In a classic demand-exceeding-supply situation, the remaining few for sale online are prohibitively expensive. If you’re looking for something similar, I recommend Susan Branch’s charming books, particularly Martha’s Vineyard – Isle of Dreams, which is also about putting down roots, self-discovery, and paying attention.)
KEEP MOVING: NOTES ON LOSS, CREATIVITY, AND CHANGE by Maggie Smith
After all these months, I’ve formed some new routines that have made this strange, difficult time a bit better. One of those is attending to my sleep hygiene with more discipline. I’ve learned the hard way what not to do at the end of the day – scroll through Instagram, read the latest political news, or try to achieve Genius Level on the NYT Spelling Bee. And so, to settle down, I pick up a book. What I want once I’m tucked into bed, with only about five or ten minutes worth of mental energy left, is something short, reassuring, and easily assimilated — the grown-up equivalent of a bedtime story to gently transport my anxious mind to a place of peace.
There are two small books that have taken up permanent residence on my pandemic bedside table. The most recent is Maggie Smith’s collection of luminous short reflections, Keep Moving. When Maggie’s 19-year marriage ended, and with it the life she had known, she spiraled into a depression so deep there were days, weeks even, when she could barely get out of bed or eat. She couldn’t produce poems during this time, but she did feel the desire to write.
“If everything was going to fall apart,” she told herself, she could at least create something. And so one day she wrote a goal for herself, just a couple of sentences, and posted it on social media. The next day, another. And so began her practice of writing a short, encouraging “note to self” – some kind of affirmation or encouragement or self-directive – every day. The question she found herself asking over and over was one I know all too well: “What now?” And the answer, always, inspired the last sentence of every goal she gave herself: Keep Moving.
Keep Moving is a book of both consolation and propulsion. It’s not lofty self-help advice, more like an encouraging friend whispering into my ear at bedtime, reminding me that I can do this, that this too shall pass, that I’m resilient enough to keep moving, come what may. Maggie’s voice may just be the one you want to hear at the end of the day, too. Keep Moving is one of those sneaky little books that confronts the truth of pain and grief head on, and yet leaves one feeling hopeful and encouraged that no matter how dark things may seem, there is something good waiting for us on the other side of loss. I’ll be giving a few of these for the holidays this year.
THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS by Ross Gay
The other book I keep close at hand for those last moments before sleep is Ross Gay’s mind-expanding, gorgeously written collection of short essays about delight.
The premise is simple. Ross Gay is a poet, a passionate gardener, a Black man who does not gloss over any of the complexities or terrors of living in America at this moment. And yet on the occasion of his 42nd birthday he decided to set himself the task of writing every day about something that delighted him. The point was not to change the world, but rather to see if the very practice of noticing delight might in some way transform him. He chose to draft these short pieces quickly and by hand, and to think of the writing as a challenge to notice everything, to create room in every day for joy. Gay says it didn’t take long before he developed a kind of “delight radar.” And he also found there’s a lot to be said for the practice of flexing one’s delight muscle, especially in hard times. The more you look for and study delight, the more delight there is to study.
There is, I think, no better prescription for this moment than books that can help us steady ourselves on the shaky ground of 2020. Pandemic life is going to get harder before it gets easier. We could all use some support as we attempt to build on the mental and emotional skills we’ll need to keep going. Each of the books in my winter comfort stack are reminders of human resilience and of our innate capacities for kindness, joy, and observation. Together in spirit, we’ll spend this long winter staying home for the good of all. But at least we can make ourselves cozy as we journey in place. And what a gift it is, with so much at stake, to be carried by words into the hearts and minds of fellow travelers, seekers with whom we share a keen awareness of loss and pain, and, too, a commitment to stay open to all that is holy, ordinary, and beautiful in our lovely, imperiled world.
how to win a copy of Cozy by Isabel Gillies
I’ve purchased one copy of Cozy to give away. To enter to win, just leave a note in the comments section below. Answer any one (or all) of the “cozy” questions we asked at our family dinner table. I’ll draw a winner at random on Saturday, December 5.
When you think of your childhood, what cozy memory comes to mind?
What spot in your house is your favorite cozy place? What do you do there?
How do you create coziness when you’re all alone?
If possible, do consider purchasing these titles from your local independent bookstore. And if you prefer to order your books from Amazon, just click on each highlighted title above. (These are affiliate links.)
And do be sure to click over to Margaret and enter her give-away, too.
Stay home, my friends. Get cozy. Make soup. Cultivate delight. Keep moving and be well. We’re in this together!
(Both watercolors above are from Vivan Swift’s When Travelers Cease to Roam.)
I’m excited to add all of these books to my TBR list!
A memory from childhood that comes to mind is getting up early before my sisters and going to sit next to the heating duct on the floor. I would balloon my night gown to create a tent and toast my front and back as the smell of breakfast wafted up the stairs. I could look out the bedroom window towards my favorite sycamore tree- great branches reaching towards the gray sky. As I recall this memory I realize that I had established a quiet morning routine to settle me, before my five siblings began to stir.
I can imagine that billowing nightgown. I have five siblings as well. It was important to find that quiet in the middle of a full house, wasn’t it?
My coziest and most comforting memory from childhood is resting my head in my grandmother’s lap – my cheeks against the soft skin of her hands. To this day it is a mystery to me how they were so soft. They were definitely some of the hardest working hands I know. Nearly 50 years later, I can close my eyes and instantaneously recall that feeling. And I often do!
I also stood over the heating grate in my childhood home! Thanks for that memory.
Some of my coziest moments during childhood growing up in Maine—coming in from the cold after playing outside in the snow, then warming up next to the old radiator. Later, as I went through school, I studied by the fire my Dad created in our family room. Warm memories for sure!
I live in a house we purchased from my Grandmother’s estate. There has always been a sofa in the living room. I sat there as a little girl on Sundays and read the crime story in the New York Daily News. I sit there now reading mysteries!
I have a similar memory from my childhood. There was a heating duct at the bottom of our stairway to the upstairs. I would sit on the bottom stair, often in my nightgown, looking at the smoke curling out of the chimneys of our neighbours’ houses on frigid nights in the winter. I felt so safe and cozy and warm.
So funny! That is almost the exact memory I was going to share also. I also would stand and let my nightgown fill with warm air! On Sunday I remember getting out of our church clothes and laying a blanket over the heat duct In the hall and All four siblings tucking under it and sharing the Sunday Funny papers, talking, laughing and or snoozing as the smells of mom’s cooking wafted up the stairs!😃
Thank you for these beautiful recommendations.
As one of six children, I remember going outside with extremely winter-unworthy gear. Yarn mittens, bread bag liners in boots, polyester snow pants. It was the early 1960s. Maybe everyone’s gear was this way. We’d be covered with snow burrs and soaked through to our undies. We would change while my mother cooked a pot of hot chocolate that filled the kitchen with happiness. Then came the Fluff. Marshmallow Fluff. It melted into the hot chocolate and stretched off the spoon from mug to our sticky mouths. Cozy. Warm. Together.
Bread bag boot liners, to help slide the boots on and off over your shoes! Thank you so much for reminding me of this Mom Trick — I had no idea other families did this too!
I loved this reminder of the bread bags. Adding to this after we 4 siblings came indoors we draped our wet clothes on every radiator in the house to dry while we waited for hot chocolate with marshmallow fluff and hot buttered toast with cinnamon and sugar. We are so lucky to have memories of a more simpler time!
Thank you Katrina for giving us comfort when we so desperately need it! Happy Thanksgiving and may your blessings be many!
I loved your list of books! Thanks for sharing them!
I remember that during an ice storm, when the power had been out for days, my parents made a fire in the fireplace and we read books and listened to stories for hours. Then we slipped into the coldest sheets that I could imagine, but we were happy.
Thank you, Katrina, for this post.
Having read Cozy at the beginning of the pandemic, I appreciated Isabel Gillies concept. For her, cozy is all about “what makes us tick”; which requires us to know who we are, and which sensual pleasures bring us a feeling cozy. A memory from childhood that makes me cozy is recalling what it felt like when my mother wrapped me in a towel after emerging from a bath. While I’m sure it was a simple task for her to do during a nightly routine, it always made me feel cozy.
Laurie Colwin: I have had her two cookbooks for many years, and was so sad when I heard she had died so very young and there would be no more cookbooks and no more novels.
When I was a child in post-world war 2 England, the family would often meet at my paternal grandparents’ house for Sunday afternoon tea. While the grownups caught up on the goings-on of the past week, I would hide under the dining table. This was covered with a maroon chenille cloth edged with bobbles hanging almost down to the carpet, forming a sort of warm and cozy cave. I felt safe and protected and soothed by the buzz of conversation going on above without me.
Cozy is reading with feet curled up in a much loved, sink-in squishy, rust-red velour rocker recliner in my childhood home during a snow-day from school. Usually, on the end table next to me were potato chips and French onion dip and a Pepsi, a love of which was bestowed upon me by my mother.
Feeling “Cozy” is a GIFT! Thank you for the reminder of this gentle sensation…..another reason for gratefulness during this week of reflecting about all we are blessed with! To me, cozy is curled up on my little lazy-boy swivel rocker by the winter fire with a cup of spicy Christmas tea in my favorite tea-stained mug with my warm Pittsburgh Steelers throw draped over me for extra warmth. Currently, our Christmas tree overlooks my little rocker and illuminates the pages of my current read. Thank you for your beautiful words conveying the importance of savoring “cozy.” Happy Thanksgiving!
I’ve just read a little book “Pottering: A Cure for Modern Life” by Anne McGovern which I think you might also enjoy. As a Canadian, I refer to it as puttering and it’s something I love to do! Maybe something to add to your list?! 😍
My favorite spot is a big chair and ottoman in my living room, next to the fireplace. On cold mornings I am covered in a granny square blanket I made in my favorite colors. I read, crochet, look at my phone. My dog usually sits on the ottoman near my feet.
Thank you Katrina for the lovely blog post this morning. And I love your book recommendations. I haven’t heard of a single one and cannot wait to explore them 💗
“Cozy” is a warm comforter a soft glowing light and a good book
Our living room is our cozy room. A fire going in the fireplace, a candle burning, a good book, and a comfy couch with a soft blanket and a cup of coffee. It’s my favorite place to be during this time.
Wonderful suggestions 🧡🍁🍂Thank you! The cozy memory that comes to mind when thinking of my childhood is being with my grandmother. She really knew how to love just by being herself & sharing time with you . We gardened , baked ,walked in the woods & made art out of whatever was around . I learned so much about how to handle difficult people as my grandpa had PTSD from World War I . She slipped a handwritten copy of a poem by Walter de la Mare called Me , under my bedroom door after I questioned why she put up with my grandpa.
She was always filled with grace & didn’t let outside circumstances disturb her ❤️
Lovely post today, Katrina. I look forward to sharing it with my classes for my upcoming lesson on “Cultivating Joy.” “What makes you feel cozy?” is a great discussion question. Always a little more challenging in So Cal. I think back yard fire-pits are going to be great Christmas gifts this year. Thanks for the idea and all the book recommendations.
When I think of my childhood days one of my cozy memories is wrapping myself up in my blanket on a cold winters day to read one of my many library books I had taken out during the week. Also, the memory of my mom baking brownies for our Sunday night dessert and the delicious smells coming from the kitchen.
Thank you, Katrina, for another beautifully written entry and also for the book recommendations.
I love that you asked about being “cozy”, places and memories of “coziness”. My husband and I always used the descriptives “comfy cozy” when we snuggled in on a cold Michigan night or morning in a favorite place
with one or all of our three children, now all grown up with comfy cozy homes of their own.
Love everything about this post. Connections make me feel cozy! I recently moved into a much smaller place and now my “alter” is much different than what I had grown use to…..but it is the feeling that I get with my candles, music and mediation that cause me to feel connection to self, to God and to others. Cozy no matter what the size. I would be so excited to win!
Baskets, books, candles- these were everywhere in my house growing up, and they make me think of my mother and my grandmother, cozy at home.
My cozy place is right outside the house. In the barn which is my pottery studio. Time has little meaning there and the clay is mesmerizing and comforting. Thanks for the book suggestions for other times.
There are so any lovely ideas in your post, Katrina! How blessed I feel to connect with you. To answer your questions (I do love give-aways):
My cosiest childhood memory is my mother’s cakes, in particular, her attention to the seasons when it came to creating childhood memories. More than once, she made Baked Alaska for my late-January birthday. How lovely to bite into meringue and ice cream and lady fingers when the world was dark and cold, the season, seemingly endless. Thank you, Mom.
My cosy place is the corner of the loveseat by the lamp my sister gifted to me during one of her moves. The cushion fits my hip perfectly, and with a blanket on my legs, I can curl up for hours with a classic book, or listen to lovely records on my husband’s old turntable.
Cosiness is when I’m sipping wine while prepping a dinner without rush, I can chop onions without hurry, slice carrots for Coq au Vin, listen to the quiet bubble of chicken and mushrooms, and put on a CD of our son’s first band concert from a decade ago while at Hosftra.
Wow your comment made me realize my daughter was at Hofstra 10 years ago as well! Boy how time flies!
My favorite cozy place is my family room which faces south and west with windows on both sides. It is painted yellow and has a fireplace and swivel chairs as well as a comfy couch with blankets. I sit wherever the sun is, in the morning on the couch in the afternoon in the swivel chair, reading with my tea beside me and blanket over my legs, feeling grateful.
I love your question about cosy and how important that is especially right now.
This is what I’m doing now in this season for cosy: a cup of tea, a good book, sitting in my bed with pillows propped behind me.
Thank you for these lovely book recommendations! What a timely post! One of my cozy childhood memories was sneaking alone into the living room during the holidays and just sitting in the glow of the Christmas tree, with all the other lights turned off. My three siblings were usually in the TV room. I much preferred the quiet and beauty of the lights to any TV show.
Cozy for me: warm pajamas & fuzzy slippers socks
As an only child and having no children of my own, I have always made “cozy” nests to sit and read with my Dog and a cup of something (depending on the time of day), to enjoy! I have always thrived on quiet and just being alone with my own thoughts. I keep a notebook nearby to write down all the ideas that come to me. I do enjoy a nap now and then, but more in the winter. I have also made it routine to take a long morning walk by myself and catch-up with my Mom and nature. Thereafter, my Dog always comes with me on the “many” other walks throughout the day. I also enjoy cooking, so I am always trying out new recipes that I come across. I love to chop, it’s my zen!
Thankful for these book recommendations, they sound similar to what I am reading. Nearly done with “Wintering, the Power of rest and retreat in difficult times, ”
Cozy for me? My warm house with a hot pot of coffee after a morning of yoga and a brisk walk. I am teaching school remotely right now and it allows me to get up for a live stream early class and quick walk before I jump into my Zoom meetings.
PS. My other “cozy” is having our college kids home and healthy and sleeping upstairs when I begin my mornings as described above. Having them all under one roof with us… .nothing better.
When I was a little girl we did not have central heating and nights got pretty cold in western Canada. As cols as -40 F! My mother used to wrap me in a flannel sheet, much like a mummy. Then tuck me into bed covered with lots of wool blankets. Altho you could see your breath in the room during the night I was always comfy and warm.
My favorite cozy spot is the end of the couch closest to the fire with a good book and a snuggly blanket. I’ve read and loved several books on this list… going to check out the others!
I created Altars of Cozy, indoors and out, as a child. Outdoors, I made my way into groves of forsythia or other shrubs and bushes that held their density and shelter even after their leaves fell. I would bring a couple of dolls, a book, and knitting or sewing. I knitted bonnets, blankets, and shawls for my dolls. I made furniture and fireplaces out of stones, some covered in the colored foils candies were wrapped in. Maybe I would have an apple, or a chocolate bar, or Bonomo’s Turkish Taffy. Inside, I would find an alcove or a corner to make a nest, close to a radiator, bringing books, crayons, drawing paper, knitting or sewing, whatever talisman was precious at the time, be it dolls or a stuffed toy. Those were the days of “pajamas with feet,” a few pairs always under the Christmas tree! I also loved the bed, but wanted those spaces to wrap around myself, wherever I could find them. Today, my bedroom in general is Cozy Incarnate. I love my bedlinens and blankets, and shawls, and big Euro size pillows, the endless pairs of wool socks my Aunt knitted for us when she was alive. I see my favorite art on the walls, and my altar with photos of Beloveds gone to Spirit, and bookshelves with poetry, childhood Forever Books, and Tarot cards and oracles. Blankets and bolsters for restorative Yoga. Most of all, my Cat, SealTeen embodies and emanates Coziness. She is a Snuggler Supreme, and purrs and snores like there are many cats in the room! I love hot drinks on cold days: good black tea, homemade chai, or hot chocolate made from scratch, with a cookie or a piece of chocolate or caramel, maybe hot buttered toast with favorite jam or marmalade, soup to look forward to, the aroma filling the rooms with comfort and promise of nourishment and nurturing. Cozy also means the mantle of peace, and enough quiet to breathe into, maybe soft music, songs, lullabies or mantras playing. Cozy means being grateful, and not afraid or anxious, with an edge of perspective that I have these things around me that create this feeling; they may seem simple, but to how many in Our World would they be out-of-reach luxuries? Cozy is also extending Metta to All.
Thank you for all of these wonderful recommendations! My coziest childhood memory is sitting in the living room at night during the Christmas season with all the lights turned out except for the Christmas tree lights and listening to the quiet in the room against the backdrop of the sounds coming from the other rooms. I loved being by myself but held within the warmth of my family.
Cozy for me has always been ending the day in my bed warmed by a mattress heater and flannel sheets while enjoying my current book. Especially comforting on a cold winter night with the wind rattling the windows. Hibernating I call it!
Thank you for your book ideas…I truly believe books have helped me through the most difficult of challenges. My favorite cozy spot in our home is our family room, enjoying my morning coffee before the sunrise, with the Christmas tree lit, the fire blazing, and Christmas music playing.
I loved this post, Katrina, and look forward to reading the books you recommend. I always feel most cozy sitting on the couch under a heated blanket with a good book or magazine and a cup of tea. Reading your words always brings me comfort and I consider that feeling to be a form of coziness, too.
I am adding ALL of these titles to my winter reading list. For me, I am most cozy snuggling in bed (often nursing)with my infant of the season. We have 6 children and I can’t imagine a time when I will no longer be able to delight in that incomparable feeling of warmth and comfort.
Thank you for this delightful blog post! Your words are hopeful and uplifting and you’ve shared the same sentiments that many of us are feeling. I look forward to delving into the book recommendations. Thanks for sharing!
Cozy for me is sitting in my comfy chair in front of the fireplace looking out the windows at the changing weather and reading a book with the dogs lying in front of the fire. A cup of tea isn’t far away. Thanks for your blog post.
I have four sisters, and we now range in age from about 63-83. My Mother is no longer living, but is still a meaningful part of our memories. One of my cozy remembering times was having coffee or tea and dessert at my Mom or one of my sister’s kitchen tables. Talking and laughing! I miss those times. A quote I love and hope I have basically right is, “ Live so that memories are part of your happiness.” Many memories help me destress over these times.
Love your blog posts. You’re a wise, kind woman. Love your writing and pass your posts to sisters and friends.
My cozy childhood memory is going to bed with the voices from downstairs of my parents and aunts and uncles playing cards. I felt very safe and happy.
Thank you for your post today Katrina. It is always a balm for the soul. I’ll be shopping for the books on your list.
I live in South Texas, so snowy evenings are rare. When it does snow on occasions few and far between, it usually melts as it hits the ground or, if we are lucky, it lands in a thin blanket that children can scrape up to create dirty snowmen or fight with sad snowballs…. However, one year on Christmas Eve is started to snow and it didn’t stop. It snowed most of the night and when we woke in the morning and went outside it was the most beautiful white wonderland. The snow covered everything is pillowy mounds and I remember having this peaceful appreciation of total quiet. No cars or engines of any type–just perfect, blessed silence and such beauty! My father always made his special Wassail concoction on Christmas Eve and that Christmas morning I curled up in a soft throw in front of the picture window and slowly sipped my cup of cozy!
My favorite way to be cosy is to read in bed with a hot water bottle and tea! Thank you for your blog! I am always happy to see one of your posts in my inbox!
Thank you for these wonderful book ideas. I am going to see if a few are available at our library and add them to my TBR list.
Funny that so many of us have cozy memories from childhood involving coming in from playing in the snow. Mine as well. We used to eat snow with maple syrup on it after a fresh snowfall, a tradition I passed on to my own kids. It was a very cozy feeling to eat that while sitting around the kitchen table while our cold cheeks and toes warmed up.
My favorite cozy places recently are my bed and my craft room. Reading, journaling, and memory keeping/scrapbooking have been my saviors these past months.
I have soft, colorful throw blankets draped over the back of every chair in my house, so that when I settle in to read or nap, I can find instant coziness. This book sounds wonderful!
Love the book choices! Cozy is in my bed under my faux fur throw.
Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for these beautiful book recommendations, Katrina. As an Afro-Latinx woman living in a brown body and seeking daily to feel safe in this world, life does not often feel cozy, but what emerged when I imagined that feeling is always always touch. Hand holding, warm hugs, couch cuddles. Simple expressions of physical togetherness. Wishing you and your beloveds a shower of blessings!
My favorite cozy spot is my arm chair in the living room. I have a table next to it ready to hold my cup of hot tea. My knitting basket is on the floor and there is a throw draped across the back.
Cozy memories are with my grandmothers. My Irish grandmother was a storyteller and I would sit next to her while she stroked my arm and made pie circles and slices with her fingers on the palm of my hand while I listened to her. Fond memories with my Italian grandmother are in her kitchen and the smell of basil and crusty Italian bread toast.
My favorite childhood memory is the smell of Mom’s kitchen when I would come in from working with my Dad on the farm. It was the heavenly smell of Mom’s homemade bread fresh from the oven. Heaven. A close runner up was the smell of her apple pies baking. Yum.
for me, my cozy place in my home is my bedroom, the bed, lying on it surrounded by my 5 rescue dogs, all sleeping, enjoying each other’s warmth. They dream of chasing, playing, eating, and I, thinking of all things I am so thankful for. So we all cozy up, thinking, dreaming, and loving.
Cozy for me is not getting dressed right away in the morning. Cuddling up in my bathrobe to think about the day and have a cup of tea centers me and creates a path for the rest of the day
Cozy for me as a child was a bowl of my mothers’ homemade tomato soup, (or Campbells if time was short) thick with croutons and just a touch of Cheddar cheese on top. Sometimes we got ‘toast soldiers’ to dip into it. Or to round it out, gooey grilled cheese sandwiches. Our dessert was usually a bowl of vanilla ice cream ( to contrast the warmth of the soup) with a dab of chocolate sauce. A very cozy meal for a six year old. It became my go-to meal at university during times of stress.
Love the book recommendations, but especially the stories that accompany them.
My favorite place here at home is my glider that’s on my covered deck. At about 3PM every day except in the winter, I make myself a cup of tea and read. Some days in spring or fall I cover up with a blanket and my 2 Golden Retriever’s will be next to me. It’s the best!
This was a lovely interview with Margaret (I’m new to you). It’s like Margaret said, comforting snippets work best now, bc attention spans require more work these days. I actually located the Hammer book on my husband’s bookshelf bc he read it some time back, and did recommend it to me, but I never got to it. The Cozy book looks wonderful. To your question, reading with my dad as a child is a fond memory and one that elicits coziness. I can still see the old couch and chair, hear my mom making dinner, and feel the warmness of those moments. I’ve been reading more this year and now have more books to add to my pile, which is actually being read with the extra time and not just taking up space, a privilege for sure, one I do recognize and appreciate despite the churning events in the world.
Memory..being very small. Awakened from sleep, wrapped warmly in my blankets and having my father carry me outside where we could see the northern lights. ( a real rarity in Connecticut). Feeling very safe, warm and loved.
My cosy spot in this season is sitting with a cup of coffee and a good book by our wood-burning stove.
One of my favorite childhood cozy memories is sitting in my dad’s lap in his favorite chair and he would either tell us stories or read us stories. My “older” brother by 13 months would be sitting in his other knee. That was cozy in more ways than one. I also remember walking down the street every Sunday holding his head going to Sunday school.💕 oh my aching heart for my Dad and normal times.
So sorry for the errors above… holding my dad’s 🤚
Cozy when I am alone is a cup of tea in a favorite mug, a good book and a corner of the couch, woodturning stove roaring….aaaah!
Crackling sound of morning built fire. Clear sparkling 33 degrees on the thermometer after a 51 day left behind. Steaming coffee on a cup held by others before me. Children asleep on their cozy beds. The savoring of a quiet moment. The looking forward of two boys warming up on the woodstove. Perfect morning to bake with store bought eggs. The ducks are taking a break from laying till next Spring.
I take care of infants in my home and to me, cozy is sitting in the rocking chair (especially when there’s snow on the ground and a fire to warm us) holding someone small wrapped in a cozy blanket, looking into each other’s eyes and knowing that this connection is getting into their soul and in some small way, doing some good.
Thank you Katrina for your wonderful post – just this boost I needed this morning. Having lost my Mom in March and dealing with my Dad who is in rehab after falling and breaking his femur…well let’s just say I’m ready for 2021. My cozy spot has always been the kitchen – where I cook and drink coffee. I remember years ago spending time in my Gramma’s kitchen in South Dakota. She made pumpkin pies and baked little cinnamon treats for me with the leftover crust. She also added Kitchen Bouquet to her gravy as I didn’t like white gravy…now that is love! My Mom was a fabulous cook and decorator. Her holiday meals were right out of a magazine. I remember when I was a junior in high school, my Mom was tired of cooking and I was a little bored. My Mom turned the kitchen over to me and the rest is history. I now read cookbooks over lunch. My kitchen in Minnesota was small but it was the gathering place for me, my husband and 3 boys. We ate most of our meals at home and the boys would often comment “Mom, you know most people don’t eat like this, right?” I think that was a compliment. We’ve since retired and moved to Florida. I have a much bigger kitchen and it’s still the hub. While we can’t gather with our entire family this Thanksgiving, we will be grateful for those around our table and know that in the coming months we’ll be putting that extra leaf in the table.
Thank you for Sharing these books. My cozy memory then and now is sitting by the lit Christmas tree with a book and a blanket.
Would love to read this!
One of my first reading memories was my grandmother reading The Tales of Peter Rabbit to me. I can hear her today and the clicking of her dentures as she read, such a wonderful childhood memory. I feel ashamed I haven’t heard of Laurie Colwin but now very intrigued and will be looking for her books. I love to read on cold gloomy days snuggled in my chair with my favorite afghan and a cup of tea and counting my blessings for retirement and health. Stay safe!
Puttering in the kitchen is always cozy, even if I am alone.
A perfect morning to open my email and find this post. My morning spot in the east window of my living room where I start each morning with fresh, hot coffee, my devotional book and watch the sunrise….and check email. Ahhhhh. Looking forward to checking out these book titles. Thank you Katrina, let us be thankful and COZY❤️🙏🏽
I’m so happy to have several of these new to me books to read in the coming days. There will be a couple coming from my library, and some purchased ones on their way to me. What a wonderful idea to share these nurturing books. Thank you! A cozy memory that comes to mind is a day in 9th grade when my heart was broken by my then love. After arriving home from school, after seeing my forlorn face, my Mom got to work baking me cookies to ease the pain of young love.
Thank you for this list! I often share your posts with others and this one will be forwarded to all of my book loving friends! I feel most cozy when I’m sitting on my sofa in my porch, looking out at the small pond behind our home, coffee in hand, dog in lap and something on TV that doesn’t require my attention.
Would love to have a copy of “Cozy”
My cozy spot is a chair right next to a window where I can sit with my cup of tea and read in the morning. In fact, I’m doing that right now as I watch the sun peek over the mountains. Glorious! Thank you for the wonderful book suggestions. Can’t wait to buy some for me and gifts for my friends.
My summertime cozy place is a hammock in the back yard and a good book to read while I am in that place. Invariably, the book falls to rest on my stomach while I take a nap. When I wake up, back to admiring the garden around me and reading.
Coziest spot in my house is on the bed with the afternoon sun pouring onto me while I read a book snuggled under a blanket.
My cozy spot is the settee in the living room because, of course, it is where I read. Books, magazines, recipes, newspapers, all inevitably end up on this little couch with me. It develops into cozy perfection when either the car or dog chooses to join me.
The other day I took out my copies of Colwin’s cookbooks, jotted down my favorite recipes (and made her beef, barley and leek soup), then posted them on Paperback Book Swap (I’m in a letting go kind of mood). They were claimed quickly and I enjoyed mailing them to people whom I knew would be thrilled to have them.
One of my cozies and what has become a daily pandemic ritual is that my sweetheart and I play the NYT Spelling Bee together! Our skills are complementary and together we can often reach “Genius.” I don’t think I have ever done that on my own.
My favorite cozy, the main thing that has gotten me through these past 8 months, is going up to my sewing loft to work on a quilt or other sewing project. I get lost in the joy of making and into the zone of creativity and problem-solving, and nothing else matters for a few hours.
I was raised by my grandparents and they made our southern California home cozy through safety and stability. We had two dogs that felt like friends and spent Sunday evenings watching the Walt Disney show and sharing root beer floats. Although their own health and finances were limited, they gave my brother and me the closest thing to a normal childhood that they could and I am forever grateful. I miss them so much.
I have an old photo of myself around age 8, sitting curled up on the couch, reading a book in my nightgown, with my beagle, Bonnie next to me.
My favorite spot is my upstairs front room. It gets the best light so most of my plants hang out there over the winter months and it’s painted a bright golden yellow which makes me happy!
My favorite cozy as a child was being in the kitchen with my mother as she baked mandel brot (biscotti). Just this week my daughter asked if I had my mother’s recipe so we as a family could make it with her children. So you see, my mother lives on and we will create a new tradition. Thank you for your lovely and inspiring written words.
These books appear to be avenues to learn how to live better within yourself.
My father, uncle, and I all have mid-November birthdays. When I was growing up, We had a joint celebration supper at my grandparent’s dairy farm, of potato soup and saltines with homemade butter and homemade chocolate cake decorated with pecan halves from the pecan trees growing at a nearby creek. . I had no idea what a humble meal it was and still feel cozy thinking of it.
Nowhere cozier these days than snuggling with my 7 year old daughter on the couch and falling asleep beside her. Especially in the middle of the day. Her body is warm and fits just right next to me. Growing up I didn’t receive a lot of cozy feelings/expressions from my mother, so it’s hard to think of moments of coziness from my childhood. But she would sometimes clean my ears using a wooden ear pick to get the wax out. I would lay down, head in her lap, while she carefully cleaned. Then I would turn on my side, head facing her stomach, and feel her tending to me, and I would feel very cared for in that moment. I wished I could stay like that.
And when I’m alone, I feel cozy when I write my morning pages, usually in the dark with a book light on, underneath a blanket to keep me warm as the sun begins to make its way up. Either that or reading a book. Anywhere. With three children schooling from home, myself working from home and trying to cook and clean and have quality time with my family, it’s very challenging to make the time to read! But I keep trying.
Be well. Thank you, as always, for your words and your connection.
When I’m alone, I love to snuggle on the couch with a book, surrounding myself with lots of pillows, a soft blanket, some soft classical music in the background, and some chocolates nearby. Pure cozy relaxation!
My cozy is wrapped in my favorite blanket in my reading spot on the couch. Looking out at the lake, banana bread in the oven and my 95 pound lab, Timber, curled up at my feet/on my feet.
I feel the same way about winter, even though it’s 75 degrees here. I have never experienced such raw loneliness as I have experienced in the pandemic. While I’m so grateful to have health and a job still, I have so missed being in the company of benevolent strangers – in yoga, at Starbucks, in my office building. Just the fellow comfort of others going about their day. Cozy looks wonderful but I just ordered Keep Moving. Can’t wait to read it.
My favorite cozy books are yours – I’m re-reading Gift of an Ordinary Day. Xoxo
Maybe the word isn’t cozy, but peaceful, but our attached greenhouse on a cold, blustery day when the sun is out is my favorite place to look out on the world and cheer up. It’s sort of like a hunter’s blind, because birds and small animals come close and don’t perceive humans. What a wonderful topic for these times.
I recreate cozy for family, friends or for myself with the traditions from childhood and additions learned from others over the years…music on (my mom), a scented candle burning (from my friend, Lori), food cooking and even, better, baking (many family members). All these together can relax, center, distract and bring joy! And they are cheap, available, productive (the food anyway) and even time-consuming. And now my daughters do this “cozy” too!
My cosy place is the rocking chair in the corner by the window wrapped in a blanket. I like to read, watch TV, or just relax.
I enjoyed the podcast. Thank you for your encouraging words.
Dear Katrina, Just in time to fully withdraw from the world, you give gifts of companionship with these suggestions. My To Be Read pile is about to grow! On to your questions:
Childhood coziness moments were rising before anyone else in the house, making a bowl of cereal and a tent over the doors of our console television set to watch cartoons. The warm floors beneath me, the sound of my spoon hitting the bowl and quietly, my father slipping in beside me with a hug. He died in a plane crash two months before my sixth birthday. Sixty years on I still miss him terribly.
Favorite spot and what I do when alone is right where I am as I write. On the couch, “spooky bitch music” (my husbands terms for it, Ha!), AKA spa music playing softly , my Yorkies snoring gently at my side all whilst I watch the finches at the feeder on the lemon tree. Sigh.
Thank you for asking. I am now glowing with gratitude.
Wishing you and your family, cozy holidays ahead.
oo&xx – holly
I think of you as such a bright spot in my world that I don’t often think of you needing shoring up yourself, which now makes me feel so self-centered. Thank you for these recommendations. I’ve just ordered Amazon samples of each one except for Cozy, which I ordered from eBay, and will probably regift to a friend when I’m done with it (unless I can’t bear to part with it!).
Thank you, Katrina, for consistently shining your warm, genuine light. I’m a NH girl too. I left the state after graduating from UNH in 1980, and I miss the beauty of the land. Over the years, my husband and two (now grown) children and I have swum in many of the crystal clear lakes there, hiked the White Mountains, and explored lots of small towns and back roads. I miss those days…. one day, we will do it again.
Cozy is sitting on my couch, with my Papillon dogs leaning on me for warmth. Yes, I have more than one..it’s the little things.
Your collaboration with Margaret was a wonderful read.
Many a winter Sunday afternoon after my mom got our dinner started in the kitchen, my father brought out the games. My two younger siblings and I would sprawl on the floor with him, in front of the fireplace, for a round of Shoots and Ladders, Spill and Spell or Parcheesi. As we grew older, we graduated to Monopoly, Scrabble, or anagrams. On those lazy family afternoons, we learned not only the rules for those time-honored games, but also the life lessons for fair play, humility in victory, and overall sportsmanship. I saved some of those games, and my husband I and I played them with our own three children. When my father passed away, I framed his Monopoly board and a few wooden game pieces: it hangs in our living room to this day.
Coziest spot – my yoga mat in the winter sunshine coming through the window…..
I have a wonderful sherpa blanket, and an antique quilt that my great aunt made.that makes me cozy. It is well worn.
We all need cozy right now.
Love this post and the book suggestions, never even heard of any of these! Sadly, there are no independent bookstores in my area, and I’m not traveling right now, so I’ve ordered all through Amazon.
My favorite cozy area is my kitchen. I love to cook and bake for my family in here. I have a great view from my kitchen window. I have a fireplace to make the winter cozy.
When I was just 7 years old ( now 71) my family and I were living in Cairo, Egypt and in the fall of 1956, VERY SUDDENLY (within 4 hours of notification) we were evacuated from the country due to the Suez Canal crisis/looming war. We were only allowed to bring 1 comforting toy each -something that would help us feel COZY in this very upsetting and frightening time. I chose my much loved and even then, quite battered long leggy stuffed animal – Bugs Bunny. It’s been a ride – life – and thru many downs, (and gratefully many ups as well), when my soul yearns to be settled, I make a cup of tea, snuggle in with ‘Bugs’, something to read, and maybe even quiet background music – ‘he’ (Bugs) and the rest, has never failed to bring a feeling of pure coziness, even if the world around me seems tipsy turvy.
As a child, cozy was a Sunday afternoon, playing in or outside the house, while my mom made Sunday dinner.
A cozy memory from my childhood is suppertime. We always ate suppers together, and then my Dad would read a devotion, and we would pray together. At the end of these children’s devotions was a little section entitled ‘Were You Listening?’ Just a few little questions to see if you had been listening, but more to underscore the key points of the little story. I loved how my Dad would read the stories. And I loved how he would say, in a deep, impressive tone: “were you listening?!” Just a wonderful, close, cozy family tradition. It made me feel a deep sense of belonging and love.
A cosy place: a nook under a built-in desk in my bedroom – for as long as I could fit in it!
One of my cosiest memories is of my mother and myself sitting in her bedroom eating our dinner! It was wartime in England, there was just the two of us there as my father was away fighting in North Africa. It was winter so very dark by 6pm and my mother had a fireplace in her bedroom which was normal for houses in England in those days. She would light a fire, put the fireguard in front of the fire, sit me down in one of her two blue velvet chairs and give me one of my books to read whilst she went downstairs to make the dinner. I would gaze into the fire and feel all cozy. I was about three years old. She would subsequently come upstairs with a tray with my dinner on it and a drink and say, Now, hold it tight. I’ll be right back with my dinner, and down she’d go to get it. We would hopefully get through the dinner before the German planes came droning over. They never bombed our area as they were making for Manchester and Liverpool which had large navel bases. We would eat our dinners together and and then we would read to each other from my favourite book. I would make up a story in my picture book as I couldn’t read and mum would oo’h and aa’h as my story became ever more fantastic and then mum would read me a story from the same book but a real one this time. I don’t think I have ever felt so safe and secure as those days with my mum, together!
Cozy was climbing up into my grandmother’s high bed to be read to. We lived upstairs in her house. I’m the 7th generation on this farm and now have her bedroom and her name, Mommom. The cozy book I’m reaching for right now was last year’s Christmas gift from the friend who just introduced me to you: Charlie Mackesy’s “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.”
My memory of cozy growing up was the family (7 of us) crowding into the family room on Sunday night to watch Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom and the Wonderful World of Disney, with popcorn my dad always made using bacon grease(!) to cook it in. It took a lot of popcorn to feed us all.
My grandmother was a wonderful cook. I remember sitting in her warm kitchen eating a bowl of creamed spinach with a soft boiled egg on top. I was by myself, savoring the treat she made especially for me. At about 7 or 8 years old, she really understood my love for food that other people thought was “odd.”
I feel cozy when I am in my kitchen at night baking. Being a widow that has strengthened my evening comfort. It is a strange feeling. i get comfort from the actions. and expecially in these times. I love the good smells and the anticipation of having something good to eat!
My cozy memory is spending every holiday at my grandmother’s. Every aspect, from preparing the meal to placing the special traditional dishes on the buffet table for serving to gathering around her beautiful table to hand washing and drying the dishes. My brother now has that dining furniture. When I visit his home, I think of my grandmother and all the gatherings of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, family birthdays and other special events and people around that dining table and in her kitchen.
Coziness is being wrapped in my large furry throw, reading a book.
As a child, I have memories of reading in a cozy place under the shrubbery, or on the floor with a sunbeam warming me through the glass door, or in the basement atop a mound of mattresses! I loved reading thick books about animals by naturalists and biologists.
Now I feel cozy when my cat decides to settle down and purr next to me (not a lap cat!) while I’m reading on the couch.
My cozy place now is my favorite recliner with a warm blanket over me, a cup of tea by my side and maybe a snuggly, scented heating pad next to me. A book to read or a knitting project are there, too.
I was born in the Bronx in 1960 to teenage parents; our Italian American “block” was economically poor but rich in familial love and neighborly devotion. A cherished memory of compassionate coziness was the weekly visit of the Bookmobile to our street! I remember stepping into a universe of warmth and care – the librarian greeted me by my first name and saved each new edition of The Bobbsey Twins just for me! The bookmobile was the first place that I was allowed to visit alone – I can’t even begin to describe the sense of independence and love and self-assurance I felt within its small walls! The furniture was child-sized – the heat purred through – and the surround-sound of books seems to speak to me – “take me home!” To this day, libraries are one of the coziest places on Earth to me! A place to be private in public – with its hushed reverence – its helpfulness – its openness to all!
My cozy memory from childhood was sitting next to my grandma and her telling us stories! She was a very dramatic story teller. She used different voices for different characters. We adored hearing them. She often baked us cookies or bought some for us to have after the story telling. Good times for sure.
My cozy memory from childhood is a guilty pleasure as a latchkey kid: coming home from junior high school, making buttercream frosting from the recipe on the back of the Domino confectioners sugar box, and then curling up with a homemade Afghan on the living room sofa to watch Dark Shadows.
Cozy……candlelight, cup of hot tea, my current book, warm robe……enjoyed reading all these wonderful replies.
After listening to Gretchen’s podcast, I was delighted to read your post with further information about these books. Thanks you for sharing.
My cozy childhood memories are of sitting on my dad’s lap while he read to me. He was a rancher, and always had a hint of sweat from the day’s labor. His tired, gravelly voice would soothe me to sleep. My other cozy memory is of him carrying me into the house after we arrived home from a journey that had put me to sleep. Nothing made me feel more safe than my dad’s strong arms carrying me up to bed.
My favorite cozy place in my house is a window seat nestled between two large bookcases in my home office. It’s small, but so am I. It’s the perfect spot to curl up with a fluffy blanket and a warm cup of tea and watch the birds and squirrels go about their day in the yard.
So good to read of our sameness . Yes, to Milton , my bear in the corner . Yes to Loretta who leans against me , purring full throttle .
This list of books, mutual touchstones , I feel a desperation to get hold of . That will be easy for When Wanderers Cease To Roam. It
is across the room on my memoir shelf . Yesterday I felt I needed to begin journaling using it to guide me as I become familiar with pens and water
color . That thought now reinforced !
A cosy childhood memory: during the spring or fall at our rustic, non-insulated cabin, my Mom used to heat our clothes over the top of the propane heater and then bring them to us in bed. The cabin is still the same 50 plus years later and now we heat things up for her on cold mornings.
Thank you for the cozy interlude, Katrina. Reading others’ comments, along with yours, helps bring back some early memories. In the early 50’s, my father used to sit with my brother and me on the living room sofa on Sundays and read us one of his favorite comics from the Sunday paper – Dick Tracy. Not exactly a kids’ comic strip, but he loved it, and we were all sitting close together. He was naturally very funny and was also great at creating his own stories, silly, funny, and non-sensical. Sitting around the kitchen table with the family at dinner was also comforting. Mom was a good cook; we ate well, had lots of conversation, and frequently, entertainment – and sometimes serious discussions – from my parents. My present-day cozy place is reading in bed at night, but mostly it’s in the kitchen, when I’m cooking something, often some kind of soup, from scratch. Being alone in the house is even better.
Adding Cozy to my TBR list now! My favorite way to create coziness is also by baking, especially if it’s cooler outside (baking isn’t quite as cozy-feeling when I’m sweltering hot from the oven being turned on!). Monday night used to be soup and breadsticks night (until my husband was diagnosed with celiac–now the breadsticks tend to fall off the menu), which is also an immediate invitation for coziness.
I am the youngest of four children raised by my mother alone and poor. It must have been stressful for her but somehow she made a cozy home. Or that’s how I remember it. One favorite memory: sitting on her lap in the creaking rocker, listening to her read to me, probably from one of the Little House books. I love how so many of us share similar cozy memories – sitting alone by the Christmas tree, bread bags in our snow boots, hot chocolate, solitary reading, mothers cooking or baking…
Now, my cozy spot is sitting in the kitchen with a fresh cup of coffee and the NY Times crossword puzzle, watching the birds at the feeders, or maybe knitting. Fireside coziness coming soon!
My coziest memory as a child revolves around my Italian Grammy. I was a sickly child and was frequently pulled out of school before the end of day so my mother and I could make our way via public transportation to Children’s Hospital in Boston.
There I offer received as many as 10 injections in my arms during some visits. We’d be there for hours seeing specialists often grabbing a quick snack in the cafeteria.
Then there were the two long bus rides home and of course we lived at the top of a very large hill. The bus stopped at the bottom of our hill. As we neared the summit, I could smell it. My grammy’s gravy!! She’d come over to watch my siblings when they got home from school and made a huge vat of marinara sauce and meatballs! The aroma really did carry around the corner and wafted down the hill.
Upon entering my house, often times my glasses fogged up because the pasta water was slowly boiling, waiting for us. The best part was when my Grammy would run her hands under cold water and dry off then gently stroke my injection sites on both my arms. My fiery skin felt so soothed.
I was always starving after the trip in town Boston but this cozy feeling my Grammy created all done by her own hands is something I will always remember.
When you think of your childhood, what cozy memory comes to mind? Lying on a lawn chair in the garden, looking through a picture book ( I am about 5), surrounded by my 4 pet Bantam Hens.
What spot in your house is your favorite cozy place? My bed. What do you do there? Read and sleep.
How do you create coziness when you’re all alone? Hot tea, a good book with my cat on my lap.
In my house, a living room chair is my cozy place. There, I read, & read. I can’t say I lose time. Because that IS time…
Nothing makes me feel more cozy than being warm and nestled inside looking out on a raging snow storm …. mesmerizing and makes me feel so grateful for the shelter and warmth.
As a child I felt cozy nestled under the tree in the backyard reading books. I would lay down and look up under its far reaching oak branches and feel comfort knowing it housed so many animals. The moss and leaves made a fine bed. Whatever I was reading always took a chapter from nature. I’d be there for hours. Away from home yards away. Million miles away in my head from all society. Bliss.
When I think of coziness from my childhood, it was helping my Nanny Kate make and then eat pepper pot soup.
My favorite room for coziness is my sunroom, I curl up in my chair to read or just look out the window at nature with a mug of tea, coffee or a glass of wine.
Coziness to me is being alone with my thoughts to journal or a book to read with a mug of tea wrapped in my fleecy blanket.
My cozy moment from childhood was always Sunday afternoon/evening football. I never watched, but that sound in the background as I played, as a kid, was so comforting. I always love hearing the crowd sounds even now, as an adult.
Like so many others, my cozy memory is when daddy tucked us in bed with a story, while mom put the baby to bed.
Now whenever I read, my little cat settles in my lap, purring. Sometimesshe steals my bookmark. I hope our library stays open this winter.
I remember feeling so cozy when I had a very bad head cold and my grandmother stayed up with me and slathered Vick’s vapor rub all over my chest and heated a piece of flannel and pinned it to m pajama top. The smell of the Vick’s cleared my stuffy nose and comforted me as well as her tender care for me. I also remember waking at my great-grandmother’s house to the smell of homemade bread toasted and her patiently standing and toasting piece after piece as we ate it with butter and her homemade apricot pineapple jam and warm coffee with sugar and lots of milk, oh so cozy memories.🥰
Cozy memory is chicken roasting on a Sunday and my dad playing Frank Sinatra. There’s a public radio station in DC that plays his music on Sundays. It is such comfort to me to listen with a cuppa, and frequently, with a chicken in the oven.
How terrific to have more resources in our pandemic toolbox! Thank you!!!
As a child I would take my pony and my dog into the loft and read them stories. I would lay down and read aloud and Arab (pony) would contentedly munch red clover hay and Nickie (dog) would sleep but I was sure they were keenly listening to the adventures of Misty of Chincoteague or a Black Stallion book.
I live alone, and I’ve made it my mission to cozy up all the living spaces in my home. Strands of warm white lights, beautiful blankets, candles and books. Lots and lots of books! I also have two cats, a rescue kitty and an extra fluffy Norwegian Forest Cat, and two dogs, a Leonberger and a rescue Newfoundland, to cuddle up with.
Lovely to have some book recommendations like these. My cozy memories include coming in from playing in the snow to a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup; reading “A Christmas Carol” while lying under the Christmas tree (weird, maybe, and bad for my eyes, but cozy!); and sitting on a chair by my Grandma’s oven as pies baked. Thanks for the chance to win!
A favorite childhood memory is summer nights at my grandparents house. My two sisters and I in one bedroom tucked in cozily under sweet-smelling sheets dried in the sun–while my other two other sisters were in the living room bedded down on couches. My grandfather would stand in between the two rooms and play his flute, the music carrying through the house and out the window open to the fresh air.
My cozy spot at home is my secretary desk where I enjoy sitting to write while enjoying the birds at a nearby feeder and a glorious walled white garden beyond.
This post is so helpful and cozy itself! I relished every word and felt a kinship with you in so many ways. Thank you!
Question: When you think of your childhood, what cozy memory comes to mind?
Answer: Bedtime snack at my grandma’s house. When I spent the night at her house, she always insisted I join her at the kitchen table for warm milk and a graham cracker before bed, thinking it would settle my tummy and help me sleep. She knew all about cozy lighting before there were blogs and YouTube videos extolling it, so the room was mostly dark but for the dim light above the sink. We sat at the table in that dim light, wearing our pajamas and bathrobes, and ate our snack, never talking much but enjoying the moment. To this day, when I think of cozy I always think of my grandma who made every day cozy and secure for me. My life’s goal has been to emulate her as much as possible!
To create ‘cozy’ … I make a cup of strong tea, find my latest book or an old favorite (usually about gardening), and plant myself in the reading chair with my feet up. If there’s something on the stove or in the oven scenting the air, now, that’s GOOD.
Snow ice cream! A warm home, snow from outside the door and a confection made from vanilla milk.
Thanks for all the book suggestions and your post, and I loved reading all the comments about coziness and memories. I grew up in Chicago, and my mom would often have a part-time job at City Hall in downtown Chicago. She would work from 4 pm to 9 pm and take the train, but in the evening my dad and I would drive downtown to pick her up. I loved that drive, seeing Lake Michigan, and all the lights of the Chicago skyline. On the way home I would sit between my mom and dad in the car and I felt very safe and very loved. And then when we got home, my mom would make a cup of hot chocolate for me, with marshmallows. I smile just thinking about it.
Cozy is an inviting sofa, an engrossing book and immersing myself in it free of interruptions.
What spot in your house is your favorite cozy place? What do you do there? Family room. Watch TV, go on laptop, read. My dog sleeps right by my feet and keeps me cozy.
Cozy is Sunday Scrabble games with aunts one and two and the preacher from next door,
Cozy is chicken and gravy simmering on the coal stove waiting to be poured over waffles,
Cozy is the banter and the giggles around the table at days end,
Cozy is the memories that fueled me here to today
where Cozy is handed down to the next two generations
all gathered on the couch with cocoa and story books
Cozy is home .
My cozy place was actually up a tree! We had a beautiful maple in our front yard that had a branch that just fit my childhood body to perfection. I’d sneak up there whenever I could (mostly to read) and no one could see me unless they were right underneath and happened to look up. I was in nature but not too far from home-made cookies if they appeared.
Cozy is my my mother on the couch with my head resting on her thigh and her rubbing my face and forehead and running her fingers through my hair. I’m forty-five now and sometimes she will still do this for me. And if I close my eyes, I am seven again. I love this list and now want them all! Thank you, as always!
Cozy for me is putting on my soft pajamas, soft slippers, makeup off, and turning on the fireplace before getting under my weighted blanket. I have an innate habit of rubbing my feet together that calms me, and soothes me. At night it is a glass of wine, and in the morning it is a cup of English tea in my Old Country Rose China Mug. My Mom grew up in Ireland, and that is a childhood habit of mine. Thank you for the book recommendations. I will certainly purchase. May I add Susan Branch’s books, and cookbooks to your must have books?! Katrina if you don’t own them yet you must! My sister, who never reads, read them in a weekend, and lent them to me at the being of the pandemic. A wonderful author!
My cozy memories of my childhood center around the eat-in kitchen. We clustered around the kitchen dining table, reading the local newspaper, listening to NPR, and eating mom’s wonderful brunches or hot soup and cornbread at night. The lights were a yellow tint and the room looked warm and loving.
In my current home, my favorite cozy spot it the small sofa. It faces the picture window so that I can snuggle on it next to my boyfriend and watch the birds visiting the feeder or sit alone with a hot cup of tea, a good book, and a dog curled next to me.
Coziness is warm blankets, hot mugs of tea, and something baking in the oven.
Cozy = PRAYER!
Dumping out the legos for my kids to play while I have a fire going and sitting for a cup of tea is my current cozy place.
So many childhood memories, but one of those that made me feel cozy was my Mom singing while giving my little brother and I our baths together when we were very young. We didn’t spend much time with Mom because she was a single parent working the split shift as a waitress six days a week. Raised by our maternal grandfather there are many memories with Grandpa that made me feel safe and cozy, but Mom’s singing at bath time is one of the few cozy moments spent with her. Now they have all passed on, but memories warm my heart forever and always.
I think my cozy memory would have to be my mom reading to me at night before I slept. I had my teddy bear and she created a map to go on my wall of the village that Milly Molly Mandy lived in while she read me these stories of Milly Molly Mandy’ adventures. I’m originally from the UK. Thank you for this great interview and giveaway. 🙂
Coziness in my childhood brings many memories to the surface. One of my favorites is of my mother holding a big thick blanket near our pot belly stove to warm it up, along with others, and then we would run up the stairs, jump in bed and she would pile on the warm blankets. We would seem to instantly fall asleep. That was the ultimate cozy as a child.
Of so many cozy memories from my childhood, I especially loved curling up on a rainy day in my bed with Nancy Drew Books. I would read the same books over and over again.
My memory of my grandmother’s garden, I garden to this day.
What a treasure of books!
Cozy for me is the smell of freshly baked bread in my maternal grandma’s kitchen. It was a big old farmhouse that most certainly was not well insulated but the wood-burning stove in the kitchen heated the whole house. And there was nothing better than the smell of her bread baking.
I always have a big pile of books near my comfy chair, right now there are Christmas books on top of the regular pile of books. I always love reading Little WOmen around the Holiday season and I have a new one by Richard Paul Evans! When I think of child hood memories, I am either under the big oak tree outback with a book in my lap or in my canopy ruffled bed with my book and my kitty near me. I love to curl up in the corner of the l shaped sofa with a warm blanket and my book in hand and read and delight in the moment. Thanks for the chance to win! G.K.
Hot soup on the stove and the fireplace to take the chill out of the house.
Thank you for all these recommendations – they are on my book list to read – my cosy childhood memory is going with my Mom on a Sunday afternoon to visit with my grandmother, sitting with my book and reading with their quiet conversation and mummers in the background, such gentle quiet afternoons
Where else but the kitchen to warm the belly with delicious food.
I moved a lot as a child of an Air Force dad so books were constant friends that you could bring with you no matter where in the world you had ended up. I have cozy childhood memories curled up on the sofa with a good book and a warm blanket. This is still a favorite to read a good book while wrapped in a blanket. Fuzzy socks and flannel pajamas are a bonus.
My cozy place is immersing myself in a gardening activity whether planting, weeding, harvesting, anything to do with making sure they are all happy enough to produce a beautiful show and, if edible, tasty fruits and vegetables.
Big old armchair, wooly throw, and a good book, maybe with something quiet and instrumental playing softly in the background. Thanks fir these timely recommendations!
When I was young my mother and I baked on Sunday evenings for the week . Bread , sweets and often some sort of fruit tart would be baked to be enjoyed during the following days. I loved the scents of butter and sugar and the feel of the dough in my hands . Mugs of tea would steep as we cleaned up and of course we had something warm from the oven as a reward . So I bake as the wether turns cold and find some holiday music to keep me company and remind me of sweet memories.
Cozy in the morning is hands wrapped around a mug of coffee.
Cozy in the evening is a book and a fire in the woodstove.
I enjoyed reading about the books you recommended.
Listening to my Grandpa hum under his breath as he made us popcorn in the cast iron Dutch oven. He’d tell us ‘Old Man Coyote’ stories and we’d slip into our sleeping bags and fall asleep on the living room floor watching the fire place. Thinking about it makes my heart ache with longing…
Cosy for me means a cup of tea, a quilt, and a good book.
The meaning of cozy for me means a cup of tea, a quilt, and a good book.
I’ve always dreamed of home. My childhood home was pretty harsh, but I was looking for a home anyway. I was looking for a feeling of home – cozy, safe, tucked-in, warm, loved, sweet, soft. I shared a room with my younger sister and my chore was to clean the apartment every Saturday. I went to school on Saturday and after school, I had to sweep and mop the floors, wipe the dust from the furniture and take the trash out. When everything was done, I loved to breathe the freshness of the air and feel the coolness of the clean floors. It would be evening already and it was getting dark outside. I would sit at the desk with the table lamp on and look into the school books trying to do my homework, but the thoughts were not coming. I just savored the coziness of the moment and the satisfaction of the work well done.
My cozy spot in sitting in the sun room, either reading or watching the birds.
For coziness I like to wear my warm red shirt that feels almost like a stuffed animal.
I like to read a book in the chair by the wardrobe in my room . Prior to reading I will have eat a warm soup made after breakfast and cooked for eight hours in the slow cooker.
My cozy memory from childhood was going to the library and coming home and reading my book in the sunshine flowing though the window.
I love to sit in my sunroom in the spring, fall and winter when the sun is shining. It’s warm and bright and I can read something delightful or take a short nap!
Childhood cozy: lots of wonderful memories of vacationing in Maine in the long summers, in fact so great that I now live in Maine year-round. But the best is when the aunts and uncles and cousins would all gather for a couple of weeks. We stayed in the “guest” barn, which had a Franklin stove downstairs. We kids had to stay upstairs in the loft while the adults had their first cup of coffee in the morning. My grandfather would light a fire in the stove and heat water for coffee in an open blue-speckled enamel pot–sparks flying into the water and all! Charcoal coffee it was called. The feeling of all my adult relatives gathered and talking while I stayed cozy in bed was so wonderful–and in listening I learned a lot about the family!
Love this! I could picture myself there! I also remember the comfort I got listening to adults talking.
My bed is my cozy place.