Five on Friday: The Competing Scents of the Season

A walk through my home in December is like sniffing your way through an olfactory winter wonderland. I'd love to share it with you but I don't know how to make this list a scratch-and-sniff. I'm going to have to relay the scents to you visually. You're going to have to use your imagination a little bit . . .

1. “Mom, know one of the best things about the gingerbread? The way it makes the room smell!" Take a deep breath, it's true . . . mmmmmm.

When do we cease calling it a gingerbread cookie and just call it a candy cookie?

 2. Sure, their scent can be a little . . . overwhelming at times . . . but THEY ARE PRETTY AND I LIKE THEM ANYWAY.

And they have a fun name! Paperwhites!

 3. Our living room is too small and complicated to put the Christmas tree in but I like to have SOME green in there. So I usually place evergreen branches over the bookshelf but then I have to clean pine needles the rest of the year (that's not even an exaggeration, I found a few this week). I swore this year I wasn’t going to do it but then I thought maybe boxwood wouldn't be so terrible? I'll let you know next month. And year.

Looks pretty but is it going to be awful? Time will tell!

4. Every fall I dig up my rosemary plant and bring it inside. Every fall it dies. This one isn't dead yet so in the meantime it sits there looking pretty and  adding to the myriad aromas in here.

Then when it dies it'll be like I have a pot full of dried rosemary!

5. Hm, what was that last one I was going to put on the list? The fire in the fireplace? The way the main fire-tender's hair (mine) smells faintly of campfire to anyone within a five-foot radius? (Ah, so that's Gina's enchanting new fragrance!) No, that lasts through March at least. What was it? Ah yes--a scent specific to December, of course, would be our lovely little tree smelling all fresh and Christmas-y.

Here it is, all looking pretty and smelling good, not in the living room.