It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas.....

It's the day after Christmas. Slowly, oh so slowly, the aftermath of the big day has been cleaned up. Our Christmas tree had puked up a pile of toys, trash, and packaging all over the living room. Throughout the day, with the "help" of my 4 year old Peanut, most everything has found its new home. All that lingers is the smell of Christmas. What, might you ask, is the smell of Christmas? Well, read on my friends. 

I wasn't sure if I was going to write a post about this particular Pinterest idea because I didn't think it really was working well. I made a batch of potpourri that you simmer on the stove. I had almost all of the required ingredients for it and I knew we would have people over Christmas Day. Why not try it out and make the house stink pretty smell nice? 

We got home pretty late on Christmas Eve after spending the afternoon and evening celebrating Christmas with my family, dinner, and a candlelight service at church. Once we got Peanut settled into bed (close to 11:00pm), I threw the potpourri together. I let it simmer for about 30 minutes before bed, took a whiff of it over the stove, and thought "That's a pleasant, albeit faint, smell." Just left the saucepan on the stove and went to bed.

Christmas Day arrived and I turned the stove back on to simmer. The potpourri smelled a bit stronger, but it was overpowered by the smell of taco soup simmering on the stove as well. Still was impressed by the faint whiffs I would get of the potpourri, but wasn't sure if I would ever make it again. Left it sitting on the stove in the saucepan and went on with my business.

I decided today to give it one more chance before I gave up on the whole project. I had taken the carcass of a turkey and made broth throughout the day (that in and of itself smelled pretty good). After that finished, I began simmering the potpourri again. Glad I gave it another shot, because boy oh boy, it smells WONDERFUL in my house. The smell is permeating the whole house. The fact that I let it simmer longer than the last two days and that it doesn't have any other smells to compete with probably helps. It also probably helps that it has been marinating for several days. 

Now you're most likely thinking to yourself, get on to the recipe! Without further ado...the recipe!

It even looks as pretty as it smells.

• Slice up one orange or just use orange peels
• 1/2 cup cranberries
• 1 Tbsp whole cloves
• 3 sticks of cinnamon
• a bit of grated nutmeg if desired (I skipped this ingredient because I didn't have any!)

Throw all ingredients into a saucepan, add water to cover, put it on the smallest eye of your stove, and turn it on to the lowest setting. Keep adding water as it evaporates. The batch should last for several weeks. While it may turn brown and murky, it'll still smell good. 

Give it a try and let me know what you think!