It feels like home

I've been thinking a lot about home lately. Mostly I think I've been thinking about it because of family birthdays. My nephew and my dad just had birthdays, and my brother and sister-in-law just had their anniversary. I suppose I've been thinking about it, because my family is all so close together now, and I'm well I'm on the other side of the country. Chad and I have been married for almost 9 months and there are still boxes to be unpacked, items that need a place to live in a cabinet or drawer that still haven't found there way yet. But yet, this is our home small and unfinished as it may be. I made a loaf of bread for the first time last week it seems there is always something lovely about bread baking in the oven. For a few minutes it made this tiny apartment feel more like a home. The smell of fresh baked bread had an easy time reaching every corner of our place and it was truly lovely. It made me remember the good smells of my mom baking all kinds of goodies when I was a kid. That and the ongoing fight between my brothers and I when I wanted M&M cookies and they wanted anything that was all chocolate. But it makes me ponder home. What makes a place home? For for 21 years home was the same smallish town in Clermont, where my parents had grown up and both of my brothers and I grew up. But now, I'm far away from that, learning to make a new home. A home far from the home I've known and different in nearly every way. Yet, I'm realizing it isn't just me. There are a lot of people I know and love doing the same thing. I have friends who are preparing to add to their homes with a baby for the first time ( a few actually, guess there is something in the water in dear old Clermont). I have good friends who have recently moved, and the new place I'm sure doesn't quite feel like home yet. I have former youth who are moving into dorms some for the first time, others for the last time. So what makes a place feel like home. For me, home is where my husband is and that is the simple answer. But I can remember things that made it feel more like our home, like this past weekend we finally finished getting one room put together with the purchase of a lovely shower curtain for the bathroom ( I know this sounds small, but to have one room finished really feels good) Comfy sheets are very homey, fresh baked bread ( or really anything baking), my bed makes me feel at home ( when you have spent nearly 4 of the last nine months sleeping in some other bed because you are traveling it makes you appreciate yours).
So what makes you feel at home? And if its a person...have you told them lately?