Our house at Christmas

We moved into this house on November 11th, 2012.  Last year I had just barely finished unpacking and putting everything in order when I had to switch gears, put everything away and decorate for Christmas.  It was a real pain.

 

This year was much more joyous and fun.

 

Michael put the lights on the house the 1st week of December.  We had 3 strands that didn't work and we've had no motivation to buy more, so there is a big empty spot on the right.  Oh well, it's still pretty, albeit lopsided.

All of the neighbors on our little corner go all out with lights and decorations so we created a little display this year too.

 

 

My dad found this wreath in my Grandma's house.  It's OK but not beautiful (it's pretty cheap looking in all honesty) so I stuck it on the picket fence by the front door.

Nathan and Kendra didn't know what to buy me when we did our early Christmas exchange after Thanksgiving so Kendra took me to Hobby Lobby and told me to pick something.  That was very, very, very dangerous of her.  I settled on Christmas pillows.  I didn't even know that I wanted Christmas pillows until this past August when they made their appearance at Hobby Lobby.  Now I want to buy hundreds of them.  Maybe thousands.

 

The living room

I tried to take some cool pictures of the tree using different settings on the camera.  I was about 15% successful.

 

The entry way

I saw this picture at Hobby Lobby in October and immediately fell in love.  I bought it on November 1st despite the fact that I felt ridiculous buying something so early.  It's a good thing I did because it was no longer available by the next week.

We've already decorated for Elliott's dinosaur party this weekend.  I don't typically hang a stegosaurus streamer from the ceiling at Christmas.

Looking into the dining room. 

 

We've had those stacking boxes since 2005 and the only kid that has ever knocked them over was not one of my kids.....and my kids immediately knock over every stack of blocks the second they are spotted.  I guess my kids have an inborn healthy respect for holiday decorations, as they should.

 

In the dining room.

 

 

 Hallway closet

 

1 of our 17 million Christmas countdowns.

We have 2 countdowns going on the "days until" blackboard: Elliott's birthday and Christmas.  That Santa on the pantry door is another countdown.

 

Above the kitchen cabinets.

 My grandma gave me this little angel Tweety bird when I was in high school.  It's supposed to be a tree topper, but I thought he was more appropriate in an actual bird cage.

 

Kitchen island

The santa on the left is yet another countdown.  The basket is new this year.  I like having all of our Christmas books in the same location.

The little trees (that are actually all over the house) are left-over decorations from our wedding reception.  Our 12th anniversary is coming up on the 29th.

The mantle

 

I cleared away all of the toys so we could take our family Christmas picture here.  It is never this neat and tidy.

 

Closer

 

And just in case, even closer.

I put wrapping paper on the picture that always hangs on the wall and then hung Santa over that.  Michael thinks it looks ridiculous.  I told him that he was ridiculous.  And wrong.

 The bathroom

 

I laugh at myself that I feel the need to label this, as if we have another room in the house with double sinks.

And that is it! 

 

I probably won't make it onto the pages of Better Homes & Gardens, but we enjoy our Christmasy house.