I thought I’d share some photos of my
Christmas home decor!
This year the house is all dressed up with no place to go.
She’s hosting no parties, but she still put on her lipstick, if you will. But that’s OK, we appreciate every effort to recognize this holiday that is so dear to us…
The dogs are not part of the decor, but they are always underfoot.
I love snowmen.
And reindeer.
And trees.
I have 9, maybe 12 trees up.
Or 20.
We have one main tree, and a bunch of little fakey-fakersons I have acquired over the years… and I love every one.
For years, I have had a strong country/rustic stye. But my style preference is changing.
(I don’t decorate with chocolate chip banana bread, by the way. I just made banana bread and took a picture of it.)
I find these days my eye is drawn to gold and that wonderful blue that is popular right now.
Stockings are hanging on our fireplace, but to be honest I don’t like them hanging there. They distract from my monster-mantle.
But the kids won’t think it’s Christmas if they are not hanging from the mantle, so I leave them there.
Aaaaah, the love of a mother.
Our big tree is filled with ornaments the kids have made or received over the years.
I used to want a fancy schmancy tree.
With fragile, magnificent, breakable things.
I do have lots of little trees I could fancify.
But honestly I love our family tree, and I am too lazy to really decorate more than one. A few of the little trees have ripped-fabric garland draped around them. Simple. Sweet. Rustic.
In fact, we pack the small trees with the garland left on them. So they are practically perfect out of the box each year!
Last year my friend Christy gave me HUGE googly eyes for my tree, so those hang on our very happy tree as well…
Cracks me up every time.
My husband’s and my anniversary is the second week of December.
It’s a TERRIBLE time of year for an anniversary.
It’s hard enough to date in a normal month, let alone the pressure of an ANNIVERSARY over the HOLIDAYS.
We hit 19 years this year.
Oh we were babies!
We went to dinner on a Tuesday night because all our weekends are spoken for.
Best dinner out on a Tuesday night ever.
I have an Advent Calendar up that I made many years ago (DIY post here).
Honestly, it’s hard enough to get dinner served and homework done every night. So this guy is up purely for decorative purposes. I decided to let go of the guilt. Or, I try. We don’t do Elf on the Shelf either.
I don’t feel guilty.
I don’t feel guilty.
O.K. Maybe I feel a little guilty.
I can’t do it all.
Honestly I don’t WANT to do it all.
The one thing I know I do want is to enjoy these days with my kids that are only this age now.
*sigh*
Only one of the three still believes in Santa.
We were watching a show tonight where the parents were trying to find out what their kid told Santa she wanted for Christmas. Lucy asked, “Why do the parents even neeeeeed to know?!”
I know, believing in Santa can be controversial.
But almost everything is controversial these days.
When we finally had to come clean with my son about it all I asked, “How does it make you feel? Do you feel we were lying to you all these years?”
He said, “No… it was fun believing.”
Blessings and goodness to you as we soak up these last days before Christmas 2013.
If we have to let go of anything, let us go of the guilt…
Instead hold tight to the sweet moments only this time of year has to give.
(BTW, you can find the tutorial for the waterless snow globe seen in 2 photos above here.)
