Decorating for Christmas

I do soooo LOVE Christmas! I love everything about it - except the shopping! But - I especially love decorating for Christmas. I love getting ALL the boxes out from under the house and opening each one to see what is inside. I love the moment of remembering those items from last year and the little smile that I get from those memories. I love opening a box that is full of all the clearance items from the year before I bought to use this year and trying to remember what I was gonna do with that??? I must admit that a few items got put back into a box this year because I had absolutely no idea what I was thinking when I bought them and couldn't figure out what to do with them this year!!!
I was so excited when I found this tour of homes hosted by The Nester so I could peek into how you decorate and get some ideas for next year!! But - I missed the cutoff to join in her party and through her Ifound these other Holiday Home Tours to join and visit! Hooked on Holiday House Tours and Home for the Holidays .It is gonna be so much fun for me to look thru all those homes.

I hope you enjoy the tour.......

This is our new card tree. We love this idea and will be doing it from now on! I can't wait to see what it will look like the day before Christmas! It has already doubled since I took this picture!



This ledge just recently got put up in the tv room and has yet to be decorated - except for the window - so it was fun to put all our christmas frames on it and give it some life - finally!! I have painted the frames each year and we try to put our christmas morning pic in them but there are a couple that we missed so it is just the card pic from that year!


The three wisemen are ornaments that my hubby hates putting on the tree becasue they are so heavy! I think they found a nice home!


this was fun to decorate with ribbon and bright little ball ornaments


kitchen table centerpiece




our house is just a little house and we do no thave any mantels so the stockings hang in the front hallway. I did this last year and I tried to put them on a bookshelf this year but Stephen requested I put them here like I did last year - so I did!



Our tree.....when we first got married we went to the farm and cut down our tree and brought it home and it was such fun a nd smelled so good. After child #4 came along it was no longer fun it was just plain torture with a lot of yelling and crying involved from mommy and small, cold children so we bought a fake tree! It is nice to be bale to put the tree up on black friday and leave it up till i feel like taking it down! But we decided this year to get a real tree next year since the boys are older and we do miss the smell of the real tree!

My hubby works retail so putting up the tree the day after Thanksgiving doesn't usually happen as he is busy with all the Black Friday madness. So the tree ususally gets put up during that weekend at some point! It is a family event and all must be present before we can start! Mommy is in charge of the ornaments and the boys get fussed at quite a bit to "be gentle" with the ornaments throughout the process but it is pure family fun we all love! It is so much fun to remember the ornaments from year to year and see the ones the kids made from year to year and to open a new one from Grandma each year. The boys take turns each year putting on the star. It was Thomas' turn this year and he was just so stinkin' proud of himself - it was way too cute! I love sitting next to the tree and just enjoying the lights and the ornaments!




I took these pics below because I thought it would be enjoyable to show off the giant clumps of ornaments and the big holes in the tree that have no ornaments! This drives my hubby crazy and when he tried to be all sneaky and move some of them around the kids actually noticed and got upset with him!! So we now have a very badly decorated tree but it adds to the charm and beauty of it and the lights are still pretty!
i wrote on the pic but you can't read it...



Alex started a little tradition of his own with his brothers a couple years ago - He hides baby Jesus in the tree and on Christmas morning the little ones have to find him. They love this and can't wait to find the baby Jesus christmas morning!


front door wreath I just bought at JoAnn's for 75% off and quickly came home and took down the berry one we have had for a few years now! I would really like to have a big P to put on it but I can't find the bigger wood letters around my small town so it will remain bare till I travel to other parts of the world in search of better craft stores!!! I love the rusted bells. I found some rusted stars at Ben Franklin the stoher day that I think I will add to this one of these days!


I love putting up ALOT of christmas lights outside and I especially love driving home after being gone all day and it is dark and all the lights are on - that is my absolute favorite part!!! It is worth all the work for that moment!! I would keep the lights up all year if I could!




not enough lights yet...we are thinking we should put some around the windows too!


I must admit that I do tend to skip right over Thanksgiving and move straight from Halloween(which I could easily skip as well) and go straight into Christmas! I tried to put up Fall decor this year and keep it up till Thanksgiving but I just couldn't hold out - I caved - like 2 days before Thanksgiving!! I'll try again next year!


This is our Advent Log. My dad drilled some holes into a 2x4 for me to put the candles and I decorated it with garland and holly and berries that each have symbolism this season! Each night we do an advent reading and the boys take turns lighting the candles. The white ones are the sundays of advent and the last one will be lit christmas morning before we do presents! This is the first year doing the log. Last year was our first year doing advent and we used a wreath. I saw the log at a friend of ours mom's house and loved it and wanted to do that instead of a wreath. I could never bring myself to use the purple and pink candles that are traditional advent candles - red and white work just as good for us!! They still have the same meaning just not the right color - Oh well! You should see these all lit up - it is gorgeous!
We also celebrate christmas morning with a donut cake for Jesus' Birthday.

Thomas' turn - notice the concentration - this is hard work


My Santa's are one of my favorite things to put out! Quite a few years ago my mom started buying me one of these Santa's every year and I LOVE them! She hasn't gotten me a new one in a few years because they no longer go to SC on vacation! So they are scattered all over the downstairs and even on the bookshelves in the hallway upstairs!