So, Friday morning, I woke up and immediately checked my e-mail to see which of my favorite stores were doing the best Black Friday sales. After placing a few orders on my phone, I looked at Brian wide eyed because it hit me...it was also decorating for Christmas day!!! I jumped up and started bouncing on the bed, "You get to get our decorations down from the rafters so we can decorate today! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!"
True story. :)
My whole life I have loved decorating for Christmas. There is just something so warm and cozy about coming home to a Christmassy house. Now that we have Baylee, having decor up is even more fun, because she notices the changes and gets so excited! Bless my tired girls heart, she was so worn out from Thanksgiving and a little morning Black Friday shopping that she took a 3.5 hour nap on Friday afternoon! So, Brian and I had ample time to get all the decorating done before she woke up.
This year, I decided to go with the "less is more" route and actually kept a lot of my old decorations in their boxes. Our house is on the small side, so it's easy to make it look cluttered by putting out too much. We started with our tree and mantle. The tree has a lot of basic bulbs (plastic ones near the bottom for little curious hands of course!) and all of our sentimental ornaments that we've acquired over the course of our relationship. We have a tradition of picking out a new ornament from Disneyland every year, so we will add one more ornament to the tree in a few weeks. I love our lights that we used because we found some that are only red, green, and white...I feel like it's so unique looking!
Under the tree sit my beloved stuffed Rudolph and Clarice. They were gifts from the company one Christmas when I worked at Build-A-Bear and I have cherished them every Christmas since.
I'm so happy with how my mantle turned out this year! I put up some simple garland with white lights and then found some amazing wooden snowflakes that give it just the right touch. We also invested in some new stocking holders (15% off on Target.com today!) and new stockings from Hobby Lobby for Baylee and me. I love how the plaid and wood all look together...so cabin-esq. (Totally a word.) Brian, of course, has his Marine Corps stocking proudly displayed.
As usual, I made a new chalk board picture to display on our half wall between the family room and kitchen. Totally didn't even realize I did the same quote as last year, but I'm sticking to it because I like the way it turned out. :) Keeping with the "wood" theme, I found some wood gift tags and tied them to some twine to make a banner to hang underneath my chalkboard. On either side I have Chesapeake Bay candles in pine that I snagged from Target for only $3 a piece on Black Friday! They smell amazing too.
For the dining room table, I went simple this year and filled one of my nice bowls with pine cones and bulb ornaments. I added my candlesticks to either side and boom! Instant centerpiece. I set up my Nativity scene on the corner of the booth this year, and it fit perfectly. This set was a garage sale find from last year. Brian happened on a lady who collects nativity scenes and was selling a bunch of them for cheap. She claims this one was purchased in Italy, which, if it's true, if pretty dang cool to this Italian girl! I love the way a simple Nativity scene helps keep Christ in Christmas.
Another great Target find this year was this twine and clothespin kit to hang Christmas cards with. I never know what to do with all my cards with what little space we have, so this is a perfect way to display them as they come. We even received a few this year already!
I'm so very in love with our little Christmas house this year. When there is a fire in the fireplace, this is my view, and it makes me oh, so happy. :)
When Baylee woke up from her nap and saw all the decorations she about flipped her lid. She was screaming and pointing and giggling, and it made our hours of hard work so completely worth it! I think she already has this Christmas thing figured out...she gets it from her Mama. ;)
Oh, and an honorable mention, Brian put Christmas lights up on the house over the weekend as well, and they turned out fabulous! He even managed to string the lights out to say "HO HO HO" on our fence. My Christmas joy must be rubbing off on him. You think I can get him to make it say Merry Christmas in cursive next year? ;)
Until next time! XoXoXo
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