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Deck the Halls

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Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year for many reasons. One of those though is that I get the opportunity to decorate the house. While I actually dislike putting up the lights outside, I love the final effect. I will continue to assist with it for that reason (Steven does the majority of it so I'm just an assistant.) I also love having the smell of a fresh Christmas tree in the house and changing out our decorations to fit the season. I thought this year I would blog about our decorations both inside and outside so that I can create a (virtual) memory of the holiday.

I think I will start with our outdoor display. We haven't really added anything in recent years. I don't think we have added anything, really, since before Kenzie was born. We just haven't had the time to do so since she became a part of our lives. We often have a difficult enough time getting everything done during our jam-packed month. One year we are totally going to figure out how to write "Go Dolphins" down the side of our fence to annoy our Jets loving neighbors. Next year, maybe. =)






Inside we always have our little village. We started collecting items for this quite a few years ago and have added a few new things over the years.



We have the coolest half wall in our house. It really serves no other purpose than to sort of divide the livingroom from the formal dining and to allow me to decorate it. It also ends up serving as our "mantel" in a way since we don't have a fireplace here in sunny Florida. This year I added the garland with lights. I actually had to wrap the lights around the garland that we already had but haven't used in years (we used to wrap it around staircase banisters but we haven't had stairs in a house in years.) That was quite a feat. It was well worth it though. The stockings are also new this year. My awesome sis-in-law put them together for us (Thanks, Juju!) Poor Jack doesn't have his name on his stocking... nor does he have an actual stocking holder. I don't think he minds too much though. 



I made a new Christmas Countdown item this year. A Pinterest idea that actually worked the way it was supposed to. I love it! I just bought a red charger, some chalkboard paint (I seriously have a chalkboard problem, I think.) and I already had the ribbon and letter stickers. Super easy and super cute.



Our piano has housed our nativity for almost as long as we have been married. Some of the other items on the piano get moved around the house though each year as I try to find the best place to put them.



Finally, our tree. We have bought a real tree each year since Kenzie was born. Prior to that we had an 8 foot artificial tree (and before that... and even smaller one.) I have to admit that this is my favorite decoration there is. I love the smell of the real tree and I love that each year it is different. This year the tree is a tad bit shorter than we are used to but it is FAT. Seriously... we nearly had to move our TV to accommodate it this year. It would be nice to have a front window to put the tree in, but the only front window we have is actually in Will's room so we keep it in the livingroom. The plus is that we get to look at it all the time. I can't complain. We are also still a bit old school and use tinsel. Don't worry. Jack never touches it and doesn't try to eat it. We are really careful and know how detrimental it can be to dogs if they ingest it. One of these years I am going to learn to "snow" and do that as well. I know it is a lot of work though... and I'm severely lacking on "me time" during the day to get it done so it will need to wait.




So, that's our Christmas decor. How does your family decorate for the holidays? 
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