My Christmasy Home

Is it me or has the entire Christmas season been accelerating at warp speed?  I want it to stop so I can just enjoy it at my leisure. But instead, for the first time in YEARS, I feel the hustle of it all.  Yet I love it so much that I am just trying to enjoy ALL aspects of it and just go with the flow.

And decorating my home for Christmas this year has been more of an evolving process for me because we just bought this house in May.  We are still remodeling the master bath (which has been on hold since my husband lost his job) but we finally got the tile set over the weekend.  Hubby did it with a friend and it looks great!  Baby steps.  Baby steps.

Speaking of babies...MY BABIES...I wanted to thank you all for your amazing feedback from my last post.  I may have been overly sensitive but I really wanted to hear what all of you had to say.  And the comments and emails that spoke directly to my heart were the ones that reminded me that God has not given me a spirit of fear.  I believe it is my job to protect my children but I also believe that God has a plan and a purpose for this blog and for my children.  Nothing happens outside of His will and I believe that if I am praying over this blog, praying over my children...God has already overcome any obstacle. He is our Rescuer, our Tower of Refuge, our Horn of Strength   So thank you from the bottom of my heart.  This blog is not going anywhere and neither are my girls.  At least for now!!

Now back to Christmasy stuff...
 (view from outside my window)

Come on in and peek around.
Don't you just love that?  To peek inside homes to see all their pretty holiday decor?
It is so warm and cozy! 

This year we bought a tree that was a little taller than we needed so we could trim off the bottom to the exact height leaving us a ton of branches.  I was able to make 2 wreaths for the front door (my first time ever making a wreath with live branches). It is not very neat but I kind of like it because it is natural looking.  I left them plain because I liked the look so much.

We love having our tree in front of the window.  Most everyone in the neighborhood does which is SO pretty.  Out house in front of our window does not have cathedral ceilings yet it does within the room. 

Does that make sense?  

I don't know what it is called but there is this drop ceiling as you come in the front door.  But the window was the best place for it and we really love it.

This is the top of my bookshelves right under the apex of the cathedral ceiling.  Most of my decorations have a silver, gold, green, white, major sparkle thing going on.  There is red thrown in here and there but I dig LOTS of sparkle!  I mean...a  lot!

This little baker snowman is parked on my kitchen counter...appropriately next to my kitchen aid mixer.  He makes me smile every time I look at him. I also have a rather large collection of snowmen. Love 'em.

This is my dining room buffet with...surprise...sparkly fruit.  

I even took all the pine cones from my fall decor and glamed them up with glitter.

 The snowflake garland is actually a bunch of crochet ornaments tied together to make a garland.

 That photo over there is of my hubby and I on our first Christmas when we just started dating.  

And he had a mustache. I did not like it.

 He shaved it shortly after and it has never returned.  

I don't feel one bit bad about it. 

Here's a close up. I wish I was not laughing  as hard as I am right now.

It feels wrong somehow.

 My dining room table is decked out with silver and gold.  

A partridge in a pear tree is the centerpiece which I made.  It is so pretty! 

  I don't think that is a partridge but no one would know that, right? 

Here is a better view of it.

 To solve the dilemma of having no mantle above the fireplace, I hung a bunch of garland and put our stockings up with clothespins stamped with our names.

(sorry they are dark and blurry)

 Last night, my BFF (Kelly) and I hosted a Silver and Gold Ornament Exchange with the Pre-K and Kindergarten moms from our children's school.  It was super fun!  We had yummy desserts and coffee.

 We also had a cookie buffet that looked so pretty in glass containers.

All the women were able to take home cookies and my BFF, in her ever present brilliance, came up with idea of using shirt boxes, lined with waxed paper, to take home the cookies.  The closed boxes were then wrapped in silver or gold ribbon.

And in keeping with my adoration for all things sparkly, I came up with an idea to put gold glitter in water and float tea lights in reused glass candle containers.  

It turned out so pretty! Have you seen this before? 

To clean it up, I strained the water through a paper towel so I could catch all the glitter and wiped out the excess in the glasses with a paper towel too.

 I wish I had more photos of these precious women who have become such a blessing and gift to me.  I am so grateful for for each of them.  Those photos all turned out blurry too!

And last but not least I will throw in a random pic of my girls because they looked so cute with their heads together looking at their play computer.  It was a rare moment where they were playing nicely. :)

Plus, I am standing on faith that this blog is a legacy for them.  And even at this moment Ella is standing next to me pointing to this picture exclaiming, 

"That's home! And...and...and...that's my bear!"

Too cute.

Merry Christmas everyone!  

Hope you are enjoying these precious days before Christmas.

Hugs and love to you all!