Christmas Decorating

I had such great intentions of getting this posted a few weeks before Christmas but well now that things have slowed down and it's almost time to take it all down I have time to post it. :) One of my favorite things to do all year is decorate the house for Christmas. This year I felt that I stared early, right after Thanksgiving, but boxes and unfinished things sat around the house for a few weeks before I could get it all done. We seemed extra busy on weekends and evenings this year so I had to do little bits here and there, which took longer but worked out just fine.

 The living room.

I love these doors...one of my favorite things about the holidays is all of the cards we receive. I wrapped both doors in a very thick red ribbon and tied a bow. I used little clothes pins to attach the cards. 

Side table in the living room. The photo is a picture of my grandpa as Santa, myself when I was 2, my brother a few months, and my cousin 1. Grandpa dressed up and came every Christmas Eve until I told Santa that his shoes looked like grandpa's. :)

Our fireplace mantel. 

Our tree. I love the bunting and this year I added a few burlap bows.

I love to wrap presents. I used 4 or 5 different wrapping papers, polka dots stripes, Kraft and plain green. I mix up the ribbons and use tulle as well. For the tags I bought Kraft paper tags that were pre-cut. I also bought glitter paper at the craft store and cut out letters for first names. I put washi tape on the tags, taped the letter and wrote who it was to on the back of the tag. 

I bought that green glitter paper and only wrapped one present with it because the tape wouldn't stick. Bummer. :) 

Every year for Christmas my mom would get me a snow globe. I have quite the collection. I love to decorate the house with them. Some of them have lights and some play music. 

My mom painted that sign for me it says...."Dear Santa" "I want it all". :) She knows me well. 

I think it's so cute. 

This pic is a little blurry but gives you an idea of the living area. 

I love my wooden star. I saw these in the pottery barn magazine this year and asked my dad if he could make me two of then. He is a great wood worker. They turned our perfect. I'm so lucky to have a dad that will do these things for me when I ask. :) I put the other one in the guest room. 

On the kitchen counter I put a small hot chocolate station. I knew that our family coming into town would love this even though Richie and I don't really drink hot chocolate. Brenner our nephew just wanted the marshmallows....Richie would have some cocoa in his coffee. It looks cute though. Richie said "that looks like a picture from pinterest". :) 

Our powder room....my aunt Pam painted the picture of the pine cone. I love to put it up every year. 

Last year I made these. I bought three canvas boards, painted them, modge podged paper on them, and glued the letters on. They looked pretty DIY so I put them downstairs this year by our guest room. :) Sometimes some projects just don't turn out as nice as you had hoped or thought.