Christmas Decorations 2010

Welcome to our home - freshly decorated for the holidays.... come on in!

After visiting my sister in FL last week, she inspired me to put up some smaller Christmas trees in different areas of our home.

I had so much fun choosing a new color theme for this area - I chose natural browns and greens, in a nature-oriented pine cone theme.

Come on into the kitchen - it's so chilly outside!  We are anxiously awaiting the first snowfall - it seems the entire country has some except for us.

Nothing says Christmas-time like a wide array of Christmas candies!  Trying to keep the decorations in place for a few weeks will  be a challenge.  You can already see the bowl of chocolate peanut butter cups has dwindled significantly.

For the first time this year - we decided to dress up our American Girl Doll collection in their holiday dresses and coats. This idea was inspired by my other sister, Karen, who just happens to love her American Girls Dolls a little more than her daughters, especially at Christmas!  :)   All of these dolls have been gifts over the years at Christmas and birthdays for my girls by their Nana and Papa.    They don't stay put very long now that they are so accessible in the front room ~ some doll stands would certainly help.  There seem to be a few missing shoes and socks I notice.... hmm....

This is the first Christmas I had a REAL formal dining room to decorate.  So fun!

Now step into our family room and cuddle up on the couch in front of the fireplace where the stockings are hung by the chimney with care.....

On the hearth of the fireplace is the very kid-friendly nativity set that Boo received last Christmas from her Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Ricky.  She was so excited to see this come out again.   It's nice that my breakable nativity sets aren't played with quite as much now that she has this one.

This is one of my favorite little pictures of Banana when she was two at Christmas one year.

On the end table is our set of "What God Wants for Christmas".  Create a powerful Christmas memory with this interactive nativity set.  Gather daily with your family to share a Bible-based poem, and as your children open the colorful little presents one by one, they'll discover the characters to complete the nativity scene. But the seventh gift is the surprise that God wants most--one that will open a child's heart to Jesus.

A few weeks ago, I added this wooden chest in the stairwell to the basement which is right beside our mudroom.  It has three drawers and is the perfect place to keep everyone's socks.  It's so handy, right by the door and right by their shoes.  Plus - it was another spot I could decorate with my 'no-longer-sought-after-breakable-nativity".   I love all my wall stencils from Uppercase Living ~ although my hubby prefers to call them wall graffitti, it may be getting a little excessive now.

Our Christmas tree in the family room, notice the ring of missing lights? They light up when they feel like it.   What do you do when your pre-lit tree takes on a mind of it's own?   Looks like next year I will be de-stringing all the lights on our pre-strung tree.  Oh dear.
One of my favorite things already underneath the tree!