Deck the Halls!

Woo hoo! What a week! I took off Wednesday at the last minute and used some of my travel time from Africa to comp that time. Sweet. I went to Michael's to get some Christmas decoration stuff so we could decorate on Friday!

Thanksgiving was at my mother in law's house and so good. I was stuffed for hours. Friday morning I got up bright and early after a nap at 2:30 am. I headed out to Target to wait in line for two hours with all of the other crazies. I got some wicked good stuff for John for Christmas and his birthday (12/31). After I fought the crowds in Target (SO ridiculous!) I went to Kohl's and then Home Depot. By 7 am I had finished John's Christmas and birthday shopping! Woo hoo!
After my much needed (and deserved!) nap, I got to the main event of Friday- decorating!! Well, ok, I had to clean first (and it felt so good!), but then I was all over the decorations. We don't have a ton, so I am planning on slowly accumulating them. It is way too expensive to do the whole house in one year.

My tray for the cookie jars- I used these last year to hold baked goods that we gave to people as gifts. It works well for decorating too! Oh, and if you are expecting cookies in the white jar, you will be sorely disappointed- I use it to hold all of my Kitchenaid attachments.

Kitchen towels on the stove!


We always had one of these growing up, so last year my mom got one for my sister & I. We always fought over whose day it was to move the mouse.

The table centerpiece. We haven't been eating at the table much recently, so I figured I would put a centerpiece on it for Christmas. I used another of the gold trays from cookies last year and my cake stand. I bought the crackle vase (multi-use!) at Michael's this year, in addition to the red cinnamon candle and berry vine.

The gold plate was too close to the table color, so I put a red Christmas napkin underneath it (that we got on clearance after Christmas at Target last year). My original idea was to put red glass christmas ornaments around the candle instead of the vine, but I knew a certain little someone would have a blast batting those balls off of the stand and table.

My wreaths. I also got these this year- 5- one for every window in the house and the side door. I already had a wreath that I had made last year for the front door. Right now they just have red ribbon holding them in place. Next year I will invest in berries or something to jazz them up a little.

Our Willow Tree nativity. We got this as a wedding gift.

I bought 2 sprigs ($1/each) of red berries and stuck them in the vases with the bamboo that we always have out. Festive, eh?

On the console by the front door I placed my other nativity (that my dad got me years ago for my college dorms), two red vases (left side) and 2 red glittery trees. I got the trees last year (on clearance I'm sure) and love them!

Our stockings! We don't really have a good place to hang them, so I stuck them on the wall to the kitchen with those 3M stretchy sticky hooks. We will be filling them in NY, so no need to worry about them being too heavy on the wall.

My wreath for the front door- similar to the others, but with red glittery berries strung on it.

While I was busy decorating and cleaning inside, John was tasked to hanging the outside lights! I was so flipping excited to hang house lights this year. Last year we were like the only ones in the apartment complex with lights on our deck and it still looked puny. I am so pumped with having real house decorations!

You can sort of see my wreaths in all of the windows in this picture. I think next year I want to get a couple small fake trees to go on either side of the front door. The step looks a little naked.

Today I closed out Thanksgiving by making another Thanksgiving meal because we missed out on leftovers since we ate at John's parent's house. Plus I just wanted pumpkin pie. Yum.

While John was outside mowing, raking and cleaning the yard, I wrapped all of his presents! Yay!

I think we are getting our tree next weekend and I can't wait! I'll make sure to get some good pictures :)