'Tis the Season

Hello!

I have been quiet a while, I realise. Nothing serious. A bit of the winter blahs, mostly. Thank heavens the early Church decided to piggy back Saturnalia. I resisted putting up decorations until last weekend when the kids finally took over and got out the boxes and began anyway. My job has been to tweak and clean up, of course!

Confession: I have to thank the Nester and the hundreds of women who have linked up their homes decorated for Christmas. Seeing the links caused me to tidy up and photograph the house, thinking I would link, too. But when I started browsing, I wanted to decorate--more! So, I hauled out the boxes and added a few things here and there. You can't help but notice there's no theme: no colour scheme. There's no great thought or effort put into it--and, frankly, that's just the way I like it. It's cheery and it chases away the darkness (of every kind). As it should.

So, without further fuss, here's our house all dolled up for Christmas!
I hope it makes you smile.


Our front door:
(you've seen this before)

Welcome to the front entry (looking back to the front door from the stairs):

We used to have a cabinet underneath the mirror but I took it out to give us more space and I haven't regretted it for a minute.

A close up of our little Christmas Card Clothesline:

 

Plenty of room for more!

We have our tree in the living room.
Yes, one. The kids decorated it. My son wanted to do the traditional red and gold, my daughter wanted to use my blue and silver. They compromised and did both.

A couple of years ago, I thought it would be wonderful if we brought back a Christmas ornament from our summer vacations. This singing cowboy is from our trip to southern Alberta in 2010.

 Look who I found hiding in the branches?

 

I love a simple mantel. (Well, I love ornate garlanded ones, too--but to look at, not to make!)

That's our advent calendar to the right.

My son insists on turning the empty ones upside down to keep track.

Right over the TV we have our creche with the stable my husband made when my son was still a baby. We used to put little plastic animals in it.

 We'll be using the dining room a fair bit.

I gussied up the top of the Expedit. The ribbon holds ornaments the kids have made over the years.

 I kept the centrepiece simple.

My favourite angel adorns the china cabinet.

The kitchen didn't escape my new found enthusiasm either!

 I made these paper ornamements a few years ago.

The only thing I bought this year was this table cloth. Boy, is it busy!

And, I have to show you my favourite part of Christmas. Deep in the bowels of the basement, tucked in beside the laundry machines and the stairs, the best place of all. The wrapping station.

The place where all the magic happens!

Thank you so much for visiting! It's getting dark, let me turn the lights on for you!

 

(We're the only house with lights on our block. Is that sad, or what?)

 

 

Merry Christmas!

 

(and Happy Solstice! etc.)

 

Obviously, I'm joining the Nester's Christmas Tour of Homes.