Christmas at our house 2012

I can finally breathe a sigh of relief because everything is wrapped and the house is ready for the holidays.  We are having our traditional Christmas Eve party tomorrow night, then we stay home in our jammies and play all day on Christmas. 

Instead of making a wreath this year I bought a swag at whole foods and put our initial on it like I did
last year.

A nursery close by was selling tree tops for five dollars so I bought a couple for the outdoor urns.  Then I used leftover Christmas tree branches and some store bought greens to fill in all around it.  Simple and so easy!

For the little urn I replanted a little boxwood that I had in a clay pot this summer and then I used leftover greens again to fill in all around it. 

I went with real evergreen garland this year and it makes all the difference.  You can see before and after pictures of the exterior transformation here.

Let's head inside for a look around....

I kept the snowflakes going from our Christmas card photo shoot but changed the words.  We are really wishing for snow this winter. A white Christmas would be even better!

We always head out to the tree farm to hunt for the perfect tree. This year we were wandering around for over an hour looking for just the right one.

This guy is on the skinny side because I was a little traumatized by the size of our tree last year, he blocked out all of the sunlight it was so big!

Our big tree has special ornaments that have been collected for years.  The Eiffel Tower is new this year from Pottery Barn. 

I went with white and brown craft paper again and dressed them up with pretty ribbon. 

I am loving these chalkboard tags from Martha Stewart, chalk markers help your message stay put.  You can even erase and rewrite using a damp paper towel. 

More chalkboard on the faux mantel in the dining room.

I had fresh garland hanging around the old window but took it down when it wouldn't stay put so I replaced it with a fresh evergreen swag.  

The little dresser in the hallway got some lovin too.

Remember the five dollar tree topper I talked about for the outside urns?  Well, I had a genius idea to use one as a table top tree.

I popped one into a galvanized pot held in tight with florist foam and got decorating.

Here it is all decked out in a woodland theme sitting on the buffet in the kitchen.  As you can see I gave it a good spray with some "snow".

A few new ornaments like these acorns mingle with garage sale pinecones. 



And cute homemade mushroom ornaments. Tutorial found here.

I put together a Yule log using a birch branch, moss, acorns and a mushroom ornament from Target.  The center is hollowed out a bit to hold the moss. 

The squirrel is new this year too, I love his sparkly tail!





I will end this very long post with a couple bokeh pictures I had fun playing around with.  I was inspired to try it out after reading this post from Honey We're Home.  I was so excited it worked!



From my family to yours, I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!


Sharing with the Nester for her famous Christmas Tour Of Homes.