Christmas Tour 2009

Well, I decided to branch out on my own this year with the Christmas tour. Last year's Christmas Tour post was through a fellow blogger's blog (did I say that right?) For those of you that are new to a blogger's Christmas tour...it is simply a way to stay in the comfort of your own home, in your jammies, or whatever makes you the most comfy...and tour a home or homes via internet and leave comments about your likes and dislikes..Hope I start something here. I sure would like to see some of my fellow blogger's Christmas deco! Get your snuggie and a snack and here we go....

As I said in last year's post..I absolutely LOVE nativity sets. I have many...and want more. This is one of my newest ones...cut out of wood. My parent's brought this back to me from a recent trip. Isn't it cute?! By the way, to see any picture bigger or closer, just click on it!

Another nativity in my living room...as I said last year, I have seriously considered leaving some of my nativities out all year long.

I realize this picture kinda looks boring. I took several shots and none of them really did it justice. This is on my front entry table as you walk in the front door. My glittery trees (that get EVERYWHERE!) with gold mesh wrapped around them, sitting on red mesh...can't really tell, but I've got red lights inside the trees. Looks really beautiful from the street at night.

Three Wise men. I love these. One of my favorite decorations! My mom gave them to me a few years ago from the Southern Living line. A small nativity painting on canvas given to me by a friend. LOVE this too!

Are the Santa's cute? I got them at Country Originals on Northside Drive... if you've never been there...don't go. You'll be hooked. On the right is another nativity that I got years ago from Dollar Tree..yes, Dollar Tree. Hannah played with the pieces for hours when she was little. Have you ever noticed a child play with a nativity set? They know exactly what to do with each part.

My friend Lisa twisted some of the meshy stuff and we put it on the mantel to cover all our electronics. I must say that stockings is something that I never buckled down and bought when the kids were little. My friend gets tickled looking at all of my stockings when I try to decide which ones to hang. Sure wish I had gotten special ones when they were little so I could give them to them one day you know?

This is the coffee table in the living room. Pine cones in a container with some left over Christmas balls is always easy and pretty. The stack of books is something neat I started years ago. I explained in last years post..I was going through Christmas cards one year as I was cleaning up and realized I shouldn't throw away all these great pictures people spend so much time and money on, so I started making a scrapbook of Christmas cards each year out of construction paper and letting Hannah decorate them and make a cover. We laminate each page and tie the edges together. I put all the books out each year and we enjoy so much looking at our friends and how they've changed. (Our card goes on the first page) With the regular cards, we cut out shapes and verses to glue in the book. It is really a treasure and people seem to always enjoy looking at all of our books!

Kitchen table...got these trees on Black Friday at Simply Spaces in Madison. I thought they were great! Wish i had some pretty Christmas dishes to set the table with!!

This is on the ledge as you go upstairs. Another nativity set..had for years. I really should start writing on the boxes where each one came from. The stocking garland we got as a gift when we got married. The kids use to love for me to put little goodies or pieces of candy in each stocking during the month!

Hannah put her own tree up in her room and decorated it herself. She started doing this when she was about 3 or 4 I think. I told her it was about time for a "big girl" tree if she wanted to keep doing it. She can save this tree for her little girl.

This is in the kitchen. I love this frosted fruit! I use it all the time in different things and it always looks so pretty. The plates behind them are some of the Christmas plates I have painted. I'm going to try and start painting one each year.

Since we got married, I have painted or made an ornament each year for us and do one for each child with the year. We have quite a collection and I'm so proud of all of them! They don't care too much about them like I do but they will be so proud of them one day when they have them to hang on their own tree. Maybe I have started a tradition with them. My friend Lindsey painted one for me this year. Isn't it great?!

Hannah always paints her own ornament. This one is from this year.

Matthew's....

Andrew's....

Lighted garland around the front doors with my ribbon wreaths! Looks pretty at night too.

Hannah and her friend making Christmas cookies. We do this every year also. MOST of the time they are edible. I enjoy it just as much as they do! Just realized I don't have a pic of my Christmas houses but you can see a little bit of them in this picture in the background on the counter. A few of these were also given to me when we got married. Good thing about getting married in December...get lots of good Christmas stuff!!

I've made several of these as happies this year already..German Chocolate pound cake. YUM!!!

and FUDGE with pecans!!

and last but not least the tree...Since Drew is deployed again this Christmas, I was just going to put up a pre lit one but Hannah had a fit so Andrew and Matthew got this one from Lowe's and together we got it up. After they did, I was glad because it smells SOOOO good. I don't have half my ornaments on it this year...decided to just go with all of our family ones and handmade ones.

On K Love radio the other day, they were having a time of people calling in with funny Christmas accident stories. At first I thought, How horrible! That's not funny, but the more I listened to stories, the funnier it got. One guy fell through the floor of the attic while getting the Christmas decorations. As if that wasn't bad enough, the box of decorations fell on top of him through the attic. He had broken ribs, an arm and I believe a punctured lung. His family of course after making sure he was ok thought it was hysterical..Only now, years later is he able to laugh about it. I was reading a blog that I follow last year and I was splitting my sides laughing about her mishap. She was getting decorations out and stepped on the lid to a rubbermaid box...did the serious splits...and broke her leg! I don't think we've ever had any serious holiday accident..other than we went through a period of about 5 years in a row that our Christmas tree fell in the middle of the night....except once, it did fall directly on top of the boys as they watched tv. All I could see was legs and arms and hollering...I didn't do it!!! They were fine but scared to death! I hope my holiday tour hasn't bored you to tears. It truly is my favorite time of the year. I love my family and our traditions. I miss Drew tremendously and look forward to this time next year. Merry Christmas everyone!!!