The Decor

I didn't waste any time getting our Christmas decorations up this year. The day we got back from Arizona, Aaron and I put the tree up, that was on Sunday night. Monday I finished the rest. I like to post our Christmas decorations every year, more for the family history aspect, so that when our kids read these blog books years and years down the road they will be able to see how the decorations have changed over time. Here's our tree. It's the same tree as last year. We decided to put it up on top of my sewing cupboard to keep the kids out of it. It works really well actually, because it also makes the tree tall enough to be seen out the window. So from outside our little tree looks huge. :) As you can see by the presents underneath, I've been on top of my Christmas shopping this year. I'm almost all the way done. Yay for me.

Every year we get the kids a new ornament. We try to pick ones that remind us of them. Lincoln's is the penguin. He got a penguin last year too, but we figured this year he's still just toddling around, so we picked a penguin again. Ivan's is the giraffe. Baby giraffes are huge, baby Ivan is huge. They are both fuzzy. They are both cute. It made sense to us.

This is our "mantle". The santa and snow man stocking holders are not new, but the garland, flowers, icicles around them are. I think they add a nice touch.

This year I decided that since there are four of us, that is was time to get new stocking holders. So I took the hooks off of our other two, and just used them as decor on the mantle. At Target I found an awesome deal on these nativity stocking holders, and since I don't have a nativity, I couldn't pass them up. I also bought the garland to go around the nativity, and the candle to go behind. We were also one stocking short this year. I had planned on making us all new ones, but I couldn't find the right material. I was kind of thinking that since the stocking holders are the nativity, it probably wouldn't be good to hang cartoony santa/reindeer/snowman/etc. patterned stockings from it. I wanted something a little more formal and reverent. After looking just about everywhere I could think of, I found these stockings at the grocery store of all places, but I think they look really sharp with the whole set up.

I forgot to take a picture of my wreath, but it's my favorite of all the new decorations. We decided that since we weren't buying a Christmas tree this year, that we could get a wreath instead. Yay! Someday when I remember, I'll take a picture of it.