Christmas Decorations

I really enjoy looking at Christmas decorations in magazines like Southern Living and on lots and lots of blogs. I admire the sophisticated, organized look. Then I look at our house and well, it's just not. Our Christmas tree is covered with decorations our children have made over the last 17 years - plus others my aunt Elaine has given them every year and some I've made or found along the way. When we travel, we try to find a little decoration that will make us smile and remember where we were when we spotted it. We also collected Christmas village buildings for years, so even now with *5* mantels to decorate, they are mostly filled with the Christmas houses, churches, and shops. Maybe one year I'll pull together a sophisticated, together look for the holidays - but knowing me, I doubt it. So here you have our first Christmas in this 111 year old house. Makes me wonder about all the past Christmases spent here. The O'Donnells, who built the house and lived here for about 80 years, were devout Catholics, so we feel pretty safe in assuming that Christmas was the winter holiday celebrated here.


Here's one of the reasons my house never quite has that Southern Living look. There are usually 2-3 science experiments sitting around somewhere.


Here's the very dark mantel at night.



Here's the little table in the back room. Some jingle bells and greenery from the yard around the candle..



The gate to the backyard.



The front porch. We went for a simple look, wreaths on the windows and candles in the windows at night.



The front of the house. I'm pretty sure the squirrels are nabbing some of the red ribbons for their nests. We keep having to replace them.



Here we have some berries from the yard in red fiestaware. This pitcher was my Valentine's Day present to myself one year. Chris and I have never spent Valentine's Day together since we were married - maybe next year.



Here are a few special Christmas decorations. Our Chitra angel - given to us when we were waiting for our first little girl, Chitra. She died in India right before we expected her to come home. The little gold container holds the bottoms of some of our Christmas tree trunks. Chris cuts off a slice every year and writes the year on them. Then we have a little Santa we found years ago. Brianna's senior portrait is in the background. The picture on the left is my dad and me at Arlington National Cemetery, Kennedy's grave.



We have two special nativity scenes. The top picture shows the nativity from my grandparents' mantel every Christmas for my entire childhood. The second picture is the nativity set that Grammy, Chris' grandmother, sent us from her house in California.




This is some kind of little iron thingymabob that we found at the Antiques Shop on Black Friday. I have no idea what its original purpose was, but I put some bright ornaments in it and put it in the phone alcove.



Here's an ornament wreath I made last year when we were in Batesburg. We didn't have many of our decorations last year, it was a tough year, but at least we were all together for Christmas and it makes this year in our own home that much sweeter.



Here we have the old and the new: old Santa from Chris' childhood and brand new sleigh from Hobby Lobby.



The family room mantel.




The whole fireplace, not a great picture but hopefully you can get the idea.



The tree. In the daytime. On a gloomy day. I'll try again at night with the lights.



Here's one of my very favorite ornaments. When Jacob and Lauryn were little, we painted their fingers with white paint, then pressed them against these clear ornaments. Then we decorated the fingers as a snowman family. Too cute!