Christmas Tour of Homes 2011

Helloooo bloggers!  This is my favorite blog party of the whole year.  And despite the house being finished for weeks, I’m always scrambling at the last minute to get my pictures up {I thought I was going to be all ahead of the game by getting this finished on Wednesday, but there’s already 226 links up—whew!}.  So let’s get this party started—without further adieu, welcome to my little North Pole…

For the first time this season I’m sitting on the sofa with all of the lights turned out except for the tree lights and a burning candle.  Hallmark movies are on and the house is quiet.  This is one of my top 5 favorite parts of Christmas every year.  The laptop is fired up, I just made hot chocolate, and I am thrilled to have an excuse to sit here for a few more minutes {or hours…or fall asleep on the sofa}.

We hosted Tyler’s office Christmas party here two weeks ago so the house has been done for awhile now.  Though I’m prone to jumping the gun on decorating, it’s always nice to have an excuse so people don’t think I’m crazy Christmas lady… And it’s even better to be able to really enjoy the decorations for the entire month!

My favorite views in the house are the ones that have as much Christmas jammed in as possible:

Last year I did a “fah-ncy tree” in all golds and whites and silvers.  This year I wanted to do something a little more fun—I call it "whimsical,” Tyler calls it “Dr. Suess” {but he’s complimented the tree about 18 times so I’m pretty sure “Dr. Suess” is a good thing.}

   

I don’t know how I missed this, but tree picks were a completely foreign concept to me!  I was at Sam’s one day and saw this great box full of curly cues and glitter sticks and sparkly presents. Thus, the whimsy tree was born  {I supplemented a few more from the $2 section at Target and the not-$2-section at Pier One}.

I saw this picture on Pinterest and decided to make sillhouettes of me and Tyler {the jury is still out if this is normal to do for adults without kids…thoughts?}.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I kept our Christmas cards in the same spot as last year—I really love it and it’s such a nice scene when I come down the stairs every morning to see all of these smiling faces of our favorite people.  {Confession: I think I kept last season’s up until March or something ridiculous like that.}

This year I bought real garland—for $30 I think we got at least a few hundred yards.  We had enough garland to wrap about 42 staircases. So we wrapped it here….

And here…

{My mom buys me a Wallace silver bell every year. I love them.}

And here…

{We also collect the Capitol Christmas ornament every year.  This is our banister leading to the basement.}

And covered it here…

{With a spare set of Christmas lights wrapped underneath the trimmings… It looks really pretty all lit up!}

And even draped it along our backyard fence…

A new addition this year that I love is this nativity set.  We didn’t have one previously, so Tyler bought it while he was in Israel with work last summer.  It’s carved from olive trees… I just think it’s really special and unique.

And that’s it!  Some garland, Christmas lights, ornaments, and festive pillows go a long way around here… I’m trying my best to slow down this season and not be overwhelmed with baking and wrapping and shopping.  I’ll be the first person to admit I love Christmas for the movies and the lights and gifts…But at the end of the day, the lights and sparkle pale in comparison to the Savior King we truly celebrate this season.

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I’ll be recreating my snug little living room scene from tonight again this weekend—next time to tour all of yours.  I can’t wait!  {My Pinterest just might shutdown the whole system…}

{And don’t forget—there are a gazillion more homes to tour here!!}