Boughs of Holly

Our halls are decked! Well them main living area anyway. I had to make a few changes from what we’ve done with decorations in the past, with wild toddlers on my hands this year. I’m sure more changes will be made as they use their creative little minds to undo everything I’ve done, but we’ll figure that out as necessary. Luckily I never get into the decorating too much, so it’s not much to keep track of. Just enough to make it feel different and festive around here.

I thought it would be fun to display all of our past Christmas cards. The one with the babies all in a row would’ve been our picture that year, had I had any amount of time or energy to send them out.

And this is where I hope to put more Christmas cards as they arrive in the mail.

The Ribeiras are our first!

The stockings had to be moved from the mantle, of course, so these shelves really came in handy.

I love seeing those three stockings in a row.

To me, this candle is the smell of Christmas. Balsam Cedarwood from Target. Mmmm. I couldn’t resist is a few years ago when I smelled it at the store, and it’s lasted ever since. Now everything in the storage bins smell like it, but I don’t mind.

Because our tree is little, we thought we needed more Christmas lights to enjoy. We strung them around the perimeter of the living room, and I LOVE how cozy it feels when it’s dark outside.

We still aren’t brave enough to get a real tree with the kiddos, so we pulled out the trusty little guy we bought last year. We turned on Christmas in Connecticut (how had I not seen this before—I loved it!) as we were trimming. KC’s aunt has been so very kind to supply us with some awesome ornaments over the years. We had such a great time opening each one and seeing the details that Hallmark puts into each one. Some wind up and play music, some are battery operated and have sound effects, and many of them can be manipulated in one way or another. The textures, colors, and design of each one is so unique. I’m truly impressed by what I thought were just cute little ornaments. They are more like little works of art. And they are perfect for our child-themed tree this year. They especially love the Disney themed ones. I contemplated decorating it with all their toys, knowing full well that whatever is within reach is free-game (and even what isn’t within reach these days). But I think they’ll really enjoy this little tree just for them. I just hope I don’t get sick of replacing the ornaments every night when they will inevitably be scattered all over the house. I’m sure the kids will thoroughly enjoy decorating their own little tree with these ornaments for years to come.  So here it is, pretty sparse, but it’s meant to be that way, for my own sanity.

I was so looking forward to the babies’ reaction when they woke up to the decorations. Ruby was as excited as can be, and couldn’t wait to get her hands on it. She kept saying “so cute!” every time she looked at an ornament. But the boys were a different story. Every morning when we get them up, they come running into the living room, but that morning, the boys saw the lights from down the hall and went the other direction. I found them sitting at the end of the hall against the bathroom door. I think they were a little nervous. Bennett warmed up quickly. But Alex was cranky for longer that I was ready to deal with at that time of day. Finally, later on, he decided he wasn’t afraid of the tree after all and joined in the fun the others were having exploring. Oh, and yes, Ruby is wearing boy Pajamas, backwards. That’s what happens when all the girl pjs are dirty, and she know how to unzip them in the night. (And yeah, some pictures are blurry. I was playing around with the camera. Whatever.)

Now Ruby thinks all Christmas trees are for her to play with.

And thanks to Pintrest (of course), I found a way to spruce up my plain green tree skirt , into a more festive one. The directions used a glue gun, but I put my sewing machine to work on this project. It was sort of an experiment, since crafts aren’t my strongest suit, and it didn’t turn out exactly how I’d hoped, but it’s more fun than what it was before, so I’m happy. Maybe a couple times a year I can pretend I have a crafty side to me.

There you go, our simple Christmas décor. I love to look back on past Christmases to see how I decorated and remember the fun we had each year. What is it about all these fake pine needles, and tiny lights that fills me with such cozy happiness? KC and I eat dinner pretty much every night in the living room with just the twinkle lights on as we watch something Christmasy. Life is good.