If you haven’t heard about the “Christmas Tour of Homes 2009” you should check it out at The Nester. Basically, bloggers everywhere took photos of their homes all decked out for the season and posted links so you can browse to your heart’s delight at other people’s Christmas decor. It’s a little voyeuristic, but also fun.
And because I’ve been taking a lot of photos around the house lately, I figured what better time than now to share them with you AND join in on the fun of Christmas Tour of Homes. (This is called “two birds, one stone”.)
So without further ado, the photos!
Let’s start with the outside.
I have a thing for penguins and candy canes.
Here’s the other half. View from the driveway.
This is my living room. Note the $20 Walgreens tree we bought during our very first Christmas together, which happened to be just three short months after we started dating. I’ve been meaning to upgrade but with every place we’ve lived, every year I say, “in the next place, we’ll get a better tree.” So, in the next house, I’ll get a better tree. For now, I kind of like this one. What’s different this year is the faux mantle with our stockings. That mantle (okay, it’s a shelf) was originally installed about a month ago to hold our U-verse box, but the box was too wide and is now mounted ABOVE the flatscreen pictured here. But instead of taking the shelf down, I decided to keep it there and use it as a faux mantle since we don’t have a real fireplace.
Now let me show you a few of my favorite ornaments.
The first time I met my FIL, I went Xmas shopping with the family and he asked me what cartoons I watched growing up. I said Care Bears. Later that day, he gave me this ornament. I love that it has the year on it, so I’ll always remember when that happened.
These next few are a little blurry but this is Champ’s ornament. We got this from my mom for Champ’s first Christmas and one day, when I wasn’t paying attention, I heard him chewing on something. He was still just a puppy and when I went to see what it was he was gnawing on, I found his ornament! Out of all the ornaments to pull off the tree and he takes the one that looks like him. Silly dog.
Bride and groom snow-people given to me by my SIL.
I picked this one up this past Fall when we were in San Francisco. Seeing it makes me wish I would’ve thought to collect ornaments from all of the places we visit instead of shot glasses. I guess it’s something we’ll just have to start now.
Now onto the rest of the decorations!
Wreaths and snowman above the couch. Not pictured: big red bows adorning the top two corners of both windows.
Teddy bear music box given to me by my grandparents a couple of Christmases ago.
My nativity. I’ve never had a nativity set before and truth be told, I’m not big on the traditional nativity sets. I like white ceramic faceless scenes. It creeps me out to be sitting there, watching TV, and feel like one of the three wise men is staring me down. So I bought this simple wood carving the day after Thanksgiving this year and I just love it. Plus, it doesn’t take up much room.
Well, that’s pretty much it for my Christmas decor. I have a few more things that I left packed away. I just didn’t feel like dragging everything out this year. Especially since we didn’t host a party or anything.
Here’s one last photo of my tree, this time with a few presents and my dog. Because he makes every picture better, just by being in it.
And yes, that IS a santa hat as my tree topper. Merry Christmas!
But... Will There Be Cake? 