Post-Christmas Christmas Tour

This was our first Christmas in our house.


It was kind of a big deal.


I hosted a cookie decorating party. And then I failed to take a single picture. I baked for two days. There were adorable children. Friends drove from over an hour away. And I was so busy that I didn't take pictures. NOT A SINGLE ONE. I'll know better next year.


I was so excited to have people over. So I started decorating. And my cohabitant was being driven insane. He just doesn't quite understand the thrill of Christmas. He's learning.

I cut a ton of snowflakes from coffee filters. The went on the windows. They went in the hallway. They went in frames. They went in garland.

I made a cover for our one (yes, we only had one) throw pillow. I was pretty proud of it.

Then my mom gave me the best early Christmas present. And utterly showed me up. No, those pillows are not a part of the #iwokeuplikethis movement. She made them. Zippers and all. Amazing.

The dogs think they are theirs. (yes, that's a dog on top of a dog, on top of a pillow)

We decorated the tree. Our tree is filled with ornaments that actually mean something. My tree is not styled. It is a journal entry, and I can tell you exactly why we have every single ornament.

(It's a trophy that says "not last." I wasn't the world's greatest athlete, but I tried. And my family has a sense of humor about it.)


Surfaces received little vignettes a la the Dollar Tree, and leftover decor from our wedding.

This guy was found on Pinterest. You can even print out a template to make it (I didn't because I never clicked through the link...oops.)

Since there isn't a chimney, I had to make a place for our stockings. I even decorated the 'mantle' with homemade mini quilts, but when those sold on my Etsy, the mantle went bare. My mom made all of the stockings. Mine has been mine since I was very wee, and the others she's made as I've acquired family. You can tell my cohabitant is the favorite since his stocking is at least 2x bigger than mine.

We don't have an outlet outside, so I got creative on the exterior decorations. Maybe *fingers crossed* Santa will bring us an electrician next year.

Lest you think it was all a great decorating success, here is my snowflake hallway now. The steam from the shower in the adjacent bathroom was just too much for these guys to handle. RIP.

I love Christmas. I will probably cry when I take it all down. But, I will have to rearrange some of the furniture. And there is almost nothing better in the whole world than rearranging furniture.