Christmas Home Tour

I missed the Tour of Homes over at the Nester. (surprise surprise) But I decided to show you my Christmas decor anyway. I didn't really do very much this year. Quite frankly, I'm lazy this year. Plus, who wants to waste all their time and energy on something that will only last about five minutes in my house anyway. The kids, they're like a demolition team, times five. So let's get started. Here's my front door:
You can't tell but that little skinny tree has lights on it. It's an Italian Cypress and I LOVE it. It will grow real big and look like the giant ones at all the wineries in California. I have wreaths to hang on all my windows but they're still sitting upstairs waiting to be hung. And at this point they'll be waiting until next year.

Come on in. Here's what you see when you walk in the door:

That's my tree. She's a beauty. She's 10 1/2 feet not in the stand. I'd guess more like 11 1/2 with stand and all. We got a Douglas Fir this year instead of a Frasier and while the limbs aren't as sturdy the needles are SOOOOO much softer and you don't get an acupuncture treatment when you go to plug in the lights. Here's an up close view:

And another:

Can you tell I like the tree?

I don't do a themed tree. We have ornaments from everywhere. Except that two years ago our tree fell over THREE times and shattered a TON of my ornaments. I tried to get some pictures but most of my favorites are up high (for obvious reasons) and I didn't feel like getting the ladder out to photograph them. But here's some I could reach. I have a lot of dough ornaments from a company out of Chesterfield, MO. My lil sis Megan got me one in college and I've been collecting them ever since.

Here's an angel from Midnite Pottery:

And here's my new ornament from the Gaylord Texan this year:

And the back of it:

Here's some scented pine cones in a too small hurricane in the kitchen. They smell great. Sad thing is the thing that they're supposed to be in is up in the attic and I'm too lazy to go get it down so they're staying in here. I'm so festive, I know.

Here's my mantle:

And a closer look at my Willow Tree Nativity. I love this set! My mom got

it for me for Christmas one year.
Here's a snowman that is really not all that cute but he plays music, lights up and dances. My kids think he's wonderful. If I hear Walking in a Winter Wonderland one more time today I may scream.

Here's a baby Jesus that William made at
school this year:

Here's my second favorite Nativity:

I bought this for myself the first year I went to Subsidium in Memphis for like 30 bucks I think. I could tell you who the artist is but I'm to lazy to walk upstairs and find the box. I LOVE it though!

Up close:

This is the boys' tree:

I let William pick it out b/c Henry adopted their old smaller tree for his room. When he picked it out I thought, gee........I tried to talk him into a nice green tree but he wasn't going to budge. The more I look at it the more I like it. I got some bright shatterproof balls to go on it.

And here's their nightlight my mom got them a few years ago. They LOVE it! When it gets warm it snows in the globe.

And here's Henry's tree in his room. It gets some leftover small balls on it this year b/c they're not going to stay on there anyway. Oh, wait! I just erased it. Oh well, it's a little 4 1/2 foot green tree. Picture it in your mind.

Then I picked up this pink tree for the girls. I don't know why. It's been so mangled ever since I set it up it won't last long.

The decorations are bare b/c I don't like redecorating every day.

And this poor little bird has already lost its beak:

Here's some sequined balls. I've had to reglue the sequins once already.

I really don't know why I got them a tree. I just thought the pink was so cute and was scared they wouldn't have them next year. If I were smart I would have left it in the box until next year. But I'm not really that smart. See, it's four minutes until midnight and I'm up baking chocolate chip cookies from scratch to send to school for a PTO teacher cookie swap. They are oh so good though. I'll share the recipe when I don't need to hold my eyes open with toothpicks! Merry Christmas everyone!