Welcome to our 2013 Christmas home tour! I just love the way our house feels at Christmas...don't you? There is just something to having the twinkling lights and shimmering ornaments surrounding you all month. But, there is also something about that feeling that doesn't translate through photos. So, pull up a chair, grab a warm cup of cocoa and pretend like you're dropping by for some Christmas sugar cookies. I'll do my best to show you around our little home and share some snippets of the stories behind the decor.
Our slender tree in the living room has a combination of poinsettias,
silver balls, and special ornaments given to us over the years. My aunt
made the bow last Christmas and I was so excited to use it this year! One of my favorite "real" ornaments was a gift from my parents for our first Christmas as a married couple in 2009 :)
Here's an expanded view of the living room, complete with everyone's favorite "Merry Christmas Y'all" pillow from my mother-in-law :)
Growing up, one of my favorite traditions was giving my grandpa a Nutcracker every Christmas, and now, they hold a special place in my heart this time of year. I have a little collection of Nutcracker ornaments that I put on a little potted tree in dining room.
This is the first year I've done an advent calendar, and thanks to my friend Nicole, I found this awesome (free!) printable via Oh My Deer. Get yours here! I simply added some glitter tape (from the Target dollar spot) for a little shimmer. I love this scripture advent calendar so much. It's on the back of the door leading to the garage so we see it multiple times each day as we are coming and going. What a beautiful way to anticipate Jesus as we get closer to Christmas.
Last year, we started a travel-themed tree and even though it's the smallest tree, it is definitely my favorite because each ornament is packed full of memories. The plan is to pick up an ornament from wherever we travel and add to it each year. Maybe 30 years from now we will need a gigantic tree for all the many, many ornaments from awesome cities and countries around the world! (Hey, a girl can dream, right?!)
Upstairs in our master bedroom is our fun and festive UNC themed tree! We add an ornament each year, but my favorites are the UNC football ornaments that Eddie's mom made when he was little. Yes, the tree leans a little to the right but it was only $5 bucks so I can live with a little leaning ;) We absolutely love the Christmas lights in our room throughout the season and this tree is visible from the front of the house :)
The outside of our house has white lights and candles/wreaths on the windows. My favorite part of our outside decorations this year is the third (and final!) boxwood wreath on our front door.
Linking up to It Doesn't Have to be Perfect to be Christmas Home Tour at The Nester
Your home looks so cozy, and I love the monogram over the boxwood wreath!
ReplyDeleteI don't know how I got to your blog, but I really love it. You're attention to detail and ability to pull things together... I'm envious over here!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I've looked through all your posts and decided to comment on this one... Mostly because I love Christmas.
We used to do a few trees around the house too... Now we just do one. We have three kids now, and spending a week (yes, it used to take a week) to do our house up Christmas style, well, it just isn't worth it anymore. We'll probably do it again in the future... But for now we just have one 9 foot tree with our ornaments. I wanted to comment on what you said about your travel tree... We have the same tradition, except it's just an ornament that represents something we did that year... We have to get creative sometimes too. In 2011, I gave birth to our second child and we went to Hawaii for the first time (I know Hawaii seems like less of big deal compared to having a kid... But it's Hawaii... It's magical... It's what it imagine Heaven being like). For our 2011 ornament, we bought a Koa wood surfboard ornament, and turned it into a picture frame for our second baby's photo... Voila, two events in one. We started when we met in 2003, of course we had to buy an ornament for that year since we weren't dating until the year after. Anyway, you seem like the kind of girl who might want to do something like that, so I'm just sharing.
Also, I so wish you were my friend. These baby showers you've thrown for your friends... WOW! You're pretty awesome. And you're sister of God. Also, love those advent cards... Totally doing that this year (along with chocolate kisses each day).