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One of the things I love about December is pulling out my Christmas decorations and creating a fun, festive, elegant atmosphere that just begs you to sit down, curl up and have a cup of cocoa. I love sitting in the quiet, listening to Christmas music celebrating the birth of my Savior and becoming mesmerized by the Christmas lights. The glow of candles, the smell of chocolate, and the whispers of little boys who “get it”. They feel the peace, too. I just love that!

We usually get our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, but that darn hunting season got in the way again! The agony of waiting to pull the decorations out was excruciating. ARGH. However, we did wait until the second weekend after Thanksgiving before getting our tree, and the memories are so wonderful that I wouldn’t have it any other way. That night, as Mitch wrapped lights around the tree and I started decorating our mantles, the boys were so excited and so “helpful”. I just love to see where they want to put special ornaments. The tree tended to be a bit “bottom heavy”, but the boys allowed us to move some of the ornaments up closer to the top. SO cute!

The family room, the room that actually has furniture in it, is where we usually hang out. This year, I picked up a little fake Christmas tree at a garage sale ($2), plopped it in a coffee can filled with rocks, and placed it on our little nesting tables. It is decorated with little gold balls, roses, and red bead garland picked up from the dollar store. Really, it is nothing fancy, but it does bring a festive touch into the room. Can you see the advent calendar bowl? The boys have enjoyed it so much!! Remember, it’s not too late to do an advent calendar for your kids. They won’t mind if it only lasts one week! (You can check out my tutorial here.)

I also decorated the mantle (above) with some greenery cut from the bottom of the Christmas tree and Christmas picks that I bought at the dollar store a couple of years ago.

Now, if we move on into the “hall”/entryway, you can see what I’ve done with the “ugly picture turned chalkboard” garage sale find. I know I need more of that burlap netting stuff, but you get the picture! IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE PERFECT TO BE BEAUTIFUL, people! I took some lit garland that we picked up on Target clearance last year for about $2, and draped it over the frame, then shoved some of my tree branches into it. The rest of the berries, etc. are from old wreaths from years past. I always take out the good stuff before throwing the withered wreath away.

(Uh, by the way, I totally plan on writing something cool on my chalkboard, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. I added some words in Photoshop so you could see what it will look like!)

The good stuff in the middle:

The tiny little living room is SO pretty, and so empty, typically. It is the room that we haven’t really bothered to find furniture for, yet. Christmas is usually the time when the room gets the most use. We set our tree up in the center window and let it shine in the evening. So pretty! Grant picked out our HUGE tree this year. It’s much bigger than what we normally get, plus it is a Douglas, and we usually get Nobles. Still, once I get all the ornaments up there, it seems so familiar. I love our tree every year.

This tree is about 3 feet taller than most of our trees, so the ribbon doesn’t reach the bottom, but it still looks cool!

Okay, what is really funny to me is that when people come into our house and see our tree, they immediately say something like, “Oh, well, our tree is a kid tree.” I know I should feel flattered that apparently our tree doesn’t look like a kid tree. I do feel a little funny accepting the compliment, though. After all:

This is a sheep made out of cotton balls and Q-tips. (What? You couldn’t tell?)

This is an “ornament” Grant made last year that somehow found itself in our ornament box. Hmmm . . .

My tree is covered with these kid ornaments. Seriously. It is. However, when you look at the tree, what do you see first?

Beautiful ribbon that my husband picked up from Walmart our second Christmas together. I sent him out for ribbon and he brought back 4 rolls: 2 rolls of pretty poinsetta stuff (that we used for about 6 years), and two rolls of this stuff. I just roll it up at the end of the season, and the following year I let it unwind and trail down our tree. HUGE impact, itty, bitty price. PLEASE, if you have a “kid tree,” go get yerself some ribbon.

Our other “ornaments” are a total mix of this and that. Not a real theme, however we do have a bunch of gold balls and this:

Poinsettas that I picked up in a bunch at Walmart and glittered about 11 years ago, and some gold ribbon bows that my roommate and I tied up for Mitch and his roommate back when we were in college. Yep, we decorated Mitch’s bachelor tree with these little gold bows! And, just last year we finally got rid of the cracked gold balls from his college days and replaced them with some new after-Christmas specials. I DID splurge on a tub of unbreakable gold balls this year.

The mantle in the living room is covered with lit garland, branches off of the bottom of the Christmas tree, and berry sprigs Mitch’s dad brought over for me. I LOVE these berries!! SUCH impact! Mitch says it’s a bit obnoxious. Hee, hee!

I promise those pictures look straight in person.

One day, I’d like to get some matching, totally classy, yet cozy stockings. For now, though, we’ll stick with these ones: The first two on the left were purchased our second Christmas together at Albertsons in Southern California. The ones on the right belong to the boys and were purchased at either Walmart or Target for each of their first Christmases. I wanted to wait to get all matchy-matchy until we were sure we were done having kids. At this point, we are pretty sure our family is complete, but want to stay open to God’s will. Therefore, I STILL haven’t purchased new stockings. I suppose that when I hit menopause I’ll decide it is time to buy the matching stockings. {sigh} Someone hit me over the head, please! I’m going to make it a goal to have new stockings by next Christmas, okay? Hold me to it.

SO, there ya have it: Our Christmas Decor! I would show you our nativity scene, however the shepherd’s legs broke off and the sheep is missing his head.

On a different, yet totally adorable and heartwarming note:

Last night we were driving home from a family gathering and were enjoying the Christmas lights. I pointed out the nativity scene on the church we were passing. All of the sudden, Cole (our 3 year old) gasps and says, “My God! He was born!”

Amen! I am so thankful for the Christmas season. It’s a wonderful time to remember the birth of our Savior, as foretold in the prophecies. He was born! He lived a perfect life! He died on the cross for our sins! Without a mediator, someone to bridge the gap between us and God, we are unable to stand in His perfect presence. However, JESUS bridged that gap. He became the sacrifice, taking on all of our sins, taking the blame, so that we could stand pure and blameless before the Heavenly Father. His sacrifice for our sins is a FREE gift that he WANTS to give to us. All we have to do is accept it. Say “Yes”. But that isn’t the end of the story. Jesus rose from the dead!! He really, really did! Thousands of people witnessed this as he ascended into heaven. He LIVES today and wants to be present in our lives, showing us how to live a full life and how to have fellowship with God.

Oh, if there is one thing I want to get across to my children this magical season is the MIRACLE of the Birth of Jesus and the MIRACLE of his Resurrection. I pray the same for you and your family as you celebrate Christmas!

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And, while you are here, check out my 30 Ornaments blog series: