I’ve been making my list, and checking it twice.  Yep, it’s my traditions list.  There are just certain rituals that I cannot escape every single December – in fact, I look forward to them all year. 

It’s just not Christmas in our family unless we . . .

1.  Pay a visit to Santa. 

I refuse to stand in those long lines at department stores or malls and pay money for pictures with Santa.  Honestly, that’s my definition of hell.  I prefer take the kids to the free Santa at the local tree farm.  That’s where I eavesdrop and get a hysterical earful.

Here’s last year’s snapshot. My four year old knew her window was short so she’s wasn’t wasting a second.   The two year old never got a word in. 

“Santa, make sure the puppy carrier you bring me has the spotted dog, not the one with the plain brown dog, no I want the spotted puppy in the purple doggie carrier.  Make sure !  And I want the Polly Pockets with the puppies in the orange box.  The orange box, okay?  And I want the Dalmations movie, not the first one with the mean Cruella, the other one.  I want number two.  Number two !  Dalmations number two!  You got that Santa ? 

Oh.  And I think my brother wants a train.” 

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I had really big plans to fix myself up and to give y’all a video tour of our home this weekend, but as luck would have it, I just ran out of time.  Gosh darn, oh well.  I was able to snap a few photos of some of the decor on display this year, so here’s a glimpse at a few areas you haven’t seen yet.

Welcome to our Holiday Home !

Our front porch is draped in lighted garland and the urns are filled with lighted trees.

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The color red has been banished from the living room this year due to my latest fixation with hot pink accents.  However, the rest of our collection of crimson décor is making an appearance all around the rest of our home.  

As rainstorms pounded the house yesterday, we decided to skip those crowds at the malls and stay warm and dry indoors by making hot chocolate and decking our front hallway and foyer with garland, berries and red ribbons. 

In years past, I’ve made every effort to cover the banister to hide the ordinary oak railing that I was never crazy about.  Ever since we refinished the staircase in this dark espresso color, I have no desire whatsoever to hide its new finish, so I swaged some simple greenery this year instead of wrapping it all around. 

Underneath the fresh cedar, the base is formed by a lighted faux fir garland.  We thought ahead to Christmas when we remodeled the house, and added electrical outlets at the top of the stairs. 

On top of the fir I’ve swagged some fresh cedar from a local farm.   

Love.This.Scent.

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I’ve never had a problem with brown.  I love brown, especially chocolate brown.  I think it looks amazing when paired with crisp white or warm cream and a really hot color.  But I was totally over brown in my home office.  Everything in there was brown, the walls, the furniture, the curtains.  Blah blah blah brown. 

The home office is the first door just off the entry way, and was always closed whenever visitors came over.  Quite frankly it was more of a storage space and less of an office for many years.  The first thing I ever did when I heard the doorbell was close the office door.  

When I spied some bookcases on clearance for $20 dollars each at a local outlet that was closing its doors, something clicked in my brain.  “I spy with my little eye a home office remodel.” 

It took me five months to finally get around to completing the entire space since I’ve been busy with other things (ahem, life) but it got a complete overhaul from floor to ceiling and now I can say it is finally finished.   

Here the After:

Here’s the Before – these are the ‘uncluttered’ pics:

Here’s the story. 

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We love to send them, we love to receive them.  Christmas cards are just one of those holiday rituals that some dread, some cherish, yet we all must decide how to display them every year.  Years ago, I used to apply some double sided tape on the back of the cards I received and I would secure them to a door.  Back in 2006, I bought one of those Christmas card display trees on sale from Pottery Barn – that worked fine too.

This year, I wanted to do something more creative, more unexpected.  When I ordered a new chandelier from Ballard Designs for my home office, it came with some extra chain that I never used.

My daughter tried to convince me to make her a Marley costume.  I decided it was better put to use as a tool to display some Christmas cards in front of my window.

Originally, I decided to just use white paper clips.

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