Deck the Halls

I thought I'd give you a look at some of our decorations this year.

 

This is what you'll find out our font porch. My sister-in-law had the idea and told my dad what she wanted. He cut the pieces for her and she created this rustic Nativity. And yes, there are lights in the hay, I mean straw, that we turn on at night.

 

This is one of my favorite places to decorate. On top we have our Nativity scene. (Sorry, the picture cut off a bit of it.) Inside the cabinet, on the top shelf we have Mr. and Mrs. Clause from my dad's mom, or his grandma (I don't remember which.) On the next shelf we have two little angels from my mom's side of the family. And the stocking, that was my dad's when he was a little boy.

But the message on the top says it all.

"For unto us a Savior is born."

 

And here is our Christmas tree. Yes, it is fake. Sorry. We would have all loved to have our traditional huge Christmas tree, but sometimes we just don't have the money for something like that. So, we decided to get a fake tree that we can use on the years we can't afford a real tree. It's not too bad. :)

This year I ended up decorating it all by myself. And it ended up rather elegant. I used strings of gold beads, red, white and gold balls and little silver bells.  

 

This is something I cut out last year. It was so much fun to cut all the details. It sits on our piano.

 

Across the room from the tree, the cabinet, and the piano, is the village of Garlandsburg. Sorry, I haven't had any time to take you on a tour of it this year. Hopefully next year I can. This is probably my favorite corner of the village with the hill, the water, and the houses.

Now, let me take you into the kitchen.

 

This is my dad's desk. Well, the wall and part of what is on his desk. ;)

 

And our window seats. Yep, we have two large window seats in the kitchen. They open up for storage, and the windows look out into the "bird area" where we have a bird bath and feeders. We hang all the Christmas cards we get on the garlands over each window which makes it nice. The grandkids love the books on the shelves and are often found curled up on the window seats reading or looking at books.

 

And this is above the washer and dryer. Or rather, the shelf above them. I did a more out-doors, winter theme this year. Some years we've had a gingerbread theme.

  And here we are in the hall looking down through the garland and lights that frame the doorways. The lights you see at the far end are the village. And yes, those are bookshelves on the right side of the picture. And they are full of some of our over 5,000 books.

Now let me take you upstairs.

 

These trees are at the top of the stairs. The picture didn't capture the gleam of the beads. Sorry.

 

And this is another favorite place to look at. Our stair railing. Usually we have garland wrapped around the tall pillar and lights reaching from the ceiling to the floor. But this year my mom suggested we do a "peppermint" theme. It was so much easier to wrap the wide ribbon than the garlands! And packing tape holds them on! I added a garland and lights on the top railing and hung fake candy canes and draped sparkling red beads among the branches.

And that, my dear readers, is a glimpse of our decorations. We do have icicle lights on the porches, and a small tree in my room on my desk. My parents' room also has the rest of the village (we out grew the living room several years ago) and two little trees. This year we didn't do as much as we have before when we've held an Open House. Then we have every room decorated! But I was thankful we weren't doing that this year as I did almost all the decorating myself since everyone else was much too busy.

I hope you enjoyed the tour.

 

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