Deck the House with Boughs of Holly

I like decorating for Christmas. It's fun to take out the silly Christmas chotchkies and look at them for a month. I dislike undecorating for Christmas which we're going to do this weekend. Not only does it mean the fun season is over but the house looks quite naked.

Having a new house to decorate was interesting this year. Things didn't have their saved spot to go to when they got unpacked so decorating took a lot more thought than usual. Plus, some of my things just don't seem to work in the new place and, since this house is bigger than the last, we realize we need more decor to make the spirit of the holiday feel complete. That is why I'm currently shopping all the post Christmas sales. Never pay full price....especially for seasonal items!

We put our tree in our entryway and I really liked it there. I really want to get 2 trees next year so we can put a "pretty" one with matching type ornaments in our front bay window and keep our personalized one, with crazy mismatched ornaments that all have meaning to me, in the entryway for us to enjoy. So, in my sales searches, I've been trying to really stock up on ornaments for the 2nd tree.

As for decorating challenges, the most frustrating one was where to put our stockings. We have 2 different fireplaces in the house, one of which has 2 sides. Yet, we have NO MANTEL! A situation I'd hope to remedy before the holidays but lack of time squashed that dream. Maybe next year. So, for this year, we had to hang the stocking from the sideboard behind the couch. Not as visible as I'd like nor practical since we kept having to move them around to access the interior of the cabinets.

In any case, there are definitely plans in the mix to soup up decorations at the Hines household next Christmas. For now, enjoy the pictures of our lovely tree and outdoor lights. They'll all be coming down this weekend!

Lights Off

Lights On - Enter Dylan

Our Lights, Candy Canes and Deer Outside
Next year, Mike plans on adding lots more lights (to all peaks)
and more lawn decor. Dylan was absolutely obsessed with the deer.
That poor one out front took a beating this year and looked even more
horrible after the high winds we had the other night...as evidenced by
having half of it's lights out and it's frame bent to make it look like
the poor thing had too much eggnog and passed out nose first in our mulch.

Even my toes got a little decoration thanks to the lovely lady
that gave me a wonderful pedicure a couple of weeks ago.