This Year's Christmas Decorations

Hi Friends,

I've been promising to show you some of our Christmas decorations, and I finally got around to editing the pictures. So, does time fly faster around the holidays, or what?! Plus, the kids have something going on every day until break, so everything seems super rushed right now. Anyway, here is the first round of this year's decorations. I took more pictures than I realized, so I think I'll do another post.

Most of the decorations are very kid friendly and pretty simple. This year, I changed things up in the entryway.  I moved the little table  that normally goes in this spot and added a bench from our kitchen table. We eat almost all the meals in our dining room, and you would not believe how long it took people to realize that the bench was missing!

I just added some pillows, a lantern and our little countdown snowman -- easy peasy. I plan to make over the kitchen set next year, and I can't wait to get started. Do you see the dings in the wood? The table is even worse!

We have an open front room, so this little red cabinet is on the other wall. Because it's red, I thought it was the perfect place to add some peppermint accents.

My daughter decorated the peppermint plates last year, and the other items were all bought in previous years. I put the polar bear candle on top of a stack of Christmas books.

My oldest is in charge of decorating the Christmas scene each year, and she loves this job. So, after she painstakingly arranges everything to her satisfaction, her siblings move everything around the way they want it. It's an ongoing war around here. It's a mishmash of different buildings and figures from various stores, and we add to it each year.

We put a large roll of snow over the sofa table and added the scene on top of that. Spray painted branches make up the wintry woods in the background, and we added lights and foam snowflakes on the top of the branches. This year, the kids built a huge snow mountain from the snow blanket.

We added some Epsom salts to the buildings and in the snow for a little extra sparkle. 

We'll call this an aerial view of the skating pond, woods, Town Hall, church and the live Nativity in the far right.

Here's how the village looks at night. It's a little hard to see the details, but I find it so enchanting, and so do the kids!

And, here's our little fur boy in his favorite spot. I made the believe sign a few weeks ago, but the lighting was slightly better when I took this picture, so I'm showing it again. He loves to look out the window from this perch, and I think he thinks the blanket is his!

Thanks so much for stopping by for a peek at our Christmas decorations. I'll have the rest ready to show you in a day or two.