Deck The Halls

Our halls are officially decked for the holidays. Whew! It took me four days to complete the task with my pint-sized helper by my side. Over the course of the last few days, I put up two Christmas trees, decorated the fireplace mantle and decked out the front porch. I was determined to display every piece of Christmas decor I own because last year, I hardly felt up to it with a new baby at home.

Andi doesn't enjoy decorating for Christmas so I don't object him to participating if he doesn't like it. We're not like other families who brave the outdoors to chop down a tree together or reminisce about homemade Christmas ornaments. I do enjoy all those things, however, so I make it special for myself by blaring my favorite holiday tunes and taking my time to make every decoration perfect. I'm looking forward to the day when Tory's old enough to help. If she's anything like me, she'll love the way a bright Christmas tree makes her feel, shining from inside the living room window.

When my parents moved into a smaller house a few years ago, they passed down their big Christmas tree to me. I know how time consuming it is to assemble as I assisted my dad with it many times over the years. It's completely worth the effort and I love being reminded of my childhood Christmases back home, all the way in Minnesota.

The tree looks a little lopsided, but it's only my awesome picture taking skills.

My mom also gave me her nativity scene last year and I love it. It makes me feel so grown up to have one for some reason, and it also reminds me of her. As a baptism gift last year, my cousin Jen gifted Tory a Little People nativity scene and I set it up in the living room, just below my fragile one. I think it's such a fabulous gift because it's actually something Tory plays with and it so far, it's kept her from touching my real set. I've been using the characters to teach her about all the Christmas Story and sometimes Baby Jesus even does everyday things with us like coloring and riding in the Little People airplane.

So far, Tory hasn't bothered the real Christmas tree. We talked about how it's a "no touch" and I positioned all the breakable ornaments on the top half of the branches just in case. Andi's mom volunteered to make Tory the felt Christmas tree I was eyeing on Pinterest and so far, "Tory's tree" has completely stolen all of her attention. The ornaments my MIL Janie made are absolutely adorable. I love the level of detail she gave to each one, sewing our names and initials onto some and adding pops of color to others. So sweet.

Secretly, I feel like the biggest loser for being one of the only houses on our block without Christmas lights at night. We have a few perfectly shaped trees in our yard so I investigated ways to string lights on them myself. But without outside power (and with our recent pest problem - which is behind us, thank goodness), I didn't want to run an extension cord underneath our garage door. Instead, I saw the most adorable rattan moose on sale at Target the other day and I decided to go that route for outdoor decoration. I love the way it looks on our front porch ... and it was a lot easier to assemble than Christmas lights in a tree.

Downstairs, I put up my smaller Christmas tree I purchased for my very first apartment in 2003. It was  a breeze to decorate compared to the mammoth one upstairs! I like to have one "pretty tree" upstairs and a "family tree" downstairs because that's the way my parents always decorated when we were growing up. The smaller tree is filled with ornaments from my childhood, a few Andi and I've collected together over the years and Tory's first Christmas ornaments received last year.

Top left: Flip flops from our Hawaii vacation in 2006
Bottom left: Tory's 1st Christmas ornament 2011
Right: My 1st Christmas ornament 1981

The fireplace mantle displays my most treasured Christmas decoration - the hand-sewn stockings Andi purchased for our family on our second wedding anniversary (cotton). They're so special to me (I just wish they'd stay turned outwards! I might have to take the mount apart and re-sew it on each stocking).

Now our halls are decked, I'm ready to host friends and family for my annual Christmas Cookie Swap this weekend and to host Andi's family on Christmas Day. Bring on the festivities!