Deck the Halls

This year we are living with my mom for Christmas which means hard labor in the kitchen every day. She loves to bake. I hate it. But I enjoy spending time with my mom and continuing Christmas traditions from years ago. This is the first Christmas since getting married that we've been home longer then 4 days… nice. It also means that there were twice as many Christmas decorations to choose from. I stretched mom a bit out of her comfort zone and convinced her to use some of my ornaments. Mom's a pretty traditional gal; she likes RED and GOLD. That's about it. Sam and I aren't gold people so we snagged a ton of shatterproof (Sterling Proof) red, green and silver ornaments our first Christamas. It took some convincing. I don't think mom was too keen on silver or green on her tree, but I think it's the best year in a while.

Enjoy:

We'll start with the formal living room. Mom's a collector. She's collected Dept 56 Dicken's Village and Snow Village for years. More recently she got into Mark Robert's Christmas Fairies. Sam HATES the fairies, so you'll never see them at our house. The fairies are normally on the tree, but we went crazy this year and changed things up. I think the less frou-frou tree allowed her to let her hair down… we got rid of of all the ribbon and puffy bows. I like a good ornate Christmas as much as anyone, but sometimes it's fun to see what else you can do.

Living Room Mantle:
Mark Roberts Fairies and Pottery Barn Stockings

Mom liked ours so much, she caved and bought new ones

Don't worry, Sterling and Boo Boo are still represented,
Mom didn't like them on the mantle, but I'll sneak them in

Fairies in all the little hidey holes

Detailes of my favorites

Dept 56 Snow Village

Mom's Snow Baby Collection

New banister decorations

Detail of the giant ornaments on the banister

View from the foyer into living room

the Tree

details of my favorite ornaments

my Lenox Princess Kitty ornament: for Everest

My favorite, favorite

Presents didn't fit under the tree this year: hostile takeover

view from the staircase

you can't see it in the pictures, so I wanted to show
 the tree skirt I SLAVED over… Oh, Pinterest!

In the dining room, we usually have Christmas dinner, but Christmas is at my aunt's this year. We still put out Mom's Dept 56 Dickens Village. I contributed my piece as well. : )

the whole village

details of Dicken's Village

The keeping room is a little less formal and more my style… possibly because it's all mine! On full display in all of their glory is my Nutcracker collection. I have too many to fit on the mantle, so they are spread around the room as well.

Keeping room mantle

Details of the mantle

My favorite- the skier

Mom's Cinnamon Stick tree

In addition to the Nutcrackers, I also contributed some FABULOUS dishes. I've had my eye on Pottery Barn's Reindeer dishes for years. Last year after Christmas, we snagged the dinner plates for more than fifty percent off. Yes, sir! We had my brother, his girlfriend, and my niece Alexis over for dinner, so I broke out my dishes for the first time. Ta da!

So that's it… Christmas at my mom's is a little bit more impressive than the traditional Greavu affair, but it's been fun to decorate this year with my mom again! If you've made it this far, Merry Christmas! Wishing you and yours a special holiday season. And may all of us who are yearning, find baby dust in the new year!