Winter Wonderland

So, as I sit in my office this morning and look out the window watching the snow fall to the ground, I am overcome with the joyous feeling that it's Christmas more than ever! My decorations have been up since the week before Thanksgiving (yes, I am crazy), and I even participated in the after Thanksgiving madness (I mean shopping). But, all of that has not made it feel like Christmas until now. It's kind of ironic that the XM radio is playing "Let it snow, Let it snow" as I type this post.

I have had a few people ask that I post pictures of my Christmas decorations, so I am going to oblige and let all 3 of my readers see. I have to say it has been a work in progress over the years, but each year it keeps getting better and better. I owe my Mom a huge thank-you for helping me decorate my tree. Also, Rachel helped me with the wreath for my front door. I had all of the stuff for it, but I just couldn't wrap my brain around what I wanted to do with it. So, sweet Rachel stepped in and saved the day. Thanks Leigh for loaning Rachel to me! :o) It really was a lot of fun decorating because somehow as the day went on, more and more people stopped by the house to visit and offer up suggestions. My mom, Heather (sister-n-law), Brent (brother), Ms. Brenda (mother-n-law), Leigh (friend), Lauren (Leigh's little girl), Jessica (neighbor), and Rachel (friend) all stopped by sporadically, so my mom decided that everyone who stopped by needed a hot cup of apple cider. I wished I had taken picture's, but unfortunately I was a little pre-occupied. Hope you all enjoy the pictures! They aren't the best decorations ever, but like I said it's a work in progress. Maybe in about 10 years, I will have decorations like Callaways, or not!

The attempt at making my tree look like Callaway's trees (still a long way to go)!

This is the center of my mantle. Take a look at those cute little packages my mom found me! There was only 1 bundle left, so I detached them to spread them out.

My favorite bargain this season is the stockings! Last year Jonathan, Daisy (yes, she has a stocking too), and myself had the Pottery Barn stockings with our name monogrammed on. Well, I found these this year at Sam's Club for $10.88!! Can you believe that? Then I found out later that there is a designer one that looks the same that cost over $100 a piece. Regardless of what my husband says, it does pay off to bargain shop, even if you didn't know you needed new stockings! :o) How could I pass them up?

OK, so this is the top of my tree. I learned a valuable lesson the night I did this. Never ask your husband his thoughts, unless you really want to hear it! I turn to Jonathan, as he is so deep in a TV show and ask "baby, what do you think of the top of the tree," to which his response was..."if you were going for the whole 4th of July firework explosion look, then you mastered it!" God love him, but that was not the answer I was looking for after spending two days on this tree!! It took him about a week of coming in everyday for him to finally say, "you know, the house looks really good and you did a great job." I guess he needed time to process it.

Don't laugh, this is a little creation I made. I wanted to put something in my urns and since I have no green-thumb this is what I came up with.

This is my front door. I have to tell a funny story that happened during the guys weekly poker night at our house. We had two new guys show up and when they walked thru the front door, they turned to Jonathan and said, "dude, these Christmas decorations rock, it looks like some kind of celebrity lives here!" Jonathan turns to me and I'm just glowing, cause it made my night to be compared to a celebrity (those guys are welcome in our house anytime! :o)). Even if they didn't mean me, just my house (I'll take what I can get)!