Christmas Explosion!

I'm showing all my goodies - Christmas goodies that is :) - in one big, picture-filled post!

With the rec room under renovation since October, not too much decorating has been taking place. Since new dust seems to settle and collect on every surface, everyday, I just haven't seen the point in going all out with decorations.

I made a little exception for Christmas though of course and decked out the outside. And inside I decorated the living room, but that's as far as I went this year. In a normal year every room would usually get a little sumpin sumpin Christmasy :)

So this holiday house tour will begin outside. Welcome to our humble abode! :)

pay no mind to the old washer and dryer sitting in the garage prior to them selling on craigslist :)



My mom is in the process of selling her house and no longer had a need for her evergreen window swags (she made them herself and put them out every year for as long as I can remember!). So she passed them on to me and I used them at every window on the front of our house.

This one above the garage was fun to hang...it involved me on a ladder...and a very apprehensive husband holding said ladder ;)

 BRRRRR! It's cold outside! Definitely feels like winter now...Let's go inside and warm up, shall we? :)

Here's the view when you come in our front door - our living room!

I had fun with an old window that I found in my grandparent's barn. I spray painted the panes with chalkboard paint awhile ago, and for Christmas I added a Santa slogan and hung it above the end table.

On the banister I hung 3M removable hooks and a pre-lit garland:

At night the lights look great. I luuuuuuuuuuuuuve Christmas lights at night....

....so calming and cozy.

To the right of the stairs, in the corner next to the window, I leaned an antique pair of skiis that were my grandfathers. I heart them so much!

The pic above also shows part of the mantle. For that area, first I hung our stockings with more clear 3M removable hooks. They're my new favorite decorating secret...well, I guess it's not a secret now ;)

I love the middle stocking. I can't really explain why except for the feeling it gives me. It screams CHRISTMAS! and HOMEY! and OLD-FASHIONED! and a lot of other sentiments in all caps that make me feel good :)

I loosely stuffed some plastic grocery bags in first, then some "toys"  (which are actually ornaments and a gift box) peeping out of the top:

See that santa head? That's a Pez dispenser ornament..not functional but totally cute! My hubby has a thing for Pez and his mom gave it to him as an early Christmas gift this year...and I have a feeling there will be actual dispensers WITH pez in his stocking at their house when Santa comes :)

In the white stockings (From Michael's on sale last year I think?) I did the same plastic bag stuffing, then perched a miniature christmas tree inside each:

I love the green and white against the fireplace brick.

Above the mantle, on either side of the TV, I used the same gold urns I had out at Thanksgiving (I filled them with dried grasses) but for Christmas I filled them with bunches of evergreen and pinecone branches.

Mercury glass is BIG in decor right now, and these urns/vases are reminicient of mercury glass with their flecks and speckles and shine. But I actually prefer their gold color to the silver mercury because gold feels warmer to me and I like my holidays warm :)

Then I hung wooden candycanes on the lip of each urn...



...and leaned my giant-sized pinecones against them:

And then I filled the rest of the mantle under the TV with a strand of gold lights and pinecones that aren't on steroids :)



At the bottom right of the mantle is an old, wooden red stool which came from Mike's Nana. I placed a wooden monogram on the seat (it's from JoAnn's or Michael's). I had spray painted it gold awhile back and it plays nicely with the gold urns/vases that sit on the mantle above it.



Finally, to the right of the mantle is our Christmas tree. I wanted a real one this year but with the rec room reno taking longer than anticipated (we were going to put a real tree in that room), we just opted to bring down our go-to skinny artificial tree and put it in the living room like in year's past.

I guess if it were themed it'd be red and gold, but there's a good mix of other miscellaneous colors and ornaments.

I really like this candy in a wrapper ornament I got as a homemade gift from my cousin eons ago:

And this adorable "Mike and Amy" ornament commemorating the date of our engagment:

And I had to snap a photo of this super cool ornament we picked up in the Caymen Islands. It's a Santa hat-wearin turtle on a surfboard, haha :) It kinda keeps up our tradition we started on our honeymoon (to Antigua) of bringing home a Christmas ornament souvenier from a tropical destination. 

Here's one last picture that shows the whole right side of the living room decorated. It's a nice wide shot, which I don't think I've ever actually taken of this room before now.

Well, that concludes 2011's Christmas home tour! :) hope you enjoyed it and are also enjoying any and all decorations you've put out this year. I wish I could've done more in other rooms, but I keep reminding myself there's always next year!

Linking up to Sarah's Christmas Tree Party! :)