One Final Shot (for now)

A more full shot of our Christmas mantle in our family room.  See the old photo of the man to the left of the candy cane candle?  That's old Josiah Conger, a forbear of my husband.  The Santa on the right was given to my oldest daughter by my grandmother.  My stocking on the far left has been mine since young childhood.  The four center stockings were given to our children by my mother.

From this picture and the other posts of our Christmas decorations, you can see why we have about 17 large boxes of decorations (not counting the outside ones!).

These decorations have been collected over 35 years of marriage, and some are from my childhood.  I know some people like to have a new Christmas theme each year, but we like to use all of our ornaments and decorations.  I love a simple natural look, but I love all of the memories and the sheer abundance of Christmas -- the Victorian "too much is not enough".

More Christmas Tour

Here is our family room, our couch, with Christmas pillows, our Advent Wreath.  This photo was taken in early December, so we had not received many cards yet.

My small collection of nativity trees, which sits on our tv cabinet.

A shot of our main Christmas tree, the one we put the presents under.  35 years of collecting ornaments.

A more full shot of the tree.

Our mantle with stockings.

Christmas Tour Continued

These pictures are in our kitchen.  This is a little shelf unit that hangs on the wall opposite our table.  I've had the matrushka dolls since I was around 10 years old.  They are from Russia and were given to me by my best friend in elementary school.

This is a little tree sitting on a small table along that same brick wall.  I got the tree on clearance from Target a few years ago.  It was a Bratz tree, believe or not.  I chunked the Bratz ornaments and scraped off the Bratz label from the base.  I love the little glass mushroom ornaments that I found to hang from it.

Here is a picture of our kitchen table and window that looks out on my bird feeders and flower garden along the side of our house.  The window has a large sill that holds a collection of snow globes.  The shelf unit and the little white tree from above flank the window.  We have Christmas lights strung around the window and we use our Nikko Christmas china every evening from the first day of December until New Year's Day.

Christmas House Tour

Here are some pictures of our dining room, decorated for Christmas.  This is one of 2 trees that we have.  This room has an "old fashioned" Christmas feel, with a few candles on the tree held on with clips (which we dare not light!), and ornaments that are of natural materials or home-made.

Here you can get a feel for the room, Christmas cones hung from the chandelier, and our Christmas village on the buffet.

Pictures of the rest of the family room and kitchen to come in other posts.

mood music

Well, is there anything more Christmas-y than listening to Julie Andrews et al on the old Firestone Christmas album from the 60's (at least I think it's from then)?  We used to listen to this just about every afternoon after school and all through the Christmas holidays from whenever my parents first got it (in the 60's) until I left home in the mid 70's.  Not sure if that picture is the right one or not, but it's certainly close.  A couple of years ago my dad burned it to a cd for me, along with the old Boston Pops album.  I have them playing now as we decorate the den tree.  I'll have to get on the ball and take some pictures.