This is a shameless post where you all get to comment and tell me how cute my house looks. It only took me 10 days to get all of my Christmas stuff up. I love this time of the year but sometimes spending every evening doing my normal clean-up and then decorating is exhausting.
But I was excited to decorate this year because I got some new stuff.
New stockings and tree skirt:
The tree skirt is really just a quilt that I wadded up and put under the tree. The stockings are PBK and were my second choice. Last year, after Christmas on Amazon, I found this amazing deal on 8 red and white knitted TAG stockings.
I ordered them and then immediately emailed some friends and my mom and sister to brag about my deal. Yeah, I'm classy like that. When the stockings finally arrived three months later (they were back ordered) they were tiny--like little socks for cats. No wonder they were so cheap. I was devastated. I ended up sending them back and just buying my kids these PBK ones on Ebay. The kids are thrilled.
I also rigged up this stocking display in my entry:
When my mom and I attended our cooking class at Thanksgiving Point, we saw a cute bar with all these stockings hanging on it. My mom convinced me I needed to do the same for my house and she purchased the stockings at Roberts Crafts with coupons. (Don't be jealous Ashley.)
For the first time since having kids, I put up my olive wood Nativity that I bought in Jerusalem cough 13 cough years ago when I was in college. That makes me sound sooo old. Now that we have a piano, I felt like I had a safe place to put it where baby Jesus wouldn't end up in the Barbie house:
I remember buying it from this cute little man named Baghdadi. I gave him my wad of cash and he assured me he would pack it up and ship it to me. When I arrived home, my dad told me I was a total sucker. He said "you will never see that nativity." Low and behold, about 8 weeks later, an old beat up, taped together box arrived on my doorstep with this bad boy inside. It doesn't go with the rest of my decor (for about 1 minute, I considered spraying it white and rolling it all in glitter but decided against it!) I still love it because it reminds me of the Holy Land.
That's it. My five trees are up. My gourmet dinner night that I am hosting is this week (Heaven help me!!) and Sam has recovered from hauling a gigantic chair to the basement at my request. Tis' the season!
27 comments:
Brooke! Your house looks great! I can't wait for Thursday. I love my nativity too! I think I got mine from the same guy. It was a great day when that beat up cardboard box arrived at the door. I'm glad you put yours up this year. I'm waiting another year I think!
Teeny, tiny cat socks...haha. You deserved it for your rotten braggery.
I just ordered Lancer and Blakely new PBK stockings. We got the vintage snowman and vintage angel ones--they're so cute!
Your house really does look amazing. I can't believe how big your place is in comparison to my tiny cracker box.
I'm so glad the nativity showed up. We did the same thing in Holland with a huge windmill. We thought it was a bust until 3 months went by and it showed up on our doorstep!
PS--I forgive you for stealing the title from my blog post.
I am so jealous of that stocking-rod get-up. It's perfect.
I still have the beat up box Bagdadi sent my nativity in, and the newspaper that cushions the pieces with the Arabic type. I'm glad you didn't roll your set in glitter. That would have been a crime against humanity.
Your Christmas stuff is the best, and I think I am subliminally trying to make mine look like yours. You should link to last year's tour so we can see the five trees.
P.S. Why does Cali have no cute Roberts/Taipan/Basket Loft stores? Seriously. I don't get it.
YOur house looks great. I love your stockings. Some of my decor is so cheesy but I'd rather spend my money on other things. I need new stockings though and I love yours. The nativity scene is awesome.
I said I love your stockings twice. I'm tired and my comment was lame- sorry.
I just pulled out my Jerusalem nativity today and had myself a nice little trip down memory lane. I also got mini nativity ornaments when we were there and I was telling Steven I wish I would have purchased more than 5... One day...it would be so fun to go back. 13 years. Wow, has it really been that long?
Oh, and are you loving your piano? And I just read Ashley's comment about the newspaper...mine are still wrapped in that too...I consider it part of the souvenir. :)
I mean subconsciously trying to copy you--not subliminally.
Oh and I had to remove a huge chair in order to decorate too. A volkswagon that was parked in my front room.
I'm so jealous! I'm not sure how to even attempt decorating with crutches! You have such cute stuff!
I like the decor, but I despise moving furniture, especially when it is for arbitrary aesthetics.
I love your hutch! I want one SO bad! I have the same nativity that my mom got me when she went there and it arrived to her house in the same way by a man of the same name. How funny!! Part of the fun of Christmas is rearranging all the furniture!
Kudos to Sam for moving the furniture . . .it all looks like it should be in the PB catalog. You've got to come help me with the Spode in the hutch.
Five trees??? You have some energy, don't you? I can't even convince Jimmy to pull the artificial tree that I got for free from Freecycle down from the attic! I love the stocking bar as Grant has already pulled the stockings from the fireplace and been injured by the very heavy stocking holders. He is destroying everything, so i cannot put a post out like this as everything is shoved up high on one small piece of furniture. Maybe next year, right?
Wow, everything looks beautiful! I hope you'll post about your gourmet dinner night too.
This post makes me both tired and envious (not nice I know). Your house and decorations look amazing. I have a hutch and its UGLY. I am going to shamelessly copy you and paint it white (when I say I, I mean David). Unfortunately its too big to roll in glitter.
Your house is Christmas heaven. It's even more amazing in person- I was in awe. Your kids are so lucky!
Don't forget- I need the 411 on Mr. Peaks.
It looks super cute. I can't wait to see it in person. Gourmet night here we come.
That nativity is amazing. It's so beautiful! The most coveted possession of my mom's was her nativity set that she got in Turkey or something. It was all wood & we loved to play with it. Classically, the chosen Gabi got it & it seems like she always puts it in her holiday decor pictures just to make the wound a little deeper.
Please come and decorate my house for Christmas...I'll provide a nice warm atmosphere sans kids. Make sure to bring your wrought iron stocking collection when you come.
Great story about the basic goodness of people. If I were that man, I would never have mailed it. Not because I am dishonest, but bc I can never seem to mail anything. If letters are hard, a package would be impossible.
Your house looks great. It is so wonderful to go all out for Christmas. I am trying, but it is like a tug of war with the kids to do so and the result is that my house is chaos. I have been lying to my visiting teachers because I just cannot let them in with the house as it is.
After looking at this post I realize you only have one option...
come to St. George and warm up as you pull out my Christmas! I am feeling the bah humbug this year. I would never have believed it possible but it is true! Is it really worth it to pull out stuff so I can put it away?
The cat size stockings is sooo funny!
Your house does look great! So cute and I love the stockings you hung in your entry way!!
Glad you didn't spray paint the nativity. :)
The beauty of nativities is that they are allowed to be diverse. Not matching the rest of your [ADORABLE] decor is part of their charm and uniqueness!
And it's from ISRAEL!!!! I'm so happy you allow it to stand out and--gag!--"Be it's own kind of beautiful." (ha! remember that Mormonad?)
Your house looks FABULOUS!!! I love Christmas decorations, a pain in the ass to put up, but it makes everything feel so magical!
I am making our stockings and it's been a fun project. I'll post them when I'm finished! :) Or they will be hideous and never see the light of day...and I'll be having PBK overnighting 'real' stockings on Christmas Eve!
I LOVE the hutch with the Christmas dishes!!! I think that may be my favorite!
Your house is absolutely darling. I love the hutch with the dishes and the stocking bar, what a great idea!
I'm a friend of Ash's in Cali, not a crazy blog-stalker. Well, maybe just a little crazy...
Anyway, your holiday decor is amazing, and gives me inspiration!
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