Our Christmas Decorations

The past couple days we have started to put up our Christmas decorations. We NEVER put stuff up before Thanksgiving but we have been known to do it the day after. Before just seems too early.

We had bought some new stuff on clearance after Christmas last year, so this was our first year using it. Our most exciting purchase was probably our solar LED white lights. We have them wrapped around the trunk of our pine tree out front. You do have to clear the snow off of the solar panel every time it snows but we haven't really had a problem. We like that these don't add to our electricity bill and we will most likely purchase more after this holiday season.

We also have multi-colored lights strung around our huge living room window (on the outside---when you string them on the inside, I think it looks weird). These are not solar or new. We really like them though, especially because it seems like most houses in our neighborhood only have white lights and those can look rather plain by themselves. This is the first year we have put them around our window so we had to put in nails to wrap around. Last year, we had them wrapped around our porch posts and that looked nice too.

Our front door wreath is not new this year but it still looks really nice. It's big and was too heavy for our magnetic door hook so we had to buy an over the door one. It has fake frost, berries, and pine branches. I obviously didn't make this one, like I did our fall one. Wreaths are a little hard to store though. We keep ours in a plastic bag on top of our ornament box.

Inside, we have our (fake) tree. We are almost done decorating it but we were both too tired to finish last night (plus we watched the live Carrie Underwood version of The Sound of Music). It comes pre-lit with white lights but we add a lighted star (that is too big to fit on the top of the tree because our tree is 8 and a half feet tall in our 9 foot foyer), garland (silver and blue), and ornaments.

This year, we have our little fabric Christmas tree and penguin that I made this past season. They're cute and help decorate our living room. We also have new bows we bought to put on our porch posts but have since discovered the wire to attach them is too small to fit around the pole so we are debating what to do with them. They may just end up on our tree.

I wish we had a mantle or a stair railing to wrap garland around because I always think that looks nice but we aren't getting either one. I also want to get a nativity scene but those are pricey so we will probably wait on that.

It is my family's tradition (and now David's and mine) to listen to Christmas music while decorating the tree. We listened to Pandora's station for country Christmas last night and it was really nice.

Now all that's left is Christmas cookies! We are making 28 dozen (7 different kinds) plus fudge. We are obviously going to have to share if we want to eat them all in time! We will most likely be making those next weekend (with our new mixer!)

Oh! And I will be making a tree skirt since we don't have one but I don't know that it will be done in time for this season. It's a rather tedious one but I'll be sure to post if I finish it.