It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

I love Christmas. I guess this isn't unique, but none the less, it is true. One of the things I enjoy are all the decorations and the many ways to make a house look festive. I've been looking forward to decorating my own house for Christmas for a long time. And while a lot of our free time is still spent on house projects, it was worth it to take some time to celebrate the season. So this past weekend we made time to get our first live Christmas Tree! I was pretty excited. LJ and I went to Houston Garden Center to pick it out. Here it is, strapped to my car and ready to go home:

It looks pretty big doesn't it? The tip hangs off the back of the car and everything... well, it looks big until you have LJ standing in the picture and you realize how small my car is. 

Anyways, we got our tree home and set it up. When we got there, I realized that we didn't have a tree skirt. Why do we need one? Well, we just got done working so hard on these beautiful laminate floors... and I really don't want tree sap on them. LJ came up with a great solution: use a drop-clothe!

I guess it's a DIY Christmas! :)

Next I got the tree ready to be decorated. The only way I can think to describe the process is to say I 'fluffed' the tree (insert inappropriate joke here).  Basically, I started at the top and finger combed the tree against the grain. This both helped me pick out leaves and other junk stuck in the tree, as well as helped the tree relax into it's real shape. Turns out our tree had some crazy Dr. Seuss branches:

(Look at the drop clothe, you can see all those leaves I got out of the tree? Yuck!)

So, the next step should have been to quite literally 'trim the tree' with some sort of gardening tool; maybe hedge trimmers. But we don't have those... so I walked around the garage trying to figure out what I could use. Here's the solution I came up with:

Yes, that's a hacksaw... I felt a little like 'Tim the Tool-Man Taylor' using such a big saw to cut a tiny branch, but it worked! My tree turned out shaped a lot more normal.

I'm not going to take you step by step through decorating the tree, because I'm pretty sure you know the basics. I didn't do anything super fancy this year, just lights, candy canes and some sentimental ornaments. Here is our Dining Room and Formal Living Room:

I've gone a little lighter on Christmas decor than I plan on in the future, but it's not realistic to go out and buy a whole house worth of decor in one year. Oh, I have finally decided what I want to do as far as color scheme. I've decided on red, white and silver. I realized that if I used a lot of blue and silver or even green and silver (like I used to plan on using), our house will look too cold. I've already got a lot of cool colors in my decor, so for Christmas I'll use red to warm it up. I put a few little Christmas things on the built in desk, staying withe the whole red theme.

I even put up the first Christmas card we received in our new house (in the middle on the bottom shelf). If we get any more I can stat a little collect. :)
I guess I should show you the other living room decorations:

I've got a baby tree next to the TV (a fake tree we've had for 6 years) and LJ's stocking and Nutcrackers. Let's start with the stocking.

You may be wondering why we only have one... well the answer is I made this one for LJ, cross-stitched the whole front, and just haven't had the desire to make one for me.

These suckers take FOREVER to make. Some day I'll get around to my own... but for now our fireplace just looks like LJ is the only one who gets presents. :)

So, what do you do when you inherit over a dozen Nutcrackers? Why you start a collection of course! LJ used to get a Nutcracker from his Grandparents every Christmas so he has quite the collection. While we've been moving around, LJ's parents have been holding them for us; but now that we have a house, the wooden men have come home. I've decided to pick up on the 'purchase one a year' trend and bought a new little guy:

Isn't he cute! I also decided that we'll label each one. I think it will be fun to look back over the years and remember the Christmas associate with each Nutcracker.

(Our Street name is blurred for privacy)

I think he'll fit in great with his new friends.

Overall I think they're pretty cute. I'm not sure if I'll keep them on the fireplace every year, but for now I like how it looks.

What about you? Decorating for Christmas this year?