A peek of our home during Christmas time ...

Our house is all decorated for Christmas.  I have pretty much the same Christmas theme every year.  My favorite Christmas things are reindeer, and I always decorate with red and gold.  I love to check last years blog posts to see how my decor changes from year to year.  As you will notice my style is a bit simple and functional.  I like to do just enough decorating to make the house festive.  I'm not the best decorator, because I'd rather be in the kitchen cooking.  I do have fun decorating, however I think could stand a few lessons. 

I love our tall skinny tree.  She is 9 feet tall and she came fresh out of the box 4 years ago.  This year her lights didn't work.  Gary (being the sweet man he is) cut off every single light and re-strung this tall lady!  Bless his heart.  I would have thrown her in the garbage and bought a new tree, but he saved our pocket book some pain!

The kids favorite part of our tree is this silly old gold star.  I was thinking I needed to get a new topper for our tree this year and Layla gasped in surprise.  "Mommy, Christmas trees must have stars!!"  So the gold star it is!

a few of my reindeer ornaments

Our mantle is always fun to decorate.  This year I decided to use lit garland.  I love it so much.  Our house is so cozy at night with the tree and the sparkling mantle.

Hayden insisted the nutcracker remain on the mantle.  He usually doesn't belong there, but Hayden insists he is protecting us.  Also the silly rooster match holder doesn't really mesh with my Christmas decor, but it belongs there. We have gas logs and the matches are stored up high right there for easy access for us adults, but the kids can't reach them.  The rooster holder was my grandmothers.  She hand painted it and I love it.

I wanted a simple center piece for my breakfast table.  We eat at the table every night so I didn't want a huge bulky centerpiece.  This glass bowl filled with read and cold balls is perfect!

Layla loves this little angel.  She has a place for a tea lite candle.  She looks so pretty at night with her candle burning bright.

Since I mentioned Layla....

She loves having a tree in her room.  I think this tree is PERFECT for her.

Hayden loves his Christmas tree too.  He always asks to sleep with the lights on, but we always end up turning them off.  He like to lay in bed and play by the light of the tree instead of sleep!

We have these fun little door knob hanging friends.  The angel hangs on our front door and the reindeer on the backdoor that leads to the patio.  They have little bells on them so you can hear the jingle when you open or close the door.

I love buying cinnamon scented pine cones every year.  They smell so good!!  These pine cones were just plain ole pine cones but I added a few balls to their basket to liven them up!  They are in the kitchen/breakfast area on the bakers-rack. 

My formal dining room table is suffering a bit this year.  I really haven't done too much in there, and now the table runner is holding all the Christmas cards we have received.    I usually set the table with fun dishes, but I'm not feeling it this year.

Here is a quick look at the outside.  The Santa is on the front porch and the snowman is on the back porch.  I need to take some night time pictures.  Gary hung clear lights all the way around our house.  I love the look of clear lights!

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!!