Deck the Halls

(this is what we gave to our neighbors this year - chocolate stars from Trader Joe's! YUM!)

Actually there is no decking going on in my halls, just in the living room and family room and a little bit on the outside of the house. For your viewing pleasure and for my record here are a few of my decorations this year.

This is my splurge for the season. I bought these cool rattan stars from Pottery Barn! I absolutely LOVE them.

...And speaking of Pottery Barn I saw these cute little silver sparkly birds that I was totally going to buy too but, they were no longer available. SO, being the resourceful person I am, I made my own, thanks to Martha Stewart white gold glitter, super cheap birds from the Dollar Tree and a little bit of spray adhesive.

I love these 3 guys... I think I might make them sparkly too, but with clear glitter instead of silver.

So I guess I'm quite inspired by Pottery Barn (I mean really, who isn't) because a couple of years ago I ripped a page out of their magazine that looked similar to this. I created my own version for a FRACTION of the price. Quite nice, if you ask me.

I add to it every year - this PEACE sign was new last year

here it is with the candles lit

I can't leave a picture of the tree out, although I am completely SICK and TIRED of this tree, I think it's seen it's last year. It was bought from the Macy's Home Store after the season 8 years ago. It was meant for display only (they had to show off their ornaments somehow). They had already thrown away the box so they created a makeshift one for us (well 2 really, we had to divide it up into two sections). It is so SUPER heavy Brad asks every year through gritted teeth, after we have sweat and strained and cursed (at least on Brad's part;) "Who is going to help us put this up in our old age?" And now that it is nigh unto a decade old, the lights are VERY temperamental as you can see by the dark patches in the photo - at least it's better than the 3 strands that were working when we first put it up. It is a GORGEOUS tree though, and for that it will be missed.

Outside - thank you Brad and Brady

My cute indoor/outdoor trees. Not new, but I guess I've been enjoying knowing how to photograph lights. I loved the way this turned out.

And just a little bit of Holiday Randomness... I was sitting at the table, working on Christmas Cards when I looked over, and there sat Afton all quiet and still... looking exactly like this. Bahahaha!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!