Our Home for the Holidays!

WELCOME TO OUR HOME!

Not much decoration outside, but our front porch has a little Christmas spirit! I love these pre-lit trees in urns -- after-Christmas bargain last year!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.....Our mantle and fireplace (not lit in this pic)....I fixed the poinsettias so that they are now in coordinating pots.  Take note to our tree topper (the star) on the right -- it worked with our tree last year but it's too heavy for our new tree...maybe I'll catch another after-Christmas sale!

Our tree -- also a bargain last year!  I love that we had done so much Christmas shopping so early this year!  What a relief!  The packages stacked to the right were for our Angel -- does anyone else do this?  If so, isn't it the best part of Christmas shopping?!!  We have more fun doing this than anything else!

This tree is fiber-optic and I got it after Christmas a few years ago at 90% off!  It's fun to see the colors change and I use it to display these large word ornaments. (Please excuse the box under the table -- I'm keeping all wrapping paper, tissue, boxes, etc in here so it's easily accessible for gift wrapping)

I love this pewter nativity set -- so simple, but a great reminder of the reason for Christmas!  It is displayed at an area of focus, just in front of our logs at the fireplace.

 

 

 

I fell in love with this tree skirt last year, so I waited until the day after Christmas and scored a deal!  You can't see the details, but it is red, green, white & silver.  However, this little portion peeking out from the gifts is all that's visible now.  It's bitter-sweet because I'm sad I can't see the skirt, but so thrilled that we did gift buying to early!

 

Josh added some humor to some of the gift tags -- I enjoyed the surprise...the one is for his little brother!

 

Christmas cards are one of my favorite things during the season!

That's all I have pictures of.  We enjoy simply decorating our home for Christmas, but we're not into making it extravagant.  Hopefully you enjoyed the quick tour -- now come on and visit!  :)

Our 2009 Christmas Card:

We wish you a Merry Christmas.....and a Happy New Year!!!

Happy Birthday Mary Ann!

My mother-in-law Mary Ann celebrated her birthday on Halloween Day!  I was THRILLED that we were able to have a birthday celebration for her and pull off the surprise until moments before the revealing!  My mom did a great job getting many things together and it was great to have my grandparents join us too!  We held the birthday lunch at a local Bed & Breakfast where we had our own private dining room to celebrate.  I only hope that this is one of many more wonderful birthday celebrations we can have for her!  Here are the awesome secret-keepers with the birthday girl!

Halloween was that same day, so of course we had to be festive with this fun holiday filled with sweets! 

I was a salsa dancer (this is a throwback costume from Greek Sing 2003!) and I am here between Mary Ann & Daddy, both of which are looking awfully attractive!  EEK!

And then we went out for dinner and music at Wha Bah.  Definitely a great place to see a variety of costumes! Mom arranged with the waitress and the band to sing "Happy Birthday" to Mary Ann and bring her yummy cake -- what a great surprise!  Here are our mothers -- they have become good friends!

And of course, my love and me!