Christmas Tour of Homes 2009

Last year at this time I came across The Tour of Homes 2008 from one of the blog's I follow and thought it was pretty cool and loved some of the decorating ideas that others had. I thought about joining in then but I hadn't started a blog yet and I had a lot going on last year so I kept it in mind to do this year. If you have a chance go here to check out everyone who has joined in on this years tour; it can be overwhelming so you have to do it over a period of time since there are so many. If you would like to join in you can also do so by adding your link to that post.
This is what the outside of our house looks like all lit up. We used to put up two of those animated deer and three spiral trees in the yard, however, after the last two winters we've had, where the snow is so deep they are buried, we've left them in their boxes. Maybe one of these years we will have a mild winter again and they'll be able to join the rest of the holiday lights again. We try to get these lights up the weekend before Thanksgiving before a lot of the snow starts to fall.We usually try to get the inside decorated the weekend after Thanksgiving or that first week in December. It takes a couple of days to get it all up and this year I was so thankful that Scott helped put up 90% of the decorations. I hate doing it all by myself and it feels more like a holiday if you can do the decorating as a family.

Two years ago we added the smaller 4' tree to our decor and I use it to put all the grandkids ornaments and any fun type of ornaments...making it our grandkids tree. I got this wonderful idea from my stepmom, who puts up about 15 (I think that is the number this year) trees (mind you they are the pencil trees) all decorated differently and put throughout the house. I collect ornaments and I have so many that I can decorate two trees and they both end up very full. I've also added to our main big tree lots of twisted glass icicles and a lot of clear (crystal looking) snowflakes. The picture of our banister all lit up is taken standing next to the larger tree, so all of this is in our living room area of the house. At night when all the lights are off besides the Christmas lights and all the candles lit our room ends up being so beautiful and cozy. The "Noel" blocks in front of my tv were a gift from my stepdaughter last year, so this is the first year I was able to add them to the decor.We put all the stuffed "toys" on the stairs and the snowman at the piano is one of those Hallmark specials that is Scott's favorite...he feels the need to hit the button at least a couple of times a day going up the stairs....it cracks me up that he is so much of a kid inside.

The red and gold floral arrangement on the floor is one we got from my dad and stepmom that was part of the decor in their December wedding several years back.

In the picture with the two Santa's (the closer one) is a new addition this year. It belonged to Scott's parents and he has always remembered and loved this Santa and has wanted it passed down to him. His mom passed away almost 4 years ago and his dad brought it over to him a couple of weeks ago when he came across it while going through things, making Scott very happy that he now gets the Santa (apparently it is a very old one as well).

The cream colored nativity in the bookcase is probably the oldest (aside from some of my collected ornaments) of my Christmas decorations. I've had this since the early nineties, way before Scott and I were married, and it is one of my favorites to put up.

As you can see I have a lot of candles all over too, I've learned it is best to just use a lot of tealights so I don't have all these candle cups to clean out.

These are only some of the ornaments I've collected over the years. I love Tinkerbell and have several ornaments with her, we have several from different trips we have made, and my sister and I always exchange an ornament with each other every year. A lot of years it will be a "sisters" ornament but not always. The Santa and Mrs. Claus ornament in the bottom right corner of the picture above is really cute, I have it on a spinner thing that you plug into one of the sockets on the light strand and it spins around like they are really dancing. The two bears kissing on a pinecone in the top right corner, was our first ornament for our first Christmas together.

This is the first year I've done the top of my tree so elaborately with all the "stuff" coming out of the top with the angel. After seeing so many trees decorated this way at the Festival of Trees I decided to try it on our tree this year.

We got our tree the first year after being married (so we've had it 9 years now) and it is 7.5' pre-lit with 800 lights (last year I put flashers in some of the strings so it kind of twinkles) and has a motor in the base of it that makes it spin around. I love this because we get to see all of the ornaments on the tree. This year we had quite a bit of trouble with the lights because after 8 years, there were a bunch of bulbs that had just had it and needed to be replaced so I ended up replacing a ton of them before we could even decorate it.

These remaining pictures are throughout the house. Above my kitchen cabinets I have the snowmen with the silver metal trees, the Santa next to the green sleigh, the pencil trees with poinsettias, and the silver lit tree. The nativity was a new addition last year and is one of my favorites. The white poinsettia trees and the poinsettias going down the railing downstairs are also leftover wedding decorations from my dad and stepmom's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding all the "Christmasy" decorations. I do have a few more things here and there but I already overdid it in the pictures department.

I hope you enjoyed seeing all my decorations, I know I enjoy doing it. My house makes a transformation at this time of year, I take down all my pictures and collectibles that are usually on the bookcase and hutch and put up Christmas. I try to get as much enjoyment out of it every year. Sorry for this being such a long post, if I decide to do this again next year, it shouldn't be so long.

Merry Christmas & God's blessings to everyone this holiday.