it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...

it all started the Sunday after Thanksgiving! Nana & Granddaddy had packed up and hit the road the day before, headed home from their visit with us. Daddy was driving to LAX to pick someone up (and, while in L.A., a trip to his favorite game store) - so he was pretty much gone all day. What to do? Dig out the Christmas decorations!!!

I set the kids up with poster board, crayons, and markers and gave them instructions to create Christmas masterpieces for our wall! I rearranged things in the garage - to first get to the Christmas stuff, then later somewhat tidy it up from having to move so much! By the time I was ready to put together our trusty old (fake) tree, the kids were pretty much done with their drawings. Jericho really enjoyed helping - he fluffed out each branch and then handed it to me! Once put together, they each took turns putting the little glass ball decorations on the tree (I decided not to make my husband get the "good" decorations down from the rafters)!




We've bought a few more small ornaments, but they're not on the tree yet - so this is an accurate portrayal of what our tree looks like (plus that wonderful snowman ornament!). I started on a few other things that Sunday too - like the blow up snowman on our back porch, the nativities, a canvas photo of the kids from last year, a cute Santa we got at the dollar store, etc. I basically had all the "tables" done that day, but still had outdoor stuff, my shelf, and trees in the windows to do!
I finally got around to those finishing touches through this past week and yesterday! So, this is as good as it's getting this year ... lots of "up high" stuff so the small ones don't have much to get into! And, sad as it is, this is about as decorated as the "outside" of our house has ever been! I focused on the backyard, as that's visible to a main road and we don't have much of a front yard anyway!

my dad made this awesome shelf for all my photo sculptures!
I just used little, in-expensive stuff to decorate it (mostly)!
the kermit is a traditional decor item - it's been in the family since I was small - it
was always like a game, each day me & the daycare kids had to figure out
where kermit was sitting! I got the "merry christmas" last year - cheap! and the little
wooden nativity was a gift years ago - I love nativities and this has
always been a fave! then I threw one of the cards I made for sending out up there -
I just love this design and wanted to keep one - lol! the rest is from the 99¢ store!

the nativity table!
the center one was a gift, again - years ago, and I love it!
the other two I got a few years back, for the kiddos!

it's nice to have some decorations that the kids are allowed to touch
and play with ... now if we can just keep from losing the pieces!
so far only one has gone missing!

there's those three masterpieces (which have since fallen down, guess
scotch tape just isn't gonna cut it) and a little something Jericho made last year,
as well as something Annicka made back in kindergarten!
I also added a countdown tree from the dollar bin at Target and Jericho
brought home a countdown school! This table has another nativity - also a gift, and
also a favorite! I really love nativities!

just for fun!

a cute little tree (both fiber optic trees were gifts from my mom), our
sleigh candy dish, and a fun little Santa I bought years ago - the kids love it!

had to put the stocking in the stair way - no fireplace here and it's enough
"out of the way" that no one has played with them! Mom bought the stockings that
I picked out at Kohls on black friday - now I need to decorate them up, but
it's not gonna happen this year OR until I have a good sewing machine!
(btw - both of these nativities were gifts too!)

a bit of cheer in the front yard

I'm really happy with how the back view turned out -
simple, but cute!

and that's our Christmas home for 2010! though it may look "measly" to many, the kids love it all and they think it's lots! and I love it too!