A quick Christmas tour…

It is starting to look a lot like Christmas at our house this week. The girls have matching red snowman jammies, courtesy of Mama Jane and our UPS delivery driver. Although Elissa insists she wants a pink snowman along with the pink Christmas tree she has already ordered from Santa and sings a few words from Frosty the Snowman. I am not sure where she wants the pink snowman to go but she thinks it is a good idea. Hunter has a sad face in the above picture because he was holding Anika for me last night as she had a bout of a yucky bug or upset stomach of some sort. Thankfully after a lot of puking, she is back to her smiling self today and eating well. Miss E after her snack last night stayed put in her chair to talk to Auntie Kirsti on the phone.

I walked into the house this morning from the garage after taking Miss E to Lori’s daycare, Anika to Nana’s house and Hunter to school. It was time to get to work but the light coming in from the window caught my eye on the calla lilies (purchased fresh from Wal-Mart last Friday night for $2.50!) I have in a vase on the kitchen counter. I quick grabbed my camera.

And since I was then taking pictures around a quiet house, I took a few more. It is my version of our Christmas home tour. I skipped taking pictures of the toys all over the floor in the basement from our playtime last evening, the stack of papers on my desk, the box of Christmas cards yet to be addressed, the wrapping table with only a few wrapped presents next to it and the unfolded but clean laundry in pile on the chair in our bedroom.

We have two trees up and decorated. The above tree is a fresh tree in the living room. The below tree I bought this past summer at my favorite local second-hand store for $25. The tree is in my office. Hunter and I decorated the trees together. All balls on the fresh tree and our huge collection of other ornaments on the tree in my office along with bows that tie into the wall color.

This is the wall in the stairwell from our main floor to the second story. I love these built-in frames and Nathan climbs on ladder once a season and changes them out for me.

The fresh tree plus most of the wreaths and garland I bought at our local floral shop. The store is a little hidden gem on the prairie! Ron the florist who also did the flowers at our wedding is my decorator buddy.

And I also picked up a couple deals from TJ Maxx this year like the above wall hanging.

Since I was a young girl, I wanted Christmas china. My mom has a huge set of Christmas china and it is just a tradition for our family to use it during the holidays.

The china we registered for when we got married is now discontinued by Lenox. It’s the Holiday Platinum and complements our other set of china. I spent some time on maternity leave scouring Ebay to add a few pieces to the collection and filled the hutch with the set a couple weeks ago. On Christmas Eve this year both my family and Nathan’s family will sit down together for our dinner that will combine traditions of both Norwegian and German heritage and use the china together. Obviously the dishes you use at Christmas do not really matter but it will be a very cozy feeling for us all to be together, celebrating Christmas in our home. So if you are family or a friend just like family, let this be your invitation to our home on Christmas Eve. I have plenty of dinner plates!

Other than Christmas china, I tend not to collect a lot of things. I do not like to dust! However beginning when I was in junior high and high school, my “Auntie” Rennae began buying me the Precious Moments nativity scene. Each year she gave me additional pieces. I must say unpacking these boxes each year and seeing the year she gave them to me written on the box brings back wonderful memories. Thanks Rennae for giving us this set many years ago!

The stockings have been hung for weeks. And our kids, particularly Hunter and Elissa are anxious for them to be filled on Christmas Day morning. Anika will get some goodies too. We have been talking to E about that Christmas is Jesus’ birthday party. She completely understands the birthday party concept and said to me “Oh yeah Jesus bertday at church!”. I said yes we will have a birthday party for Jesus at church–and at home.