Holiday House Tour 2017

Merry Christmas Eve's Eve's Eve!

I can not believe we are only 3 days away from the big day! I've decided I'm all about Christmas falling on a Monday. I love that we can work a full week this week and still have two days to prep for festivities! Speaking of prep, I'm very excited to tell you all that I made dressing! ME! The girl who literally learned to boil water like 2 years ago made two big pans of dressing! I'm praying its good because if it is, my street cred in the cooking department is going to quadruple.

This has been a busy month, full of gatherings, shopping, wrapping, cooking, work and planning for 2018. Lucky for us we got started on our decorating right after Thanksgiving so we have been able to enjoy the happy scene all month long! I look forward to decorating for the holidays each year, especially now that I'm a mom. It's fun to transform the space you already deem as your "happy place" into a magical version of itself. Each year we tweak the decor we have and have fun planning out how to spruce up new areas in our house that have recently come to be. This year those areas include our brand new mudroom and our dining room!

Come on in, let me show you around...

As you know the mudroom is the newest space in our house and we are really enjoying it! The area oozes charm without even trying, so throw some plaid, a wreath and a little twinkly tree in the mix and POW. Happy city over here. 

Up next is the dining room which houses the antique mantle we revitalized earlier this year. I have been itching to throw some garland on this beast from day one.

Sigh....so beautiful right? 

This room has been totally transformed as we make way to host a Christmas dinner for 21 this year. 

We really loved the idea of having everyone at the same table so Brent and his brother Scott worked together to add plywood to some folding tables we already had, to act as an extension to our dining room table. Thanks to Brent's Dad for this awesome idea! We threw a table cloth over everything and now it's just one big, giant happy table. 

We've been doing a little bit each night to prepare and I'm happy to say we are in good shape. The goal this season has been to slow down and really enjoy the moment and that's just what we plan to do! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

All photos are my own. 

Holiday House Tour 2016

This is our second year to deck the halls of this house for Christmas, but our first to decorate as a family of 3. This time last year we were waiting for the arrival of Croix who at the time we didn't even know was a boy! It's crazy how much can change in a year. There have been so many firsts this year, and now maybe the most exciting first of all....Christmas!

It's been a whirlwind month for sure, with several out of town trips, work and two different trades coming in to install some exciting new items to our home, but we have our priorities in order and Christmas decor was on the top of that list! My mom helped us get off to a good start last year with wreaths and candles for for the windows and a flocked tree in the dining room so this year we took what we had and added a few more fun touches.

Let me show you around...

Den:

We always go for a real tree  in the living room, so the whole house smells like Christmas all season long.

I added some mini-Christmas trees to the succulent wall:

And a cozy fleece blanket for the pouf:

Croix's Room:

Growing up I had my own tree in my room. Each Christmas the "Christmas Fairy" would leave a new ornament and a little poem the 12 days leading up to Christmas. Each new ornament would go on my tree. Last year my parents brought my little tree and box of ornaments to my house so we decided to give Croix his own tree in his room. Brent vetoed most of the ornaments saying they were too girly, and generously gave Croix some of the superhero ornaments we had on the main tree. 

Dining Room:

The dining room is still in a transition phase right now, but we were so excited by the progress we had made (marble hearth!!) that we couldn't resist throwing some garland on top of this regal beauty! 

I also cut some holly and magnolia leaves to fancy Brenta up....

The JuJu wall even got a little holiday love. 

A house never feels as alive and charming as it does at Christmas. 

Family has started trickling into town, and so far we have 8 people and 5 dogs running around getting ready for the big day. This is the first year Santa will be visiting our house and I'm not sure who is more excited the grown-ups or the baby....HA! Oh and speaking of the baby.......

:)

 From our family to yours Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 

All photos are my own.