1. Treat every day like Christmas.

I love this time of the year more than almost anything. It’s magical, calming, beautiful, nostalgic, and I can get away with acting like an elf without being criticized. :)

This past weekend was a joyous weekend; we decorated the house, inside and out! I was still sick (and still am – this darn thing just doesn’t want to leave me!!) but I toughed it out to get through the Black Friday sales (you should have seen the line at Michaels – my goodness) and to enjoy the wonder that is Christmas decorating. :)

For the past few years, I’ve hated my Christmas decor. It didn’t fit my style (I was still trying to figure out what my style was), it didn’t make me feel happy – it just wasn’t fun to decorate. Most of the things I had I acquired from garage sales in one day so I could have Christmas decor in my first apartment. So, this year I decided to be picky about what was in and around my house. I like Christmas colors – none of that fancy pink or blue or neons. Golds, reds, greens, and whites (warmish white is preferred) make my heart flutter.

(I’m going to save the inside of our house for another day for two reasons:

a. The living room is a tad messy and I don’t feel like cleaning it up.

b. The camera is all the way in the other room.

Good reasons, right?)

Our first Christmas in our house we tried the traditional lights, starting at one end of our house and ending as far as we could towards the end of the garages. We even added a fake deer that lit up from my parents. I didn’t like it. Half the time we were too lazy to even turn the lights on. Last year we ditched the house lights (Paul was so thankful) but kept the deer and added some wreaths on the kitchen bay window. For the most part, I didn’t mind it. I especially liked the simplicity of the wreaths -I was honing in on my style. :) This year was the winner. We ditched all lights hanging or on fake animals and opted for wreaths. We used the same wreaths from last year and then added a huge wreath on our garage. And since we now have flowerbed boxes, I got to decorate those too! At first I was planning on getting fake Christmas flowers/garland, but my mother had a genius idea: use what nature gave us. We have beautiful pine trees in our backyard and we have a lovely crab apple-bearing tree. I felt like a little pioneer woman gathering my pine tree branches and cutting down berries to decorate the boxes – it was just wonderful. :) And it turned out perfect. As little of a thing it is, I’m just so proud of the boxes and so happy we’ve found a look that we love. At night, I noticed something was missing from our little house…just a little light. So, we added the lovely touch of flickering candles in our kitchen windows. I’m in love. :)

Classic and simple.

Hope you’re enjoying this wonderful season, friends!! :) xoxox

PS. Paul just pointed out that one of our garage lights didn’t turn on…Oops. :)