Ho Ho Ho!

It's finally time for the holiday decorations picture parade! Sorry for the delay. I'm going to go ahead and throw it out there - this is probably going to be a long one. Don't ask me how my tiny little house can have that many decorations in it, but I'll tell you when I went through and picked out my favorite photos, I came up with more than 25. :o I know. I may or may not post all of said photos, but I just thought it might benefit you to have a warning that this could get lengthy - So I'll give you a minute to change into your PJs and grab some popcorn...

Ok, ready? Good. Here we go!

Let's start off with the most important decoration...the tree!

This was a Black Friday find (6.5' tall, pre-lit, only $25!) We put it up that day, and had a few day "test period" just to see how the animals would react - we have never had a full size Christmas tree before. They actually did quite well! Bob was the only mischevious one (go figure) and actually climbed 3/4 of the way up, INSIDE the tree. But he has since moved out of our home, and only our 2 fat cats (who couldn't climb it if they tried) and Daisy remain, and they did pretty well during those first couple days. So I finally got the ornaments all put up last week, and not one day goes by and I hear a thud. Of course. They knocked the tree over. Fabulous. Luckily nothing was broken, and I was able to put everything back with no problems. We are all crossing our fingers that it doesn't happen again.

Almost all of my ornaments come from the Mary's Angels series from Hallmark. I have every single ornament in the collection, which now comes to 22 plus the tree topper. Ever since we were little, my Aunt Terri has bought both of my cousins and I an ornament each year. Mine have all been from this series.

This is "Buttercup", the first in the series

And this is the one from this year...but I can't remember her name...

And this is my favorite of all of them (bet you can't guess why...)

And the tree topper

I'm actually quite lucky...my first year setting up a full size tree, and I didn't even have to buy a single ornament! Between all of the ones in this collection, and the other random ornaments I've collected over the years, I had plenty!

This one is from the first year the Hubs and I started dating...waaaay back in 2006 ;)

I'm sure we will end up with one this year noting our first year as a married couple. I can always count on Mom for a new 'special' ornament each year. :)

Another shot of the tree (I like to say that this is from the Daisy/Marley/Dammit vantage point ;)

And here is the *main* display

Please ignore the fact that the tree is leaning...we had a small techincal difficulty that the husband has resolved. ;) The tree skirt is actually one I have borrowed from my mom, it was the one she used when I was growing up. :) We don't have a fireplace, so the entertainment center pretty much has to double as a mantle. Some day I'll have a real fireplace to hang stockings from...someday...

And in case you didn't notice in the previous picture...

Sweet Black Friday find #2! Our spankin new 32" LCD HDTV. (I think that's right. It's flat and it's pretty...that's all I know...) And it just so happens to fit perfectly into our existing entertainment center. So all of my TV stand shopping ended up being unnecessary. Darn.

On top of the entertainment center (aka mantle) I have my cute little snowmen guys

And also some candles and cute little dear figures with ornaments inside (which didn't photograph well up close - you can see them in the main set up shot though).

And of course our stockings...

Yes, my animals have stockings. Don't laugh.

On the coffee table is my little homemade centerpiece

This was a Target $1 bin score

I've always wanted one of these countdown to Christmas thingamajigs (Advent calendar? Is that what it's called?) This one will do for now, but sometime in the future I'd like to make my own - looks easy enough, right!

And last but certainly not least, the outdoor display!

You can't see the lights lining the roof in this shot, but you will just have to use your imagination. The hubs did his handywork magic and the lights are now all working! I would have more photos, but honestly I have yet to master the art of night photography, so all of the shots I got look pretty craptastic. I will work on that for next year ;)

Well, there you have it! Christmas has officially thrown up in my house. :D If you actually made it through this whole post...congrats! Can't say I didn't warn you, though!

Happy Holidays!

Side note: Sorry all of the photos are so dark. I swear they didn't look that bad on my laptop. My Photoshop trial ran out, so I was trying to boycott editing in my other crappy program, and since these are just boring photos of my home I thought straight out of the camera images would be fine. Clearly I was wrong. But if I have to go back and edit them all it will be another week before I get around to it, and I'll be lucky to get this post up before Christmas. So...deal with it. :)