Mini Christmas Home Tour

Lots of fancy pants bloggers do "Home Tours" of all their Christmas decorations.  I don't aspire to be one of those bloggers but I wanted to give my (maybe 4) readers a glimpse of our home at Christmas, my favorite holiday of all time!

Here is the view from the front door.  This is were the majority of the decorations are.  I don't have many so I couldn't spread them throughout the house too much.

 Bryan's aunt made this dining table runner for us a few year ago and I love it!  Its perfect all through the holidays into January.  And I got those two candle wreaths for only 5$ each!  They were on sale at Porter's for 50% off but they forgot to change the tag so I got them for 50% off of 10$ instead of 18$.  Woohoo!

 I don't have many decorations in the kitchen at all.  Not quite sure how to spruce up this space but it has great counter space that I like to keep open!

 How can you resist those sweet Eli hand prints?  I LOVE this wreath we made together. 


I am in love with our stockings!  I had made 3 stockings a few years ago but wanted to have a complete set for when we have our complete family.  I made 8 stockings with different colors but all the same cuff.  (I don't exactly plan on having 6 kids but I wanted extra in case family or friends came to stay too).

My mom helped me make this Noel sign two years ago and I still love it in our new home.  It matches my style perfectly. 

And you can never have enough glitter!!

 

Eli loves this little nativity from my mom and plays with it everyday.  I love that he is learning about what Christmas is really about.  He loves "Baby Jesus" and frequently gives him kisses. 

 

 

 I am currently obsessed with this red buffalo check fabric.  I want to decorate everything in this fabric.  Pillows, curtains, scarves, dresses, I could go on.  Yikes.  But for now I have restricted myself to just pillows. 

A free printable, 1/2 eaten jar of candy canes, and those heavenly smelling pine cones take up this corner table.

 

 

Our Christmas tree makes me so happy! I love it in all its lopsided, sparse, and crooked glory!

 

Thank you dollar store for most of our decorations.  I love the different snowflakes in the tree.

This was a very inexpensive area to decorate but I love this space.  I made the glitter reindeer silhouette, added berries and flowers to the plain 3$ wreath, and added some ribbon to the candles. 

This little elf used to have a hat, but Eli likes to haul him around the house, and often sleep with him.  So along the way he lost his hat.  But I'd rather see him be loved and played with than just sitting on a shelf.

 



I couldn't find the perfect wreath, so I settled on a 6$ clearance swag.  I made a red bow to add some color.

 

 

And there  you have it!  Our little Christmas home tour.  We feel that this house is really starting to feel like home and I can't wait to create more memories here.  Merry Christmas!!

 

 

 

 



Who's putting who to bed??

Last night Bryan was soo tired he crawled in Eli's bed so Eli decided to be Bryan.  He picked out stories and sat down to read.  It was hilarious!  Its hard to hear but he was pretending to read by saying things like "cow, horse, apple, puppy"  Just words he saw.  Melt my heart ;)

Santa at the Library

Eli talks about Santa almost everyday.  He says he has a "daddy beard".  He gets so excited when he sees a picture of him, but in person he is his usual shy reserved self who won't even look at the camera.  Sheesh.  

We went to the library to see Santa and do some Christmas crafts.  Eli was in heaven.  the Library is probably his favorite place in the world.  He ran right in when we got to the front door and started to play right away.  He loved the activities and crafts, and still carries around his toilet paper snowman around. 

Our librarian Vivian (who does story time every Tuesday) was there reading stories so he walked over and sat down and told me to sit by him.  And listened to quietly and intently.  What a fun night with a sweet little boy :)

Oh What fun

We had such a fun weekend full of camels and Santa's.  Friday night our little town had a lights parade.  It was complete with free hot chocolate, candy thrown, and lots of candy canes passed out. We forgot how nice it is to just park at the local grocery store and cross the street to see the parade.  No hassle of parking blocks away, saving spots, lots of people, or crowds.  It was great!

Then Saturday evening  we went up to Rexburg to watch the live nativity.  Eli loved watching the animals.  I tried to explain what was happening in the nativity relating to Jesus, but he just wanted more animals to come down the path.  "More cows? More horse? More sheep?"

Bink Free

Its been 3 weeks now so I feel its safe to say we are BINK FREE!!!!

Since moving into the new house I had lost 5 out of the 6 pacifiers we had at one time.  I knew the day was coming when I would lose it too and I didn't want to buy more.  So in the meantime I worked to wean him down to only sleeping.  He hasn't had it when he was awake and happy for months, but then we got rid of it in the car or when he was upset.  Then it was just bed time and naps.
I went to a cub scout meeting and forgot my phone at home.  I didn't remember that I had the pacifier in my pocket so Bryan went to put Eli down and couldn't find a spare one.  He did the usual routine of reading stories and tucking him in, and left him without one.  And guess what?! Eli didn't even ask for it.  Can you believe that?  He woke up when I came home so I went in and sang a few songs and he fell back asleep. Since then he will occasionally ask for his bink, but we will distract him or just say we're done with it.  He has never shed a tear about it.  Not one.  I am still somewhat in shock.

The only bad thing about getting rid of it is that he won't nap during the day.  The first few days it was because he really struggled to get comfortable without it and settle down.  But now he's out of the habit.  It is actually okay since he has been going to bed soo well.  We brush teeth, say prayers, read stories, gets tucked in and he's out in minutes.

So for those mommies considering getting rid of their kiddo's pacifier, I really don't have any tips since Eli did all the work! But I am so glad to be able to go anywhere and not worrying about forgetting it, and not having it be something Eli can whine about.  I feel free!!