Christmas Decorations - Done

Hope everyone had a marvelous weekend!  Mine was filled with getting the rest of my Christmas decorations up, wrapping a few presents and getting ready for a party!  I even did my mailbox this year. It's been a few years since I've actually made the effort, but I have to say, it makes me happy when I go to get the mail now! 

On Saturday night, we hosted a party for some friends from church and it was just the push I needed to finish up the decorating.  I snapped all these pictures right before the guests started to arrive, so I'm apologizing in advance for the bad lighting!  As you can see, I really embraced the jewel toned theme this year and went with teal satin ribbon.  It's fun to mix things up a bit every now and then.

Now for the inside, let's start at the front door.

Most of the time, I like to style this foyer table with lots of height.  But during Christmas, I always go with something low (and low key).  This allows the nativity scene on the chest to be the focal point of the foyer. 

It also allows you to see the Christmas tree in the adjoining room.

One of the positive things I've discovered about having our TV over the fireplace is you can pop any image you like up on the scene as a virtual piece of artwork.  Then if you get tired of it, you can simply change the image.  I thought it would be fun to select something with some jewel tones in it to keep with the theme. 

As I've mentioned before, I have every Christmas card we've ever received since getting married.  I keep them by year.  This year, I decided to rework the ribbon for more of a fun teal pop of color in the family room.

For the current year's cards, I keep them here so we can look at our friend and family during the season.  

For the party, I also put together a few small arrangements for the bathrooms and small tables around the house.  I think this is an easy way to make the entire house feel special and decorated.  

My daughter's bathroom . . . 

My son's bathroom.  Also, as an aside.  The rock with the smiley face has a story.  

The first year my son went to summer camp (he was 7 years old), he told me he was feeling homesick and sat down on a big rock by a path where they were walking.  He said he turned and looked down and saw this rock with a smiley face on it and it made him feel better!  The smiley face was made with a sharpie and we have no idea who did it, when they did it, or why; but my sweet boy found it at the exact moment he needed it!  So, a little divine intervention as far as I'm concerned!  He still loves that rock! 

I've also made a few other changes in his bathroom.  I did these frames and prints for a client and loved them so much I had to do them in his bathroom.  They feel a bit more grown up than what I originally had in that spot.

There's also a story here.  For several years after I first got married my parents would give us money for Christmas.  My mom still wanted it to be fun and special so she would find ornaments that she could open and put the money inside.  

I saved all these ornaments and this year my daughter suggested we create a grouping with them.  Very fun to think about all the things I spent the money on through the years! 

That's the end of the tour.  I've purposefully not shown you the dining room.  I'm saving it for later in the week.  My family will be in town, and we're going to have a special dinner in there.  So, I don't want to spoil it for them!  Have a wonderful week! M.

PS: If you would like to see how I decorated last Christmas (it was a "no red" theme and very different from this year), click here, here and here.