Christmas Decorations!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS! 

It is my favorite time of year & I love decorating for it. 

This year, because of the much anticipated arrival of baby bean, we decided to decorate WAY early. Like October early! I skipped Fall this year & went straight to Christmas. 

It just made sense to start early since I knew I would not be up to decorating that much right before my due date (which is in 2 days by the way)

So, here are just a few shots of our Christmas decorations for 2011

This is the hutch in our den

Because of the wood paneling, we go a little more rustic in this room. We got a much smaller tree for this room this year since we will need all the seating we can get. We usually take out one of the recliners, but with us celebrating Christmas at my house this year, we didn't want to lose another chair!

We put all our childhood ornaments & fun colored lights on this tree.

 This is part of the hallway...not much going on there, but Matt's Granny always displayed that white Christmas tree at her house & now it is ours to remember her by.

I love this idea I found on Pinterest.com I would have liked the greenery to be a little fuller, but I got them on sale & just made it work. It's just something nice & different.

Our living room is much more open this year since we arranged the seating 

 We tried putting our BIG tree in here at first, but it was just TOO big! So we found another small tree to use for the formal living room. It doesn't have very many ornaments on it, but I just love having a "pretty" tree in there

I do something different over the fireplace each year...last year was vintage decorations & this year I wanted to emphasize that JESUS really IS the reason for the season.

I love shopping on Etsy.com too & found these cute stockings that had all kinds of different fabrics. I thought it would be a perfect way to start our family stockings so that when we have more kids, we can add whatever color fabric we want & it doesn't necessarily have to match. 

Matt picked "Auburn" colors for his stocking & I already have presents in it so it is laying nice, but mine & Greysons are still a bit floppy...waiting for Matt to put something in them I guess! 

We usually put the formal tree where the pack-n-play is, but of course, having a baby changes everything! We had to move some furniture around, but I wanted a place downstairs for Greyson to enjoy & also keep a diaper changing station here so we wouldn't have to run the stairs every time.

 And here is what the room looks like with the lights on. I love the beautiful glow it casts around the room & whats better is that the lights are all connected to the light switch! so no unplugging or plugging in! Matt thought that was pretty clever...haha

 & here's just a small part of the dining room. I don't have much in there & this room is getting curtains soon so I hope to finish that up before Christmas.

This is the entry way to our house...the plate has a scene of a little girl decorating a tree & I just happened to find a votive candle holder with the same scene on it that was Matt's Granny's before she passed away. I am glad I can have a few momentos of Matt's Granny around our house this year. 

So that's just a little bit of the house this year...I am glad I got so much of it done early. These last couple weeks have been pretty rough! I am looking forward to this baby getting here soon & being able to enjoy a nice Christmas at our house with family. It will be the first time my parents get to be here for this Holiday! I also can't wait to share the true meaning of Christmas with our kids someday & celebrate Jesus' birthday. Until then, I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas season! The countdown is on!