(barely) decked halls, 2018

I almost gave up on Christmas decorating this year. More accurately, I decided it might be easier to skip on by Christmas entirely. 

I ADORE Christmas. I always have. Last year, my cozy New York house was a new high in Christmas decor. I loved how everything looked. It was glowing, sparkling, and smelled with happiness. 

Back in the glory days of my favorite house.

This year I had boxes of Christmas decorations, fake trees, bags for Goodwill, Amazon boxes and laundry lined up behind the couch in the living room. I couldn't find half the things I wanted. I couldn't get any of it under control. I can't make heads or tails of decorating in this house on a good day, let alone December. I don't have a mantle or even stairs to hang stockings on. Things literally fall off the walls. I'm a perfectionist by nature and it always gets worse around holidays. Everywhere I looked on blogs or Instagram I saw perfectly done houses and mine felt like a wreck. Not many people here put up lights so yet another tradition (driving through neighborhoods while drinking hot chocolate) was falling apart. So I gave up for a few days. I didn't have the energy or the desire to do much of anything. Eventually, I pulled myself on by my bootstraps because stuff had to be done and I want to give my family a nice Christmas. I'm not in love with how things turned out, but I'm so glad I made myself do it.

For our theme tree this year we chose to make an Amelia Bedelia tree. We combined the two trees we saw in her books- one with pompoms and lots of round ornaments, and the other that had a mirror on top with a sign that said "see the star" underneath. Our first mirror broke and I didn't make a long enough pompom garland so it's a bit wonky, but Amelia Bedelia herself is the definition of wonky. 

Our regular tree has more ornaments every year. I read an article about a woman who has 400 trees and we might have her beat in a few years if we keep collecting ornaments at this rate. One of my favorite things to do this time of year is sit near the tree in the living room with all the other lights off. It's so peaceful.

 I got the little houses on sale at a thrift store for 75 cents each. Don't say I'm not a big spender!

I love creative little salt and pepper shakers. Christopher gave me these penguins a few years ago.

I bought this set as a Christmas gift to myself. I don't care about cars but I love red and green pickups at Christmastime. Sadly, the cats are no respecters of my beloved items and they broke the truck this morning.

Speaking of Linus George and Lucille Barbara, they've figured out how to climb the Christmas tree. They were not part of my original theme.