Christmas at our House!

****FREINDLY DISCLAIMER**** If my previous post about Shutterfly sounded like a commercial, well, it was:)  I participated in a promotion for bloggers by Shutterfly.  In exchange for blogging about their holiday products and meeting some specific criteria they will send you a code good for 50 free folded 5x7 Christmas cards.  Of course, I don't pass up a bargain, so I did it.  And, last night I received the code for my Christmas cards!!  If anyone is interested in doing it also, here is the link:

http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/

In other news, I am officially finished decorating my house for Christmas.  In the past Christmas decorating has been extremely stressful for me.  I'm talking sit down in the floor and cry like a baby stressful!  I'm not a decorator and I hated the pressure to make my house look "perfect".  So, this year, I decided that I was going to decorate for myself/my family and wasn't going to stress about how it looked to anyone else.  It has actually been kind of enjoyable:) 

I've just done a little at a time, and only got out the things that I really love.  I can't put anything down in Beau's reach, so that really limits where I can put things.  The boys all have trees in their rooms, up high on dressers, out of the reach of little hands:)  I let them do theirs all by themselves, and they look just perfect to them:)

Here I was contemplating the tree fluffing...One string of lights WILL NOT come on, and I just decided it wasn't worth stressing over.  So, there is a little bald spot in my tree this year.  Oh well!

 My little helper!  He can't leave ANYTHING alone!

 The final product,  Notice, no ornaments on the bottom 1/4 of the tree.  That's just the way we roll this year!  I absolutely LOVE my tree skirt.  My NaNa did all the needlepoint work on it.  Then my mom finished it into a table cloth/tree skirt.  She didn't cut the slit in it, so I could use it as a table cloth some day if I want.  It's probably my most prized Christmas posession.  Evan insisted on having the Cat in the Hat under the tree??

 A little corner in my kitchen.  My MOPS craft we made this year.  I think it turned out absolutely adorable!!

 Another view of my kitchen...

 I put up this little tree first, and so far Beau has pretty much left it alone.  All the ornaments are plastic, so they won't break when he throws one!

 The mantle, another big stressing out point for me.  This year I just did what I wanted, and it's not. decorator perfect by any means, but it makes me happy!

 A view in the dark.  Blurry, but I have a pitiful camera...

 I did make a new wreath for the front door this year.  The old one I realized, I could remember making the night before Evan was born with my mom.  So, it was 8 years old.  Definitely time to retire it!  I like the new one a lot.  Bright and cheery!

 And, an view of the front porch.  And yes, that is a pumpkin on the porch.  I hadn't noticed until I looked at this picture.  Time to retire it too, I guess:)

I'm getting excited about wrapping presents.  That is probably my favorite part about Christmas.  I LOVE to buy pretty ribbon and make pretty bows for all my gifts.  That's the only crafty bone in my body:)