Deck the Halls

Yesterday I showed you some of my favorite Christmas decorations around the city, but what about our own home? Of course, we are decked out. I showed you around our holiday home last year, and I probably won't do this every year because our decorations don't change much, but we are in a different place this year so things look a little different. I still love our new apartment and love the way the decorations fit in here.

So, let's take a look at the Christmas W. Home!

The wreath on our front door. Okay, this looks exactly the same as last year, except with a different apartment number in the center. But I removed the apartment number to protect the innocent anyway, so you can't even tell that. But trust me, it's there.

When we first put up our wreath I thought we might be the only spirited apartment on our floor, but in time a couple others did hang little Christmasy stuff from their doorbells. Ours is still the biggest, though. We win! Because that's what the holidays are all about, right?

This is what you see when you walk in the front door - the main living area. But we'll come back to this. I want to cover the other little stuff first before we get to the Main Event.

This is looking back towards the door from the living room. You can see our Happy Holidays snowman banner hanging on the back of the front door, our Santa in the corner by the bench, Christmas cards hanging down the wall, and mistletoe over the entrance to the kitchen. Oh, and Achilles. He has a knack for getting all up in my house pictures.

Our kitchen decor. The Santa towels on the stove are new (a Target purchase during one of our trips home - LOVE TARGET), and we have the Santa and Mrs. Claus salt and pepper shakers on the counter. A word of advice: remove the salt and pepper from the shakers before packing them away for the year (or at least put tape over the holes at the top), lest the salt/pepper spills out of the shakers all over their storage box and then all over your floor when you unpack them the following Christmas. This is good advice, people.

Okay. We were just standing in the kitchen facing the stove. If you turn around, you can look through our pass-thru window to see this, another Main Event teaser:

But first, let's talk about that pass-thru window, shall we?

This is the left side of our pass-thru window. Love the pig's festive hat.

This is the other side, which is home to one of my beloved nativity scenes. I love this one, with the tiny, cute little baby Jesus under the light.

Our dining room - the table cloth has Christmas trees embroidered at the corners, which I love. I made the Advent wreath years ago. You can also see the nativity in the pass-thru window in this picture.

Another good general shot. So festive! Oh, and surprise, surprise - there's Achilles in my picture again.

In the corner of our windowsill, I have a little angel my dad gave me, an angel candle snuffer, and yummy-smelling Christmas Cookie candle. Mmmm. I love the angels - they make me think of my Nana.

In the center of the windowsill we have the Willow Tree Nativity. I mentioned last year that my mom is adding to this every year until we get the complete set. This year, we became overrun with animals: we added a shepherd, a few new sheep, a camel, ox and goat. The set is really almost complete - just the creche left to go, and some stars! It's so beautiful.

This is the view of the living room from the dining room. You can see our tree, the bowl of ornaments on the coffee table (there's also a little snowman underneath the table), and, our newest Christmas decor edition: the stocking hanger!

Last year we just taped our stockings to the AC/heating unit, so I think this is much more attractive. It almost looks like a little fireplace! And, it came with six hooks, so we can continue to use it as our family grows. (NO, MOM, I'M NOT PREGNANT. Gotta have the usual disclaimer there.)

And finally, the moment you have all been waiting for....

Our Christmas tree! Eric did such a great job with the lights this year. I love our tree, and I think it looks even more festive with the city lights shining behind it. In this picture you can also see the Willow Tree nativity on the windowsill, plus some decor on our lamp shelves to the right. The top shelf has a holiday picture of our little family, and the middle shelf has yet another lovely nativity, this one from my dad. Also, it looks like Santa came to our place early this year!

That's our holiday home! I really love having all these decorations filling our apartment. I'm really missing my family this Christmas, I have to admit - I miss being with my dad and I hate that I won't see my sister at all. I'll see my mom in Cleveland, which is good, but I miss everyone else. I even miss seeing my old dog Lucy. So, it helps to have some holiday cheer filling our home. I know Eric and I are making our own holiday traditions now, and we're going to try to get back to Florida in January to see everyone again then. And of course, we're always with them in spirit.

In the meantime, I hope you all are ready for the holidays! I hope all your gifts are purchased and wrapped, the grocery shopping is done, the cookies have been made, and you are ready to relax and enjoy the true spirit of the season. And stay tuned for yet another festive post here tomorrow!