Deck the Halls

 There are few things I love more than decorating our home for the holidays! I love that our kids love doing it with me too and that it makes our whole family smile spending the season together in a place we love to call home. 

Here's how our front porch looked this year ... 

I always like to add a few new things each season to grow our collection and love that new gingerbread house doormat! 

Decking the halls ...

I always swoon over draped greenery down staircases at Christmas time. We don't have a really long railing but I had to try it on ours this year and loved how it turned out with the ribbons and bells. The only thing I would change for next year is to shop early for a real looking faux version. I bought the real deal and you should have seen Nic's face when he came down from his office and found a forest of pine needles all over the main floor of our house. haha Bless the vacuum! 

Here' a look into our living room! It's where we spent most of our time during the holidays. Our churched does created something called Light the World at Christmas time where each day we focus on spreading light and love to others. In unison with those efforts, they also released the most beautiful version of the nativity story.

Another addition this year was that little nativity above our stockings. It's a wooden one from Hobby Lobby that I wanted the kids to be able to hold and play with and I wouldn't worry about it getting broken. I let Lyla paint it and she chose black. At first I was surprised but now I really love it. 

Also these sweet little ornaments making a mini tree on our entry table ... favorite!!

When it was all cozy and lit up at night ...

And my favorite place to decorate of all ... my kitchen shelves with cute Santa mugs, striped bowls, bottle brush trees, and twinkle lights!

A couple of the spaces I really wanted to add a little holiday cheer in this year were the play room and our kids' rooms. We added these book shelves in the play room under the stairs at the end of November so I could have them filled with all of our favorite Christmas stories the first day of December ...

Last year our Christmas tree was a hodge podge of ornaments and tinsel. I loved it because our kids helped us decorate it and it made me think of them and how much I'll miss them at these ages someday. This year I decided it would be special for them to have their own little trees in their rooms to decorate with their own ornaments. It's just a start ... they need tree toppers and garlands added next year but they loved decorating them and having the extra night light through the holiday season! How cute did they turn out?!

Liam's tree ... he even made a paper reindeer ornament for it ...

Lyla girl's tree ...

Merry Christmas from our cozy house to yours!