I got the house all decorated this weekend for Annie's first Christmas! The decor hasn't changed much in the 5 years we've lived here - here is my post from 2 years ago. I am not really into decor at all, so I just use the same things each year - they still make me happy and feel warm and fuzzy inside so that's a-ok with me. Lots of it is super kitschy and kind of corny, but that's what Christmas is all about :)
I'll let the pictures do the talking...
Picking out our tree!
Annie enjoyed playing with the lights for a bit
My bookshelf is my version of a "mantle"
This was a wedding gift. I'll admit, it frightened me at first, but after 5 Christmases, it's grown on me.
The best part of this is my reflection in the ornaments
Annie's Christmas books! They are one of her presents, but I wanted to read them all month, no matter how much she hates it ;)
I got some special ornaments just for Annie!
Annie's stocking, made by my Aunt Mary, first seen here.
I enjoyed some hot apple cider in my Christmas mug during the process
Ben nearly pulled the tree over before deciding using a chair might be a better idea (the tree is tied to the window handle, just in case)
I have since moved these up a bit - don't need to tempt Annie TOO much :)
Just lounging under the tree! Other than right after the ornaments were up, Annie has pretty much ignored the tree... we'll see if that lasts!
A new addition to the tree this year! From personalizedfree.com - I was SHOCKED at how fast this came! Yes, it's SUPER cheesy but I love it :)
The finished product!
9 comments:
it looks fab!! We kept the 'important' ornaments up higher this year too but so far so good. Kids and Christmas is even more fun that just adults and Christmas!
Annie's new ornament is NOT cheesy! What's cheesy about it anyways?! Pretty much all of Jake and my ornaments have our names and the date on them from when we were kids. :)
I love her new ornament. We still have yet to find one for Mason, so maybe I'll have to quick order one, too.
Also, where did you get that Tomie DePaola book?? I love him!
I don't know what I thought was cheesy.... you know, cutesy teddy bear, hearts... :)
Amanda - got that book at Barnes & Noble at the Galleria. They were having some special where if you bought 2 kids books you got a wooden pull toy for $5 so I did that.
Yup, totally agree, the holidays are all about the kitschy and the sentimental. Sometimes when I see other peoples perfect and beautiful holiday decor I feel a little lame and self-conscious. I don't really buy new stuff, unless I randomly pick it up super cheap after Christmas. We sorta just decorate with what we have, which we have somehow acummulated over the years, and definitely none of it really coordinates or makes our house look like a Crate and Barrel ad. But you know, I totally love the fact that almost everything we have has a story, was given to us or was in honor of some special occasion. I don't know, I feel connected to our Christmas stuff, however junky and kitschy it might be. ;)
LOVE Annie's Christmas jammies. I used to think there was pretty much nothing better than babies in jammies. But that was until I saw babies in Christmas jammies. So freaking cute. I just spent a ridiculous chunk of change on some for Gus from Hanna Anderson. Total splurge, but the adorable diaper butt is worth it.
I have so many questions its ridiculous. HOW in the world did you take those amazing low light pictures without Annie looking like a blur?! Where did the baby-proof ornaments come from? And once again, how is your house so clean?!
I'm am regularly in shock by your amount of togetherness. Bravo!
Ha, Maggie, you crack me up :)
Pictures - I used my 50mm f/1.8 lens, set the aperture at 2.0 and set the exposure compensation to -1 2/3 (to tell the camera that I WANTED the photo to be underexposed) so in doing that the shutter speed was able to be fast enough that Annie wasn't blurry. FYI - if you are ever interested in the technical details of a particular shot, you can click on it to go over to flickr - on the right hand side it says "This photo was taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T2i" - click on those words and it will take you to the Exif data for that photo, which tells you what the "exposure" (shutter speed), aperture, focal length, ISO, etc was for each picture. Very helpful!
Ornaments were from Target - $1 each or something like that! I just got them a week ago so they are probably still there.
Clean house? My parents were coming over later that day so I had to tidy up to save face :)
this post fills me with christmas cheer. annie and the lights...probably will be some of my favorite christmas pictures for years to come.
liz
Aww, I love it! I still need to do a Christmas decorating post. :) I'm the same as you, in that our decor hasn't changed since we moved it, or hardly.
So glad that Annie is giving you guys a break about the tree!
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