Our Christmas Home

Today I am linking up with Kellys Korner for her Christmas Tour of Homes. This is the first Christmas that we've spent in this house, and I've been waiting almost a year to decorate it. Hope you enjoy the tour of our home...

The view from the kitchen

My Christmas villages are on top of the kitchen cabinets.

This is the main tree when looking from the living room.

The stockings are hung on the banister, and there is a nutcracker on every step.

This table has 2 fiber optic trees, 2 gingerbread houses, and 2 animated village pieces that Austin likes to watch.

This is our main tree. The snowman on the wall in the background was just done out of wreaths.

This year I hot glued the bottom of the tree to the top of a large tote, and then added some ribbon and foil to make it look more like Santa. I have really enjoyed having the tree up higher this year.

My snowbabies and dancing/singing Santa is on the left side of the fireplace.

My Christmas cookie jars are on the right side.

And this is what the living room looks like from the kitchen.

I hung Christmas balls in the windows.

This is the upstairs tree I did for the boys. It has the Hallmark ornaments on it that they enjoy looking at.

The tree in Austin's room...

Aaron's tree.

This container of lights and balls sits in my kitchen. I've been told that my soldier guy here looks like the Burger King man. And maybe he does, but I still like him :)

And this is our front door. This was my first year to experiment with the mesh, so I'm hoping next year it'll look a little better!

Thanks for stopping by my blog to see our Christmas home!

Merry Christmas!

Playing catch-up

Ok, so apparently I still have a blog. Not that I've forgotten. In fact, I find myself with a running blog post constantly in my head, but not enough hours in the day to actually sit and type it out. But I actually found myself tonight, sitting in my living room alone, so I thought I'd better take a look and make sure I still had a blog.

And since it hasn't been lost anywhere in blog outer space, I guess I'll attempt an actual post.

As I sit here, I can't help but think of how incredibly blessed I am. My 2 sweet boys have said their prayers, brushed their teeth, and are tucked in their beds. My husband is gone to help a friend out that's had a bad day, but will probably be home before I finish this post. And I'm sitting by the cozy fire he started in the fireplace before he left, watching the lights sparkling on the Christmas tree, and I have the best dog in the world under my feet. Perfection.

But as I sit here, I think of all of the parents who do not have a child to put to bed tonight because their little lives were cut short on Friday by a senseless act of violence. I think of the kids that no longer have a mother to tuck them in, because their mom died protecting other children, so that they could go on and lead a full life. I am so sad for everyone involved, and am praying constantly for healing to take place. I'm sad that our nation as a whole has gotten so far away from God that we actually have to have an "active shooter plan" in our schools. I just don't understand this.

All I can do on my end is to pray for those who are mourning, focus on the positives in my life, and move forward.

Except I need to move backwards for a minute to try to catch up on the past several weeks of not posting.

Starting with a few pictures from Thanksgiving...

My mom with her sister, Zelma

 

This is my brother, Craig. Love him!

My Mama. One of my favorite people in the world.

It was an enjoyable day full of family and food. Can't ask for much more than that, really.

The day after Thanksgiving was Austin's birthday. He had lunch with my parents and brother at a Mexican restaurant. He was excited about getting to wear the big hat..

Craig and Austin

This is so fake. The kid doesn't even LIKE cheesecake! How can we even be related??

Oh, and somewhere in the midst of all of this, Austin made 'All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth' his theme song.

But I would advise against singing him this song. He's over it.

And has, in fact, lost one more since then.

I'm thinking about just buying the boy soup and a straw for Christmas since he no longer bites into things well.

My guys have also been working hard filling up our freezer with deer meat over the past few weeks. Aaron has killed a buck and a doe this season, and Robbie got a doe that was basically in our front yard.

And yes, I do realize that there are a lot of people that do not like dead deer pics, but it is an accomplishment that I will not take away from my guys.

Just keep scrolling people.

So now you're almost caught up on my life.

Except for the Christmas decorations post I plan on doing.

And the Christmas in Hope that we've already had.
 
Oh, and the Christmas in DeKalb we've already had.

Ok, so maybe I'm not almost caught up. But my hubby is home and the fire is dying down, so I must go. Y'all have a good evening, and don't forget to pray for those whose evening is not so good.