Nate & I are Christmas nut jobs.  We’ll just put it out there, accept our defeat, & proudly hang our stockings the moment Thanksgiving Day rolls over (because we do steadfastly respect the turkey, despite the department stores deplorable lack of self-control).  We have garland.  We have Baby Jesus.  & over 1,000 twinkle lights on a 6-foot Fraser Fir.  & while I dare not ever claim to be a) creative or b) a designer, I love how Christmas fills our home with warmth & amazing, rich smells of the tree & cinnamon.  Our decor is simple at best, novice in honesty, but our home is never more beautiful when we cut out the main lights & sit by the fireplace & lit tree with Christmas carols playing in the background.

The Nester is hosting The 2009 Christmas Tour of Homes & for the first time, I have my act collected enough to participate (oh maternity leave, how I adore thee).  So please, pull up next to the fireplace with a cup of cocoa & Polar Express.  & enjoy Christmas at our home.

We should start our tour with Jesus, no?  After all, He’s the one with the birthday in a mere 11 days & our entire reason for celebrating Christmas.  Nate began purchasing my nativity our first married Christmas & I received various pieces over the past three years to complete it.

So whatever, we put Jesus on the bar.  He drank wine, y’all.  My Southern Baptist upbringing doesn’t necessarily approve, but I promise you, the bar is quite a place of honor in our casa.

(Which reminds me, what’s the difference between a Catholic & a Baptist in the liquor store?  The Catholic says “hello.”)

Our tree, which is the main focal point.  90% of our tree is decked in Hallmark, as we get an ornament each year that “represents” the year.  Here is my ornament for 2009:

You know, because I spent an entire year knocked up.  It feels appropriate.  & of course, the ornament Nate gave me last year on Christmas Eve, to always remember sweet Harpie.

Oh, how I cried when I opened it, wondering if I would be putting this on the tree alongside a “First Christmas” ornament.  Which, thankfully, I am:

This is another favorite:

Because of this:

Yes, I have Christmas china.  Because in the South, having a china pattern ranks up with ACC basketball & Vacation Bible School as things that you just do even when you don’t understand it.

& speaking of things we don’t understand, we might as well discuss the picket fences on my living room walls.

They were left there by the previous owners, one picket fence flanking each side of the mantle.  Nate & I just didn’t know what to put in their place, so we left them.  & they grew on us.  Now, at 3am when I’m up rocking Harrison, I daydream about ways to decorate them for Christmas.  More lights, more garland.  Because there is never enough greenery.

Merry Christmas from our house to yours.

Filed under: Life in General, Suzie Homemaker, holidays