Welcome to the Holiday Tour of Homes, compliments of The Nester!
If you recall, I linked up last year & gave you a sneak peak into our holiday decor. In 2009, I was home on maternity leave with Harrison, happily enjoying our fresh tree every morning while Harrison napped in his swing. At 3am, our tree lit up the living room as I swayed back & forth with a two-month-old, gently shhh-ing him back to sleep. Christmas was a quiet affair that we spent with only my parents & father-in-law to the low sounds of Michael Buble piping through the sound system.
My, how times have changed. This year, we’re running interference between the tree & a toddler & anticipating the return of both of my brothers to celebrate the holidays. Harrison has already ripped the bows off every single package under the tree, but that’s our fault for thinking we could use them this year with an active 14-month-old in the house. Tucker’s current ornament consumption count is up to two. I am back at work full-time, which explains why it took two weeks for me to decorate our home & put the bins away. It’s pure chaos, but I am accepting it.
Christmas is my love language, along with sarcasm & clean socks.
Our biggest change this year came on the placement of the stockings – by the mantel, Harrison could yank them down & that certainly would not do. I “upgraded” the banister garland a bit, added a few more lights & fluff & ornaments & hung the stockings with care on the rails. It’s not exactly my favorite, but with a toddler, sacrifices must be made!
This year’s mantle is full of fluffy & sparkle & candlelight & glittery birds.
A little sparkle around the chandelier.
Every year, we receive an ornament that describes the past year. It’s been a family tradition of mine for years & I adore putting up the ornaments each year & remembering the time I was a cheerleader, or competed in Battle of the Books, or danced in The Nutcracker.
- This ornament is on my tree & my brother’s tree. Every year on Christmas Eve, I would sleep in his bottom bunk. We’d stay up staring out the window & whispering about Christmas, swearing that we saw the Christmas Star & Rudolph’s nose.
- For the year I played Mary in our church’s Christmas pageant.
- This is Nate’s ornament for this year as a reminder of The Year of the Keurig. This year, we got our amazing Keurig for my 27th birthday & Nate has fallen in love with the iced coffees it produces. I may or may not be drinking one as I type, even though it’s 30 degrees outside.
- Harrison’s first Christmas in 2009.
Our tree! $39.99 at Home Depot as always. & with some bare spots that I probably should fix, but you know I was half a bottle into champagne when I strung them & I like to think that it gives the tree character.
But really, I am just lazy & have a billion other to-do items on my Christmas list.
Tuck is exhausted.
May your holidays be full of twinkle lights & love & chaos, just like ours.
Beautiful and your stockings look darling on the banister.
My son has the same “First Christmas” ornament from last year:-)
Your decor looks great!
Enjoy the holidays.
Oh your home is beautiful!! Our tree and our decorations are more of a diarrhea of nostalgia than anything else, but it makes me smile.
Tuck looks like a sweetie! I love all of your touches right down to the Starbucks cup
-Rene
Beautiful! Thanks for posting these pictures! We’re not very “merry” this year at our house. I’m not decorating or putting up a tree because we’re going to my dad’s house for Christmas, and then we’ll be away on an international trip for two weeks. Who wants to come home 3 weeks after Christmas to decorations and need to be taken down and pine needles all over the floor? But unfortunately that means it doesn’t feel like Christmas for us yet.
yeah for christmas decorations! yours look beautiful!
Beautiful! We’re in a tiny apartment right now and I decorate it but I can’t wait to be a in a little bit bigger of a space in years to come!
Wow! Good job!
I watched a holiday decorating show last night. The designers hung the stockings on the stairs as opposed to the mantle, too. You’re fancy like them!!!
I love the idea of hanging the stocking on the banister! We don’t have a mantel, and I was sturggling with finding a place to put them. Hope you don’t mind an idea thief!
Go for it! I snagged the idea from someone else
Our tree only has ornaments on the top half because of Richard. It’s so sweet my heart wants to melt
LOVE the cute doggy picture!
Love your tree and your mantel. I have had the tree up for a week and totally still have the bins in the dining room…and I have considered leaving them there.
Your decor is beautiful. And I love your Southern taste, very elegant and comforting. Thanks for sharing.
We have a SuperYard gate going around our tree like we’re the Smithsonian Institution. It’s not so much the ornaments I’m worried about, but my son CLIMBING the tree itself. Oy.
Merry Christmas to you and your boys, big and little!
Can you please share where your stockings are from? They are adorable!
Pottery Barn!! Well, Nate’s is homemade.
Harrison & I have ones very similar to these.
Tuck has one similar to this.
I love how you decorated this year, it’s beautiful!
gorgeous decorations! our tree was $15 from Lowe’s… and when we got it home we knew why – it tilts. but i think it gives it character too
LOVE the pics! Blair, where did you get your chandelier? I am in love with it!! GORG!!!
Thank you! It came with the house, so I have no idea! The previous owners were AWFUL about leaving details on paint colors & where they bought things. I have made it my job that when we sell, we will leave the names of paints & light fixtures & tile that we have installed.
I love the stockings and garland on the banister. I miss having a second story and being able to decorate the banister. Merry Christmas!
Oh, your house is so adorbs. Is it too late for me to jump in? I need an excuse to finally get around to spruce up the mantle. Since all the part are on my kitchen island. Dooph.
this is amazing! I am so jealous! I have never had the money or the time to do Christmas decor like I would want to. And now with my little guy breaking the stuff I have (a favorite candle holder/vase was retired to the trash in shards yesterday), we have even less than what I would like. I LOVE Christmas decorations!!!
Absolutely beautiful. And you know what makes me more happy than this beautiful post with the awesome pictures? The happy in your voice this Christmas. Enjoy it mama. You guys deserve it.
Let me just say that the number 2 at Hallmark is much more fitting of this years Christmas than the 1 fit last year. We haven’t put real gifts under the tree, because lets face it…they’ll be broken. Or as soon as she hears a cool noise they’ll be ripped open. I do have empty boxes under the tree (bowless natch). She loves to pass them out, and it tickles my toes that when she passes out the “presents”…I always get the most!
Beautiful! Love the stockings on the banister. May steal the idea for next year … Small Fry keeps yanking hers down from the mantel and putting her foot in it. Because it’s a giant sock, right?
Doh!! The bannister – perfect! How did you get them to stay on? My husband took apart our fireplace )freaking out. My niece and nephew for Santa).
Btw, sorry for the typos. iPhone posting + baby = FAIL
My dog’s ornament count=5. I moved the tree.
He didn’t chew on a SINGLE one last year. What.is.up.
I have that same “1″ Kohl’s ornament, except I’m using it for his Christmas being “1″ instead of Baby’s First Christmas
I love your decor, I’m still working on mine, but need some help. I’m glad you posted the Nester thing, can’t wait to see what’s on there!
I HAVE to know…how does Nate make iced coffee with the Keurig? I love ours so much I am having a midnight affair with the Timothys White Hot Chocolate on a nightly basis.
PLEASE SHARE!
We have the Platinum edition, which has an iced coffee setting! It’s on the far left of the screen…a little digital cup with ice in it. You press that & it brews it, but it’s stronger & a smaller amount. & then you pour it over ice & mix in creamer. I use two pods for a big iced coffee, plus Caramel Macchiato creamer & it tastes JUST like an iced CM from Starbucks!
Ah well therein lies the problem, I do not have the Platinum edition…I guess mine is the Cubic Zirconia one.
it looks gorgeous lady! i have a keurig sitting under the tree as we speak.. and i stare at it daily. only 11 more days ’til i bust that puppy out and go coffee crazy. um, you know, for my pregnancy-allowed 6-to-8-ounces a day.
Your home is beautiful and I’m glad I’m not alone in loving my coffee ornaments
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas from England x
Your home is lovely! I love the stockings on the banister! We have our stockings hanging down the hallway, since we don’t have a mantel. Not my favorite, but it works.
Hope you have a Merry Christmas.
Beth.
The iced coffee ornament is still making me giggle. I have a little bling on my chandelier too- ornaments!