A Bit of Christmas

I'm not big into decorating.

I love decorations and the tasteful decorating of others, but it's a huge effort for me.

So, since it isn't a priority for me, we don't really have that many decorations.

Our 9 foot pre-lit Christmas tree is an especially huge pain to decorate. (Shawn wants to point out that I was the one who wanted the darn thing... I concede.) Last year, I let the kids decorate the bottom third of the tree and, eventually, Shawn did the other two thirds.

This year, since we will be opening presents with family, we decided that bringing out the big tree was a needless chore. So we just let the kids decorate the small tree.

That is, it was decorated at one point...

I got frustrated with all the ornament-playing at first but just gave up.  ;) Ella has also knocked down the tree once already...

We've also been painting ceramic ornaments. These ended up willy-nilly on the floor and are now piled below the tree.

Averi's been making some decorations in pre-school:

So cute!

Here is our mantel:

You can see our Christmas card holders and the advents that Mom made for me.

Next year, I'm really hoping to get a few more Christmas decorations. Eva is making us stockings this year and so I'd like to get stocking holders and do something like this:

(click on photo to go to post)

Curtain rod suspended between two stocking holders for multiple stockings!

I have a bazillion other Christmas ideas on Pinterest as well, of course.

This is what our table looks like when it is clean!  ;)

I have some garland above the cabinets, otherwise, that's it for Christmas this year!