Well, it’s after Christmas and I totally didn’t get around to sharing our Christmas decor until now.. but you know what? That’s okay.  Life is busy and sometimes you don’t get it all done when you want.  With that said, get ready to see a little Christmas decor – better late than never!

Since this was our first Christmas in the new home, it was a year of figuring it all out.  I took out all of our Christmas decor after Thanksgiving and slowly figured out places where it could in our living room, entry & kitchen.  When I had gaps, I headed out with a general list of what I wanted and found a few things to finish it up.

Our mantle is much larger than it was at 2433, and I found a garland back in early November from Michael’s and wool pom garland at Hobby Lobby that I placed up there a few weeks back (oops).  The driftwood angel, trees and stocking holders have been out before, but in new places this year.

The built ins were fun to do because I never had that kind of display space before!  You may recognize the NOEL letters, driftwood reindeer and clam shell  filled with ornaments & shells. The only new items were the wooden star (from Michael’s) and basket full of silver ornaments (Hobby Lobby).

We made the burlap trees when my sister was here back in October and silver pitcher & framed Santa are family items that I love bringing out.

Last year we bought a fake Christmas tree that was a lil taller & skinnier than most since our previous living room needed one that size.  We put it up in the living room and decided it is a lil small for the space, but it was perfect for this year!  Maybe this means I can put this one in the front room next year and have a bigger one in the living room… One can only hope!

I went back to using my driftwood sailboat as our tree topper and pulled out all of our ornaments from trips that we’ve collected through the years! The mercury glass ornaments & sea glass ornaments are still going strong too.  This was also the first year Cleo took an interest in the tree.  When we couldn’t find her at night, she was likely sitting in the back, underneath the tree.

One of my favorite things about the holidays is all the cards! I continued to display them on our pantry door, which is perfectly located so you see it when coming from the living room or from the garage into the kitchen. Last year I mentioned packing the cards with your Christmas decor so you’d get to enjoy the cards again when you bring out the decor – BEST suggestion ever.  I loved looking at all the cards again and seeing what had changed in just 12 months.

Now that we have a 2nd floor, I added some garland to the stairs.  I think I need a little more to go on the banister on the second floor, but liked the touch on the stairs.

Since most of the items I usually used on our entry table were now in the living room, I had a lot of spots to fill in here!  The coastal burlap trees and cheers banner were from previous years, but the tree and sign came from Hobby Lobby.  I spray painted a few pine cones from the yard and put them in a mini clam shell as a last minute touch.

There wasn’t too much added in the kitchen, but I pulled out a wooden star and have updated our letter board with Christmas (and birthday) sayings throughout the last few weeks. And of course my lil Coca Cola bear had to sit somewhere..

Our dining table has pretty much looked the same since I put together my holiday table setting!  Well, let’s be serious… We have been eating off our normal plates with no chargers and using paper napkins, but the placemats and centerpiece are the same!

Another place where we were figuring things out was outside!  I love putting candles in the windows and had to get more this year for all the windows in the front and on the side.  We wrapped our older pre-lit garland on the railing of the front porch and I hung my holly & berry wreath on the front door.

We bought some wreaths on sale at Hobby Lobby and wanted to hang them on our windows like Hunter had growing up, but ran into a few issues getting them hung, so they will make an appearance next year!  Same with the spot light for the front of the house.  We will have 11 months to figure it all out haha.The last bit was on our front porch.  We have a window on the left side of our front door, but just an empty corner on the right which seemed like a good place to fill!  I went back to AR Workshop to celebrate my birthday and made a large Christmas themed sign for the front porch!  Again, this started from 5 pieces of raw wood and is now a stained & painted sign!  I added a cardinal and lantern to the corner for good measure and we’ll see how this goes next year.

This is my view as I sit here writing before leaving for Georgia the next morning for Christmas: a little wine, a happy kitty (cleaning herself like usual), and our tree.  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with family & friends and are excited to start the new year off right!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!