Christmas Home Tour 2013

Welcome to our home!  We moved into this home on Labor Day Weekend, just three months ago, and since then, we've been working on making it feel like "home."   To me, nothing helps do that more than decorating for Christmas, so I'm glad that the season is happening so soon after we moved in.

In this post, I plan to show some general overview shots of our home, and then in the next week or so, I'll follow this up with some more detailed views of things.  Come on in!

Christmas Eve Table

Welcome to our home for Christmas Eve dinner.  I know, it's the day after Christmas, but heck, things were too busy to post this on Christmas Eve!

Rather than cook a big meal on Christmas Day, we always make our big Christmas meal on Christmas Eve.  That way the cooks (usually me and my husband) can spend Christmas Day with the rest of the family, relaxing and enjoying our new "toys" and each other's company.  This year, we celebrated Christmas at home with just my husband, our son, our daughter, and me, we had no other family visiting with us this year. So it was a quiet Christmas Eve dinner in our dining room.  

Christmas 2010 Tour of Our Home

I've been posting here and there all month long with photos of our home and our Christmas decorations.   In preparation for The Nester's Christmas 2010 Tour Of Homes party, I've put together this launching point so you can see all the various things we've done this year.  Hope you enjoy!

Welcome To Our Home

We have finally finished our Christmas decorating for this year, and everything has been cleaned up and put away.  I thought I'd share the view of our home from the front door vantage point.

Entering the front door, looking to the left is our dining room.  I wrote about the tree in a previous post.

Dining Room Tree

Sharing our new Dining Room tree with you today.  You might remember that I previously shared photos of last year's tree, which was a table top tree with a "sugared fruits" theme.  I have been imagining a full height but slim tree in this corner of the dining room for quite a few years, and now it's here!

The Not-Quite-Finished Holiday Tablescape

Despite my best intentions, I am not really finished with my Christmas decorating.  In fact, I'm not even finished with my fall un-decorating yet.  So my beautifully imagined but not yet executed Christmas dining room tablescape is still just a figment of my imagination, and my reality is quite a bit more chaotic and messy.

New Dining Room Tree On The Way!

I'm excited to report that I've splurged and ordered a 7' slim pre-lit Christmas tree for our dining room.  As noted in an earlier post, I was debating whether or not to do this.  I've been thinking of it for a couple of years now, but was holding out for a good price.

Dining Room "Sugared Fruits" Tree

Last year (2009) was the first year I've put a Christmas tree in the dining room.  See, I have this empty corner, where I think it's just crying out to have a tall, slim-line Christmas tree there.  It would be so pretty, you know, with luxurious ribbon and delicate gold ornaments.  I could theme it from year to year with various food-related themes - "vineyard" one year, "sugar plums" one year, and so on.  Lovely idea, yes?

The problem with this plan is that I already do a 12' live tree, a 9' artificial tree, and a 4' table top tree in other parts of the house.  And one year we had a 6' artificial tree in the basement too.  So the idea of, first, purchasing another tree, and then, second, decorating another tree was not appealing.  Well, it was kind of appealing in theory, but in practice it was unrealistic.  

So I struck a compromise.  I found a 3' pre-lit table top tree on sale at Walmart for $20.  Score!  And then I put it on an old round accent table in the sad, empty corner.  Once I decorated it to match the chandelier, the room was now beginning to really feel festive!

The tree was pretty simple to decorate.

Dining Room "Sugared Fruits" Chandelier

From year to year, I like to decorate our house in different ways, mostly re-using the stash of supplies I already have, but sometimes adding in a small purchase of new themed items.  Case in point:  our dining room.  In previous years, I had simply done a nice centerpiece and called it done.  But in 2009, I decided to add a little more to the mix, and play up this pretty room.