Family Room Mantel

I'm not sure why, but it took me a really long time to decide how to decorate the mantel this year.  I spent probably 2 hours on this, and about 1 hour 45 minutes of that was in fussing with various items!  The whole thing really only took about 15 minutes once I decided what to do!

Christmas Decorating Outside

In years past, we have done a variety of types of decorating outside - everything from a simple, minimalist wreath on the front door, all the way up to stringing mini white lights all around the outline of the front of the house.

We have settled into a groove lately.  For the last few years, we have had:

• wreaths on the windows and front door, with red bows
• one electric candle in the base of each set of front windows
• a lighted garland around the front door
• lighted artificial trees in planters on the front porch, with red "berry" balls
• spot lights on the front of the house at night, and
• small wreaths on the garden shed in the back yard.

Here are some photos from years past.  The snowy pictures were from the winter of 2009, when our area received record breaking snow fall amounts.  These pictures were taken in mid December, when we got about two feet of snow.  Later in February 2010 we would receive three more big storms in a row, for a grand total of 80 inches of snow this winter!  We usually get 12 inches or less per year, so this was a big deal!

This is how the house looks most of December in a normal year.