Start Spreading the News...

"Start spreading the news/I'm leavin' today/I want to be a part of it/New York, New York!"

I'm on my way to my annual I {Heart} New York Trip this morning with some friends. Will tell all next week!

On a completely unrelated note, I only received 4 comments (!) on my Open House post, and that was after spending the better part of yesterday morning visiting around a blog party. Y'all is my house really that ugly? (Seriously?)

Show me some love, people!

Have a great Saturday...I'm freezing in NYC right now!

Deck the Halls...Or At Least the Living Room

Welcome! As much as I'd love to do a big Open House this year and invite all of our friends and have it catered and hire a Santa Claus and buy a fabulous new outfit (with new shoes!), it's just not in the budget.

Not wanting to be a Debbie Downer, I've decided to settle happily for our dual-family Christmas Eve dessert/appetizer buffet and a few fabulous bloggy Home Tours. I'm linking to Julia at Hooked on Houses, who always hosts a fun party. I'm also linking to Sarah and The Nester.

So grab a virtual Peppermint Mocha, some iced Christmas cookies, and a few sausage balls (my specialty), and take a little stroll through the T house.

Like lots of other bloggers, I don't think there are any new decorations this year, save a few items I picked up at The Dollar Tree.

FRONT DOOR wreath:

Our stairs are directly in front of the front door. It's like, "Hey! Welcome to our home! Here are our stairs!" I used some cheap Dollar Tree garland to wrap around the banister and "fluffed" it with some plaid (love the plaid!) ribbon from Michaels.

Nothing fancy in the FAMILY ROOM. I love my mini bird tree, but I think next year, finances permitting, I'd like to try a new theme.

The ADDITION has been claimed as official girlie territory. T only walks through to get to the laundry room or the deck. You can read another post to see how I "made" our girlie tree skirt from The Dollar Tree.

Found some amazing glittery orange and hot pink polka dotted ribbon last year at Michaels. Dressed up the garland over the built-in bookshelves with star tinsely stuff and glittery snowflakes.

Love these glittery picks and ornaments from Michaels and The Dollar Tree. You can't beat the prices. I like the glitter mixed with the pinecones.

I couldn't do a good DINING ROOM picture because I'll be honest and say that my table is covered with all kinds of holiday gifty crafty things and some of the people who read this blog will be recipients of said holiday gifty crafty things.

I think I'm ready for a change from the red walls, but for now it lends itself nicely to Christmas decor.

Just a little shabby tree in the corner with red and gold balls.

I keep the smallest of my Nutcrackers here. It's been really fun reminding a toddler all day to "no touch!"

There's not a whole lot going on in the KITCHEN so far. If you saw it last weekend, it was decked out for an Ariel-Under-the-Sea birthday party. I'm still recovering from it.

Just another shabby, Charlie Brownish tree in here. The ornaments are antique cookie cutters and chocolate molds.

This is a chocolate mold in the shape of a bear, in case you were wondering....

Our main family tree is always the "real deal." I made T buy it from Lowe's nursery this year because I was antsy to get it up and decorated, and of course to start our annual "Great Ornament Debate". It sits in front of the big front window in the LIVING ROOM. A friend made the ribbons several years ago for me, and they match the tree skirt. Got it all from the Martha Stewart K-Mart line.

All lit up at night.

The only other decoration in the Living room so far.

Finally, the larger pieces of my Nutcracker collection in the FAMILY ROOM. I started collecting them in elementary school, when my sister and I started dancing in it each season.

I use old books and a small antique trunk to give them some varying heights. I think I can say that I have enough now...I'm ready to call it quits on the Nutcracker collection.

Especially after "Frank" moved in. "Frank" is short for Frankincense. He was a Christmas gift from T's grandparents several years ago and as you can see, he's taller than my 4 year old!

I guess that's my cue to go find the mistletoe. There's still some decorating to be done! Hope you enjoyed our little virtual Open House.

Coming up: a Christmas craft or two, recipes, and various other things that spark interest or give you a chance to laugh at my expense.

{Happy weekend!}

GIVEAWAY Winner!

Good morning, friends! The winner of my Christmas/Blogiversary Giveaway is....

Miss Mustard Seed!

Congratulations. Please email me with your information so I can mail your package ASAP!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered! Check back in January for the next Decorating Dilemmas Party. There will be a small giveaway after that party as well!

The Great Ornament Debate

So I joined Kate's ornament party on Tuesday and it was so much fun to share some of my favorite ornaments with you all. I'm linking to Rhoda's "Home for the Holiday's" party this morning.

Today, I will be sharing an ornament with you that has caused a great deal of controversy in the T household.

When T and I were married a little over 8 years ago, his mother was kind enough to gift us with a Tupperware bin of ornaments that belonged to T.

T had several elderly relatives who gifted he and his siblings with an ornament each Christmas. I'm sure that as a child, T would have appreciated a new He-Man action figure more than a silver-plated choo-choo train ornament.

As his new wife, that year I greatly appreciated having a whole tupperware box of beautiful gold and silver ornaments like this one for our first tree:

Until I got to the bottom of the box and found this:

Yeah, that's right. A crocheted Big Bird head as big as the palm of my hand. Highly visible from anywhere in the front of the tree. With giant googly eyes that follow you around the living room like some sort of strung-out Mona Lisa.

T could care less about anything I put on the tree. In fact, he makes sure to take a lazy and indifferent casual approach to Christmas decorating. Pregnant or not, every year for 7 years, I brave the rickety attic stairs and lug boxes and boxes of decorations down to the first floor of our home. This year was the first year T did that for me...I think he sensed a blog post with his name in it coming on.

Anyways, he makes a studied attempt to ignore me as I string lights on the tree, muttering to myself. He looks around me to see Monday Night Football as I gingerly hang some of our my cherished ornaments on the tree. He does his best to ignore the festivities...

Until he notices that the Big Bird head is conspicuously absent.

"Hey! Where's my Big Bird ornament?" he demands indignantly.

"Um, I don't know." I reply, studiously averting my gaze from the storage box in which I buried BB beneath some old tissue paper.

You see, BB is (unfortunately) T's most favorite ornament and the only ornament he is even remotely interested in.

BB is always found and triumphantly waved over T's head like a banner of Christmas hideousness while I cringe and plot its demise.

Then the Great Ornament Debate begins.

T always argues that BB deserves a place of honor front and center.

I am of the opinion that as I am the one who does all the decorating, gift buying, gift making, baking, and general holiday merriment-making, I should get to decide where BB will spend December...the back of the tree, near the bottom, where a small child or dog might be tempted to carry him off.

One year, T and I spent each day on secret missions to covertly move BB to various locations on the tree. I came home from work to find that T had wired BB to a branch near the top of the tree.

No matter...I found a pair of scissors and cut the branch off. Oh, it was on.

And it's still on.

BB is currently resting at the front of the tree near the bottom. He doesn't know it yet, but he has orders to move today while T is at work. I'm thinking somewhere in the back near the closed-up heating vent.

Can someone "tell me how to get to Sesame Street," 'cause I think Big Bird needs to head on over there?

So Your Husband Can Stay Out of the Dog House

This is a public service announcement. Ladies, you may want to watch this video with your husband, fiancé, or boyfriend to be certain he does not end up in the "Dog House" this Christmas. (hilarious video!!! a little long, but worth a view)

"Work on the folding, Donny."

Are you taking notes, T?

Sidenote: It's not to late to enter my 1 Year Blogiversary/Christmas Giveaway from Monday, please scroll down or visit here to sign up. Open until Thursday night, 10 pm (ET)! I'll announce the winner on Friday morning.

Trim the Tree: Ornament Party!

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful." -Norman Vincent Peale

If you couldn't tell from the button above, I am joining the fabulous Kate at Centsational Girl for an ornament party today.

I had grand, ambitious plans of creating several ornaments to share with you all today, but then I ended up throwing an Ariel-Under-the-Sea birthday party for a certain little girl who just turned 4. I spent my weekend scraping confetti off of my kitchen floor instead of threading ribbon to glass balls.

As luck would have it, a few of the ornaments on our main tree are homemade. The rest I just like, so you'll have to look at those anyway if you want to read to the bottom to get to the link to the GIVEAWAY I'm hosting this week. So there.

My dad actually made these first three ornaments, and they are very special to me. He passed away when I was 16, so it's nice to have something to remember him by at Christmas. My mom's tree is filled with lovely things he made.

Our big (real, baby!) tree sits in our living room and is a true mish mash of ornaments. To some of you, it probably looks like my oldest's preschool class decorated it.

I'm okay with that. I'm not an interior designer. I adore trees with color themes or ornament themes, and I even have a few of those, but our "family" tree is eclectic because it's trimmed with ornaments that reflect all of our experiences.

These ornaments belong to my girls and are a reminder of the current stage of life I am in: mommy.

Some ornaments are reminders of vacations we've taken. I picked up this seashell star when T and I were visiting Paradise Island in the Bahamas. About 9 months later, Natalie arrived.

I bought this shopping bag ornament on one of my annual Girls Trips to NYC. Only 4 days until the next trip!

Some ornaments hang on our tree and are reminders of our own childhoods.

And some of my favorites were made by Natalie last year in her first year of preschool. They might not be worthy of a front row seat on many people's trees, but they are so special to me because Natalie is proud of them.

And also, she did not take them back after giving them to me, which some preschoolers are wont to do.

There is only one ornament on our tree that I hate. I loathe it more than anything I can think of besides exercise. I keep it on the tree because it is T's Christmas joy to hang it. If you check back in soon, I will share this hideous thing with you and let you have a laugh at my expense.

Until then, here's a parting shot of our tree at night.

If you missed my 1 Year Blogiversary/Christmas Giveaway from yesterday, please scroll down or visit here to sign up. Open until Thursday night! I'll announce the winner on Friday morning.

Happy tree trimming!