Don't mind taking your shoes off....come right in......

This blog I know about invited her readers to do a Christmas open house via their blog. My friend Rose did it and I think it's a great idea. Esp. fun if you like to get ideas from others and just plain like to be snoopy. In a good way of course. By no means is our home a Pottery Barn showroom...I'm just very simple in my decor. So without further disclaimers.....

Welcome to my open house...I baked some cookies and put some coffee on, So hope you have a good imagination......Because really I can't give them to you over the Internet. However I am doing a giveaway..so keep reading and there will be more details to follow.

Views from our front lawn. The snow was flying this morning...I was so happy that things may get covered up with a fresh blanket of snow. Hey, if it's going to be cold, it might as well white. And really don't you want a "White Christmas"?

Sorry for the tree in the way....I didn't think the husband would like it if I chopped it down for a blog picture.

Come on in.....

This is the foyer table, you would see when you first come in. Those are real gifts, if you were curious.

This is the gingerbread house our family made a couple of weeks ago. Every year it gets more and more fun to do projects like this. Isabella (8) & Jack (6) can actually sit for more than 3 minutes on a project and like to see it through to the end. FUN!! However little sticky hands Suzy (2) has been pulling candy off of the corner of Ginger's home...can you see where the indentations of the circles are on the frosting? Oh well.

Our tree of course....and mantle. I didn't realize until after I took the picture that there is a white wooden "W" sitting on the ledge of the mantle. That would be William's work....He likes to balance it on the edge of the woodwork. Just to have his mark on the living room I guess. This used to be in his room....however I guess he feels it adds a nice touch.

The mantle was always a dream of mine to decorate. I would see other mantles decorated in full, and think how fun it would be. However this year....I have grown bored with the normal things I put on it...and decided to scale it down. I went with some things I had in my Christmas storage. It's simplistic, but mostly I am happy with it. It would be a nice compliment to add lights....but that would require getting in the car and driving to town. And clearly I'm just to busy on the computer to do that kind of running around.

Here is the "W" decorator and sticky hands candy thief doing a side job modeling gig for me.

Excited to see the snow falling this morning.

Our nativity rests in our oldest child's bedroom, well because she asked. I like to mix things up around here you could say. What??? Don't you have your nativity in your bedroom????


Looking into Isabella's room you would see this...

And while some have Shepherd's keeping watch by night...we have horses. All the happy horses watching over Bethlehem.

Perhaps my favorite view of our Christmas decorations is in our kitchen. I absolutely love getting the mail everyday during December in hopes of getting a Christmas card from friends and family that I can add to our collection. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. Seeing pictures of families we don't see as often and some that we do see on a regular basis.

I simply tack up a long piece of thick gross grain ribbon and use mini clothes pins to attach the cards. The mini clothes pins I purchased from Walmart several years ago. I got this idea from Lorie Y. about 6 years ago, after visiting her home during the holidays. She is one of those girls that every time you leave her house you go home and try to duplicate what's she's created. She is inspiring.


So thanks for stopping by. I want to encourage your thoughts and comments...So just leave me a comment and I will randomly pick a winner to win some homemade Christmas cookies with some coffee. You don't have to be a blogger or google subscriber. You can comment under anonymous but you will have to leave your name and a way I can reach you if you win. If I know you in real life you can just leave your name.

Good luck!

P.S. Come on Elsie tell me your thoughts......Don't you want to try to win some cookies & coffee? :)

Quote of the day:

This is my 4 year old singing along with the radio....

William: "Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rocks... Hey mom, those guys are really telling the truth Jingle Bell does rock. And it pleases the Lord."

Wow, was that an interesting comment.