The Spirit of the Season

Christmas is definitely up there as one of my very, favorite holidays, and I SO LOVE decorating for it! The day snuck up on members of The House this year, though, so they kept their attention on decking the inside halls! Take a peek! We'll go from top to bottom:

Just a few hanging bulbs catch the light and make the craft room festive!

While no decorations are in this room, there is intent in the space ...

... Remember when your parents said things like, "Your room better be picked up, or Santa will think there's no room to keep new gifts!" The same thing was said in this House. 😊 Fun fact: My own parents would tell me they read in the newspaper that all children who wanted Santa to visit their houses had to be in bed by 7 p.m. I totally bought it. I also bought that Santa wanted a whiskey sour instead of milk, so ...

Across the way, Polly and Cruise are chillin' upstairs taking a breather from the holiday hub-bub:

Polly's all, "I wrapped gifts and decorated. I shall now put my feet up and eat all of this Chex Mix," while Eleanor hopefully anticipates a few dropsies. I'm betting Cruise will take care of that.

The upstairs hall has a few fun decorations:

The little train was a part of mini decorations when I was a kid. I thought it looked fabulous here. 

Head on down the hall to the stairs ...

This little tree and presents will greet you when you get to the bottom:

The rest of the family room is alive with festive touches!

The boys are excited to have cocoa in Santa mugs while noshing on butter cookies ...

... while Cat is barely overseeing their indulges as she has a tray full of cookies, made from decorator sprinkles, and her own jolly mug of cocoa!

My very favorite part of the family room is the fireplace with the stockings stuffed of goodies!

In the kitchen, some decorating has been going on!

The Christmas Tree and the gift are cakes for this family. They are really the hard icing decorations that come on a piece of cardboard and get placed on, for instance, a cupcake. I used polycrylic on these to help preserve them. That was a little tricky because the poly will dissolve the sugar, but it ended up working out. (You'll note Grandpa Bud and Penny are again mastering the art of producing endless Chex Mix 😁.)

The more formal decorating is in the dining room:

I'm not entirely sure how "formal" it is when I literally stapled the corners of the tablecloth together to keep the fabric down ...

... but, it worked!! The long table is really two tables put together and covered by this fabric I happened to have in my stash. I love how it turned out especially for how much effort I put into the linens! The side table received similar treatment as a wide piece of ribbon and a few staples created a really fun result!

Jade made her way to the adult table, but she still got the fun mug:

The napkins, by the way, are just little rectangles of white tissue paper that I cut out. I figured since I was formally setting the table with some silverware and glasses that there should be napkins. I will say, though, that setting those tiny utensils was hard, so I anticipate this family eating more often with their hands.

Also around the room:

No matter the extend of your decorating, I hope your celebration was much of what you wanted it to be! I know it can't be everything this year. I get it. But, what a great day to celebrate the wonderful potential of the human spirit and to have faith and hope in something joyous and grand ...