Christmas Tour 2010

I love participating in the Christmas Tour with The Nester and now with Kelly. Christmas has all sorts of warm fuzzy feelings and memories for me, so I love sharing that with other people and learning about their warm fuzzies!

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2008

And now, I give you Christmas 2010

I went a little light this year. I didn’t get my Snowmen out. They usually reside on the top of our kitchen cabinets until the end of January or so (because Snowmen aren’t just for Christmas). But since I will be 6 weeks more pregnant by the time they are to be taken down, I decided I might not need to be climbing on top of the kitchen counters to put them up and take them down.

Our tree is pretty much the same as it has been the last two years. Not many places to put a giant green thing in the living room.

There are a few new ornaments every year. But one of our special ornaments got a makeover a week or so ago. Caedmon made this handprint ornament at KDO in 2008. It’s hung proudly on our tree since then. But this year, it got a little special attention from a certain three-year-old.

Yeah, he took a bite out of it. Lovely, huh? I’ll be proud to hand that over to him when he gets married and let him explain to his new wife about those little teeth marks.

This year, I was determined to have my gift wrap coordinated. In years past, it’s been a mish-mash of whatever I had on hand along with whatever I picked up that year. While there’s nothing wrong with that, I wanted to do it differently this time. And thanks to the clearance rack at Target last year, all our gift wrap coordinates this year. (Except for the two things in giant bags, but let’s pretend they don’t count.)

The mantle is rocking an extra stocking this year for the baby sister we are expecting in April. I’m glad I bought an extra when we got new stockings a few years ago, as that design is now discontinued.

And here’s the whole mantle/fireplace area.

(For more on the ornament “wreath”, go here.)

You can tell we don’t use the fireplace much, since it seems to be a good place for the basket of Christmas toys & books.

Our nativity migrated this year. And I didn’t get it all out. In the past, I’ve had it on top of our TV armoire (that is no longer in the living room) or on the mantle. This year, I decided to put it on our TV stand. Where little hands can reach it. But also where little eyes can see it.

I set it up in three different “scenes”, and Caedmon and I talk about them frequently. He’s learning the details of how Jesus came on Christmas, and I thought maybe this would help him grasp some of it.

Growing up, I always loved my Mom & Dad’s nativity scene. It was much larger in scale & breakable. But Mom had painted each member of the scene by hand. I know I’m probably not ever going to have a hand-painted nativity set, but maybe this one can be special to Caedmon (and one day, his little sister) because it’s a bit more accessible and much less fragile.

It’s made out of plastic resin, so each piece is pretty sturdy. Caedmon is allowed to touch them if he has permission. And we act out the story every once in a while and move the figures around. He especially loves the animals. Even the gimpy donkey who won’t stand on his own. I guess the trip to Bethlehem was hard on the little guy.

Again, I didn’t get all the pieces out – just the ones that I thought might mean something to Caedmon’s perspective of the Christmas story. There’s always time for the fluff and stuff. And hopefully our collection will grow over the years. But for now, this is perfect.

I used this wreath last year as the “star” over the nativity on the mantle. I wasn’t sure how I was going to use it this year, but for now it’s making a pretty nice Christmas Card holder.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a Merry Christmas!