This town home of ours is quickly becoming a little paradise. I’m so grateful for a place to call our own that suits our needs and that we are slowly sprucing up. I feel like it’s a little diamond in the rough that just needed a little extra loving!

I realize few people dislike Christmas so saying “I love Christmas” isn’t much of a statement at all, but gosh dang it I LOVE CHRISTMAS! I love the lights and the glow and the cheer and the air thick with feeling, and the people trying to be just a little bit better to each other.

And I love that we get a whole month dedicated to trying to draw nearer to our Savior, one that’s especially heavy-laden with warmth and feeling. All the decorations aren’t just pretty things: they originally had specific meanings. Evergreens — everlasting hope and life. Red, the first Christmas colour. A friend shared this the other day: “It was used first by men of faith to remember the blood shed by the Saviour for the world. Christ has given his life and has shed his blood so that every man can have access to the gift of God, eternal life. Red is deep, vivid, bright, it’s the greatest colour of all, it’s the symbol of God’s gift to men.” The bells, ringing with joy at the good news, the lights, pointing to the Light of the World. (For more on how we’re working to teach all of this to our kids, check out this post for some ideas!)

With all that said, the decorating and the little traditions and the Christmas music sure are just plain fun, too! So off we go!

I’m still working on finishing our stockings, but I love our little matryoshkas on the Christmas mantel. (And yay, we have a mantel!!)

That painting up there is called Little Lamb by Jennedy Paige, and there is a beautiful description and story that goes along with it, you can read it here. It’s also special to me because our Jonas looked so much like this baby as a newborn ❤

There’s a funny story about this noël sign below: I got it from a local craft fair last year, but the artist hadn’t added the trema on the e so I just added it with chalk! Ha. I realize in the US most people just spell it “noel,” but I had to get it just right in our french-american household!

Our tree is nothing fancy, but I still love it (and it nearly gave up on us this year after a heating-vent-melting-the-feet incident… but my husband saved the day with a hairdryer, ha!) We got it for our first Christmas with real jobs, after college 🙂

I made the tree skirt a few years ago, we have several Christmas things I made with this cute collection of fabrics! The ornaments are a collection of memories like I’m sure most of you all have. The cowbell is from Andrew’s mission to Switzerland (which we went back to visit this summer, and now I’m in love…), the footprint ornaments are each of our kids (red for Jonas, purple is Adelina — we made hers at a DIY-pottery painting shop, but the second time around we were nowhere near any of that so I just ordered a package of paintable ornaments from Amazon and did it at home the day before we went to get his first casts! I’d like to get it glazed sometime so it’ll be a little better preserved.)

Adelina made the little jingle bell ornament at our library’s story time last year, back when she pronounced it “beaglebells!” ❤ And that western star up there is a nod to the Cowboy State we’ve been living in the last five years now. It’s also unbelievably heavy and needs a lot of help to prop up and stand up there ha!

Then we have a cozy corner or two and a basket full of Christmas books. I’m still working on building our collection, and the library is helpful too — we always find some fun books there! (I’ve written about this tradition and some resources back here)

(Do you like miss relaxation’s cameo above? Ha! I made the red print pillow covers, and the text ones are Jane.com finds — I love the reindeer one especially!) Then there’s our advent calendar and the piano area with some Christmas music we’re practicing 🙂

And this year I may have gone a little overboard and… decorated our kitchen for Christmas! But come on, who doesn’t need little mini-wreaths for their kitchen cabinets?! I love this version over here, and this was my original inspiration.

Yes, one of our kids chewed off the corner on our Christmas card… ha. I’m honestly not sure which one did it either! I’m also super excited to get those counter tops and back-splash (re)done — it’s happening very soon and then we can finally finish painting the kitchen! And let’s not forget the countdown chain to Omi & Opi’s house 🙂 I plan to tape Christmas cards we receive to this pantry cabinet — I LOVE getting Christmas cards! And sending them, of course!

And we had to throw in a little festivity upstairs too… Yes, Adelina has a homemade “Christmas tree” in her room!

Ha! And there’s my friendly little pillow in the guest/Jonas’ room. My MIL is an awesome enabler of my sewing passion, she found this cute pattern! (more here)

Well there you have it, thanks for stopping by!