Decking the Halls – The Final Decorations

In the last two weeks, I have written about my Christmas tree. Here are my posts about assembling the tree and decorating it. This was the finished project.

Here are a few more things I scattered around the house. I try to have something Christmasy in every room. In the kitchen, I hung festive pot holders on the upper cabinets. The box underneath is from cookies that one of my students gave me last year.

I decorate the chandelier in the dining room every year. This year I used red garland and white bulbs. I hung lights around the windows and hung some decorations in the doorway between the kitchen and dining room. I used to hang mistletoe when I lived in Oklahoma because it grew every where, but there is not any around here. Luckily, Douglas kisses me any way.

You probably cannot tell from the picture, but the cloth on the dresser is from Bath and Body Works. It lined a gift basket I received in college, back when guys could never think of a gift other than a basket from Bath and Body Works. Or were those just the guys that I was dating? The aloe plant is sitting on a Christmas plate that once held Christmas cookies. My mother made me the table runner two years ago, and the tins are from Christmas cookies from students. I get a LOT of cookies at the holidays if you could not tell. My students’ parents want to fatten me up it seems. Cookies and chocolate make up the majority of my gifts!

There are lots of Christmas decorations in the living room. Besides the tree, I have a bowl full of golden bulbs on the coffee table. My friend Lorena gave me these bulbs and the cut-glass bowl is from the trash. They are not glass, so I was not worried about them getting broken, but I definitely thought that Crème would play with them. Turns out that she has no interest in them. She is too busy pulling the ornaments off the tree.

There are more of the gold bulbs in a vase on top of the entertainment center. I pulled the card out of somebody’s recycling bin. It sparkles with glitter, and I found it very pretty, so I framed it. I only put it out in December. Crème loves to perch up here to keep an eye on things.

Snoopy gets a Santa hat and a girlfriend for the holidays.

The purple bulbs were on the dining room chandelier last year, but this year I put the white ones there, so I gave Douglas the job of finding a place for the purple ones. He hung some with silver garland on the front window and put the others on the mirror. I think they look beautiful.

The star hangs in the window. I took it off of a wind chime. The little rubber ducky sits on a shelf. This bow is hanging from the doorbell in the hall.

I hang stocking and jingle bells on the hallway doors. Crème loves them. Luckily, I am a sound sleeper. Douglas is not so fortunate. Crème plays a game with him all night where she rings the bells and then runs when he jumps up. I am amazed he has not taken them down yet.

There is a purple tree in my bedroom. It conveniently covers strategic parts of the woman in this painting. The rest of the year, she exposes her body for all to see, but she is more modest around the holidays. Last year, I decorated this tree, but I never got around to doing it this year. It looks pretty even without any ornaments in my opinion.

A candy-cane-striped towel hangs in the bathroom.

And last but not least, I decorated my husband and pets. Don’t they look happy?

Happy Holidays and Happy Homemaking!