Christmas decorations

The theme for my Christmas decorations this year is "out of Emmett's reach".  I know, I know, not very festive, but sometimes you have to be practical.  I already have to make sure that I remember to gate the stairs going up (his newest favorite thing is climbing stairs) and cover up the floor vents (he likes to pull them up), so I figured I didn't need to add worrying about him pulling over the Christmas tree, or pulling off ornaments and breaking/eating them to that list.  So we've improvised a little this year.  Annika doesn't seem to mind - she told me that our house was now very "fancy" (she just got a "Fancy Nancy" Christmas book, so her newest word is fancy).

Christmas card display

(excuse the mess on the counter - hadn't put away my grocery shopping yet)

I'll admit, I didn't come up with this idea, and I'm too lazy right now to find the original link where I saw it, but it was on Pinterest.  My apologies to the person who thought of such a great idea.  Perhaps I'll have time later to go back and give you the proper credit.

I love picture Christmas cards.  If you give me a regular Christmas card, as lovely as it may be, it will get thrown out after Christmas for sure.  However, if you give me a picture Christmas card, it will be kept, placed in my photo album, forever and ever.  Even if we're not that close - I always keep picture cards.  And I love to display them, however, they present more of a challenge than regular cards (which will stand up on their own).  I used to try to put all my cards on the fridge, but now with my giant "mom's" calendar, there's no room (and it was a bit complicated, trying to piece them all together and get enough magnets to keep them up there).  So when I saw this idea, I thought, that's the way to do it!  Run a piece of ribbon down your cupboards (mine's just taped to the cupboard in the back) and then use mini-clothespins to attach your cards.  Love it!  Annika helped me pin the cards on.  Oh, and Carey got into the Christmas spirit too, and decided to string some lights up above the cupboards.

Advent calendar

My mom made this advent calendar for me and my brother when we were little.  This is the first year that it's been in our house, for Annika to use.  She is absolutely loving it, and it reminds me of being a kid. :)  (Side note: this is one thing that Emmett can actually reach, but so far he hasn't tried to rip it off the wall.  I expect he will by Christmas though...)

Nativity set

This is just one of the three nativity sets that we have.  This one is in our wall niche.  The other 2 are a Little People set (something that the kids are actually allowed to touch and play with) and a glass figurine set (which is on a shelf high above all little hands).

 

 

Christmas tree

We have a full-sized tree, but for this year, I opted for the mini-tree, up out of Emmett's reach.  I was a little sad that I couldn't put all my ornaments on it (I collect silver/white/blue snowflake ornaments), but I still think it's pretty and Annika was quite awed by it as well.