Christmas Classes

I am starting Christmas Classes on September 1 that will go through November to help you get everything ready for Christmas by December 1. If you are interested, please e-mail me at the12weeksofchristmas@yahoo.com for more details.

Welcome to our Home!

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

It has been snowing for 5 days, so it is all snowy and beautiful.

You don't need to knock!

Just come right in.

This is our LR from the entry way as you walk in the front door. Straight ahead is the piano and LR tree's. to your right is the entry which leads into the other part of the house. If you look to the top of the picture - you can see the mistletoe!

Please come in and share a cup of hot chocolate with us. You actually have a choice you can add peppermint, caramel syrup or rasberry and a scoop of vanilla ice cream to make a yummy treat to share. Lots of cookies are here on our treat table. (More deatils on that and other family fun for Christmas added daily for the next week on http://bucketideasforgrandmas.blogspot.com/

You can see the tree tour of my friends tree's at the bottom of the blog. There are garland ideas too. So happy you are here!

Piano & Nativities

This is the piano at night. Our white natvity is in the middle with the stacking plate centerpiece on the left and a jar full of ornies and miniature nativity on the right.
I have a nativity collection and that collection is scattered all over the house. This is 2 of them.

Stacking Tray Centerpiece

Filled with all the leftover white decor things.

Tiny nativity under a bell

Nativity from Isreal Made From Olive Wood

Nativities from Granada (aunt) , Bolivia (dd#1) , Mexico (f&m inlaw) and a friend in Wisconsin

Nativities from Russia (dd #2), New Mexico (son) , Lithuania(dd #3) , Costa Rica (dd#2) , glass (dd#1), the Salt Lake Airport (dd#1) and my dad. The carved one my dad put a down payment on in Sept of 1992. He passed away in March 1993. The man who made the nativity called me in September of 1993 and asked if I wanted the nativity my dad had made a payment on. He knew my dad had died and knew my dad had planned to give that to me for Christmas. Of course I did! It is a special piece that I dearly love.

Corn Husk Nativity

Classic Beautiful Nativity

Nativity in Entry Area by front door from DD #2 (

Jim Shore Nativity above computer

Nativity in Bathroom - my husband bought for me when we were first married and very poor!

I love this little nativity.

NAtivity from DD #4 - I love it!

Mantle Living Room

This is the mantle in our living room. It is the first thing you see. I did it with quite a few less candles than last year, (see picture at top of blog.) We have stockings we hang when it is Christmas Eve. We live in Idaho and so we do build fires which aren't stocking friendly.

Close up picture

Hearth Jars

Filled with left over clear and silver ornaments, crocheted snowflakes, metallic shred, silver stars, pearls, silver ribbon, tulle and snow.

Our White Tree

This is the same tree from about the same angle that is in the picture at the first of the blog. Isn't it amazing how different it looks with different colors on it? During the Day
This is at night - you really can't see it in the pictures but this tree is spectacular!Topper - bows with ting tings Close up of nativity ornament

Close up of snowman ornament

Close up of huge snowflakes, that are all over in the tree.

Close up of Angel. This is a tree topper, but the tree is too tall, so I tucked her in the branches

Front Window

This is the front window ledge. The tree you can see is the Ancestor Tree (see post below to see the detail of that tree.) Front angle a little closer up of candles.

Entry Area & Bath

This is the entry area from the front door. You can either to into the Living Room or back into the dining area, or down the hall to other rooms

This is my grandchildren's forrets. This is new for me this year. We have had 2 grandchildren born since March. I found 3 - 3 foot tinsle tree's this summer that I am using for it. As we get more grandchildren I will have to find more tree's and a bigger space!Our oldest grandson's tree's is filled with his favorite things, trains, spiders, helicopters, etc.

Our next grandson is teddy bears because he loves to cuddle and he is 9 months old.

Our youngest grandson is 6 weeks so we have pictures of him.

I got a handprint of each of their hands (see October #2 post in archives) for their tree's and made a CD scrapbook picture ornie for the topper (see September Ornament Corner post.) It is a darling forrest!

An old pair of ice skates at the end of the banister.

Wreath on Bathroom Door

Matches the Santa Collection you can see from this point in the house. I had a bunch of odd's and end Santa's and so I decided to put them all together on a wreath, kind of like the I Spy tree that is right next to this door. (See post below)

If you look at the picture above you can see our bathroom - not sure when they built this house that they put a bathroom door so you can see in from the front door. Anyway it is cute on Christmas to see the fun stuff. The picture below is the bathroom decor you see when you first walk in the room.

Shelf above the towels filled with fun things our kids have made or given me - I love these things. Just below this is a green tinsel tree.

Bear Wreath our youngest daughters made several years ago. Everything in the bathroom is bears so it fits in there. I love these things my kids have made in years past.

This is the shelf above the potty. It is squishy in this spot so hard to get a good picture!

Dining Area

This is our dining area. I am standing in the kitchen to take this picture. Sterling our rotwiler and Sushi our mut are in the picture. It was really cold outside this morning and I feel so bad when they are out in that. You can see the Santa picture. To your right is the Santa Collection. the china hutch, the Vintage Tree and shelves with all kinds of fun stuff. To the left almost behind me is the hall to the entry area. (See detailed pictures of Santa tree in post below.)
Santa shelf above couch.

China Hutch with my mom's dishes

Vintage Tree - I have ornaments from 1910 to 1950's on this tree.

It reminds me of when I was little. I love this tree!

TopperArch into entry area

Dated Ornament Arch

Ornament Arch
This pictures shows an arch with a bunch of ornies on it. I have ornaments dating back to before we were married. I used to keep them on a separate Christmas Tree. There were so many of them they were hard to find and I just didn't like it. We have an arch into our living room and I started hanging them on there. They start on the lower right edge, go up and around and down the left side. Now we have started putting them on the other side as well. The ornaments we have made as a family are on the year we made them, each year we had a baby, there is a pair of their shoes hanging, each move has a new mailbox and ornies from vacations and other things we have done. It is like a walk down memory lane when I put them up and it is one of my favorite things to do at Christmas.

Baby shoes and a mailbox because we moved into a new house. More baby shoes and other ornies You can see the 911 flag in this shot This is the year my parents and grandmother died - there are a few of their ornaments.

Master Bedroom

Pix from our room

Bay Window - see detailed pictures of Angel Tree in post below.

Sweet Shoppe Corner

Looking into the kitchen

Gingerbread Garland

Santa Hot Pad Holder

Sweet Shoppe Corner

Close Up Corner

Burgandy and Lime Tree

Lime and Burgandy Tree lit taken with flash. These are the same decorations that are on the tree that is the picture with the blog. The picture doesn't do it justice but it is a beautiful tree.

Tree lit taken without a flash.

Angel Topper

Various Ornaments in Tree

Big star stuffed in the branches

Nativity Tree and Woodland Tree

Nativity Tree

I had a bunch of little nativities and not enough shelves to put them in so I made a tree. I had an extr 6 foot tree and it worked great!

Nativity Topper

There are several sets I turned into ornies and clustered them on the tree. Others are just one piece nativities so I tucked them in the branches.

Mary and Joseph Mop Dolls

Wooden Nativity at the bottom, our kids played with and not grandkids love to arrange.

Woodland Tree

This is the woodland tree. It has all the reindeer, rusty tin, and other woodland ornaments on it. It started because our son in law is an avid hunter, fisherman, and outdoorsman. Our duaghter and he were married at Christmas time and we made a tree for the presents they received to go under. The tree was in his honor. It has been fun to add new things to it each year. It is on a 6 foot tree right now. One of these years we may have to upgrade to a bigger tree.

Topper is a flannel bow on a twig star.

Close up of left side.

Close up of right side. There is a little log cabin tucked in the branches.

Hall of Snowmen

Here is the "Hall of Snowmen."
It is on the basement landing. All of the snowmen decor we have is in our Hall.

These are the three alpine tree's that hold all of the snowmen.

Back wall

Bottom of Hall
Other wall in the Hall

Angel Tree In Our Room

Angel Tree in Our Room.

It is a tall skinny tree so it doesn't take up too much room.

Tree Topper
Close up Of Ornaments

Other Side Close Up

Little angel tucked in. These are angels I made for myslef and out daughters out of an old flour sack that was my Maternal Grandmother's

Santa Tree

This tree is in our dining/family room area. I have a bunch of Santa's, Santa tins, Santa dolls, etc. because I have my mom's stuff, gifts and finding some I love turned it into a huge collection. I put some on the shelf above the couch and put the rest on the tree, in the tree and under the tree. Before the display seemed almost like I was at a store and I didn't like that. When I added this tree and incorporated the signs etc into it, it made the Santa's fun again. Close up view of some of the ornaments.

Little Santa house tucked in the branches.

I like to tuck something vintage inside the branches, kind of like a little secret.

I was talking to a friend, Susan and she tucks fairies in all of her tree's too.

This is the symbolism of Santa and what he means.

This is the tree skirt from one side.

This is the tree skirt from the other side.

Peppermint Tree

Peppermint tree at night. Window garland and all the foo foo added.

This is my peppermint tree. It is so cheery! I haven't added garland etc to the window yet. That will be done after I get all the tree's up. It was a little sparse at the bottom so I added some red and white trivets and hot pads inside the middle and it worked! I put a bunch of red and white ornies on this. There is a little pillow that was my aunts from a wreath she made that is tucked in. My old Barbie doll with a red dress, sits on the limbs. I had some red glass tear drop ornaments that I added at the end and it pulled it all together. I love it!

This is the tree topper. I had a couple of candy cane ornament gifts and

they were just perfect to add here.

One side close up.

Other side close up.
Bottom with stuffed animals and other red and white decor.

This shows the red felt advent calendar at the bottom of the bayu window. Perfect to go with the Peppermint Tree!

My Ancestor Tree

My Ancestor Tree is done! Actually I need a picture of our family, but we have had new babies and son in laws added so we are doing a current one at Thanksgiving and will add it then.
(Fall leaves still up - the rest of the room isn't decorated yet.)
This tree revolves so every side is packed with things. Our daughter was here the other night and sat in there for a long time and said, "Everytime the tree goes around I see something new!" It is beautiful, the picture really doesn't do it justice...not sure how to fix that.

This is the tree topper. On the other side of the doll is where our family pix will be hung.This is the chart for my husbands family - I have one like it on the other side. There are pictures in balls that go back 6 generations. The chart will help the looker figure out who belongs to who. My husbands ancestors are on blue paper, mine are on pink.

These are the ornaments that are my grandparents tribute pages. My husband and I have 8 grandparents so these circle the tree. There is a list on each of their talents and special abilities.

There is a lamb cookie jar of my grandmother's tucked in the branches from the 50's.

This picture shows a cookie jar from my childhood. My dad's scriptures that he took to the Korean war with him, a shoe of my mom's, a nettie doll, ornies with out Mayflower ancestors names, revolutionary war ancestors, mormon batallion ancestors, and pioneers that crossed the plains.

This picture shows paper dolls that my mom had and the yo yo drops are from a slip of my mother's.

This is a close up shot of one of the sides with a mulitplicity of items in in. Trivet from one granmother, nettie doll, a doll chair my grandfather made from a spam can, metal jello mold, etc.

I dont' have a tree skirt on it yet. I might put my mom's village under it. Still thinkng about that. When I have all of it toally finished I will post a picture.

Paternal Grandmother's Jewelry Dish

My Paternal Grandmother Soap Dish