Christmas 2008---------> 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.