Show and Tell.

I love visiting all my friends' blogs and getting a peek inside their homes around Christmas time. We've trimmed our tree and decked our halls, and here are a few shots...

This is our tree:



It's decorated in red and silver and gold. Glass ornaments up top and shatterproof ornaments towards the bottom with ribbons and beads and berries and pine cones stuck in all the bare spots.

There are lots of personal ornaments, too. Of course, there are the ornaments Tim and I make for each other each year as part of our Christmas tradition. My mom cross-stitched some cute ornaments for us the very first year we were married, since we didn't have much of a collection at that point.

I'll always treasure those.

Tim's Mom also gave us a box of some old ornaments from when he was a little boy. They are so fun to unpack each year. Wasn't my hubby a cutie?



And boy, doesn't our boy look like him?



But, back to the tree... There is a bow up top.



The top of the tree is crooked this year. I can't figure out how to fix it without knocking several dozen ornaments loose, so it will be crooked until I take it down in January or until my Dad or my brother, both of whom are over 6'3", have mercy on me and try to straighten it.

This is our mantle. I brought all the red and gold from the tree over to the mantle, but my very favorite thing about our mantle this year is the new stocking hanging on it.



My mom has done a needlepoint stocking for every member of our family. Mine was made back in 1984, Tim's was done in 2004 before our first married Christmas, and she's been working on Ben's since before he was born this April. She's really outdone herself, don't you think?

These are the cute little trees where I display all the sweet Christmas cards we receive from friends.



I just clip the cards on with miniature clothes pins and I love displaying them out this way because we can easily view all of them. Shout-out to Allison and Michelle and their adorable little ones!



Last year, I did greens and lights above the cupboards in our kitchen, but I wanted to do something a little different this year since hanging those greens on the front edge of the cupboards without leaving any permanent marks is quite a... challenge.

Instead, I just wrapped some greens around the top of the light over our island and the chandelier over our kitchen table. I wired some ornaments in there, stuck a few berries in the holes, and tied a bow up top.





I decorated early this year since we were visiting family the weekend after Thanksgiving, which is when we would normally decorate. I took my time and did everything over the course of a week and didn't bother putting any of the big red tubs back up in the attic, since I'll be packing all of this up again in just a few weeks.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!