Oh Christmas Tree

This year Britton and I decided to go for the real deal... a live Christmas Tree.  The past two years we decorated my grandmother's artificial table top tree.  With the living room and the dining room of the house somewhat settled we decided to get a real tree since Britton had never had a real tree before.  We drove south of Oxford to Springwood Christmas Tree Farm to cut down our own tree.

In the cabin they had hot cider and Christmas Cookies.

 Merry Christmas!

Christmas Carols

A friend introduced me to the Sufjan Stevens' Songs for Christmas this year.  It has been my favorite Christmas CD for 2009! Even though it is not a new release, it is new to me.  It is going to be perfect for the background music during our family Christmas dinner!

Deck the Halls

Merry Christmas!

 

*Images via Southern Living, Country Living, and A Life's Design.

Living Fireplace

My office Christmas party was last week.  Along with great food and lots of laughs, the Christmas party always offers the highly anticipated Dirty Santa (White Elephant) gift swap.  This year I could not find anything around the house to regift but I found the Living Fireplace DVD from Tuesday Morning. One of my co-workers selected the DVD.  The next morning he infomed me that he got the best gift of the evening.  They had watched it the next morning and the sound from the DVD sounded like a real wood burning fireplace.

The DVD reminded me of the article in the December 2008 issue of Cottage Living.  Lee Kleinhelter's house was featured in the magazine.  I love her style.  In her living room she had a living fireplace on the television when the room was photographed.

While on the subject of fireplaces, Britton and I tested the fireplace insert in our house last night.  While I hope that this insert will not be in our house much longer, we wanted to give it a whirl to see what all the craze was about when these were popular in the 70's.

I have to say that I much prefer being able to see the fire rather than having it behind the doors on the insert.  But there is something wonderful about a fireplace on a cold evening!

I also wouldn't mind having a fire pit like the one in the article in Cottage Living!

* Images via Cottage Living

Decorating for Christmas and Loading Cabinets

We finally decorated our Christmas tree on Friday night. We we watched one of my favorite Chirstmas Movies, Christmas Vacation, while we decorated the tree and worked on the kitchen.

Angie was intrigued by the movie. Lately we have noticed that Angie will turn her head to watch the TV at night. She is so CUTE! I enjoyed moving all the dishes, pots and pans, and small appliances from our living room cabinets to the new kitchen cabinets.
The doors are not yet installed on the upper cabinets, but we are so close!

Sights and Smells of Christmas

I have not yet decorated for Christmas at our house. I don't expect to go all out with the Christmas decorations this year (as you can imagine from the state of the renovation), but I hope to have a few signs of the season around the house. Yesterday I bought a Thymes Frasier Fir Candle. My sister-in-law Whitney gave my mother-in-law one of these candles last Christmas and I loved the smell of a real tree without the mess! Now atleast my house smells like Christmas!

(Photo via Southern Living)