Our Cozy Christmas Home

Well, I sort of forgot today was the day Kelly was hosting her annual Christmas tour of homes.  I have been running a lot of errands today.  Sigh.  Better late than never, right?

Just a little reminder on our mantle of the real reason for this joyful season. 

I bought and "embroidered" mine and Eddie's stockings our first Christmas together.  I have thought of replacing them with matching Pottery Barn stockings, but they are kind of sentimental.  When we started having kids, I purchased the quilted stockings from Pottery Barn.  Evan's is Santa.  Brody's has a choo choo train on it.  I kind of lucked out there because I bought it before he developed his intense love of trains.  Mattie's was added last year with a sweet little angel on it.  I added a little green stocking for Cocoa this year.  Of course, next year, I have to get Mattox a PB stocking.  Cocoa's stocking may have to move to another spot to make room. 

I tried to go the "rustic" route with our mantle this year with our burlap wreath, a burlap bow, and some fresh greens. 

Our big tree sits in front of our big front window in the great room.  This area is primarily used as an extension of my kids' play room during most of the year.  One month of the year, we try to make it look pretty.

Some of the more special ornaments on our tree are from years where we experienced those big life changing moments...

2003 - The first year we spent as husband and wife.

A reminder of our lovely honeymoon in Hawaii.

A reminder of our second year of marriage still just the two of us.

2007 - The addition of our precious firstborn son, Evan.

2011 - The addition of our equally precious second son, Brody.

2013 - The addition of our very precious angel, Mattie.

2014 - A very sweet ornament to commemorate the soon arrival of our precious rainbow son, Mattox.  This ornament from Hallmark perfectly symbolizes our angel Mattie and our rainbow Mattox.  In the infant loss community, the term angel refers to a child who is lost and rainbow refers to a child following that loss not as a replacement but as a new hope.  This ornament shows a pretty little dark haired angel (like our Mattie) drawing a picture of a rainbow.  Often, us parents of angels like to think that our little angel children have a hand in helping to send us their rainbow siblings.  That's why this ornament is just so special. 

The boys' Christmas tree in their room.  They adorned it with lots of their school made ornaments. 

Complete with lots of their cute faces. 

I loved this little nativity set by Melissa & Doug I found last year.  I had always planned to buy the Fisher Price Little People set for the kids, but it just really didn't seem to be a set that would grow with them and was more applicable to younger children.  I think this little set will perfectly last through many years of my kids' childhood.  Brody loves playing with it and rearranging the scene.  The sheep often ends up on top of the stable, etc. 

One of my favorite "decorations" now is the way our Christmas tree lights reflect on our beautiful angel's picture.  I also put the angel that Eddie and I purchased for our first Christmas tree by her picture. 

I "heart" banners.  This one was a Target dollar bin find.  I moved our angel Mattie's little tree into our family room this year where we could all enjoy it.  It sits beside her scrapbook. 

Another little festive banner above our usually messy counter.  This space is usually used by the whole family to drop the daily mail, homework, school projects, etc.  I cleaned it up for the holiday decor, and I would love to keep it that way.  Hint hint!

Last year, Brody and I made a little handmade garland with some cheap foam ornaments that we decorated.  This year, we added some foam stockings that we decorated for each member of the family.  Very kid friendly decor!

Daddy and Mommy's stockings.

Evan decorated his own stocking.  He was going for a little Christmas scene with a candy cane streetlight with angels and birds flying above, and a snowman and gingerbread man hanging out on the ground. 

Brody added lots of sweet treats to his.

Mattie's is adorned with little angels, of course.

Our sweet little Mattox has a blue bow and little blue boots with a gingerbread boy. 

And Cocoa's has a bone.  

Our elf, Brewster, decorated our front door like a snowman.

I updated the front door wreath this year to match the new brightly colored blue door.  

Our outdoor lights.  We usually like a simple and traditional display with white lights and green wreaths with red bows.  We added colored lights to the shrubs in later years for the kids.  Evan also requested we turn our old basketball goal pole into a candy cane. 

My husband has formerly added icicle lights along the roof, but in recent years, I have begged him to forego this decoration as a precaution.  We really need our Daddy in optimal health...no paralysis! 

Another view of the outside.  I just wish I could figure out how to take better pictures of Christmas lights so that you could actually tell what color they are.  I am going to work on that one! 

A slightly better picture of Evan's candy cane.

Thank you for stopping by to visit with us!  We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!