Decorated for Christmas

I really strive to make my home a place that my kids feel comfortable in. I do this not only for them, but for my own sanity. I don't want to have to worry about keeping them off a certain piece of furniture or keeping them from breaking an overpriced keepsake. I want them to be able to explore and enjoy our home. Don't worry, there still are limits. And I have discovered in order to keep this trend going with Christmas, I needed to scale back my decorations. 

On the Christmas tree, there are no breakable ornaments below 4'. Of course, I managed to break a special ornament when I was unpacking the decorations. It was the ornament Ian and I got on our honeymoon 10 years ago. Oh well. At least we got to enjoy it for 10 years! I let the kids decorate the lower part of the tree. Connor wasn't really into it, but Isla more than made up for his lack of enthusiasm. She didn't do the best at spreading things out, so most things got clumped together.

I even decided to scale back the mantle this year. Connor managed to get the fake snow everywhere last year, so I decided to keep it confined to vases this year.

^^ So I totally use the same candles year after year. Some of them are on their last leg though, so it looks like I will have to spring for new candles next year! 

And even though our book advent was a hit last year, I never got around to wrapping all the books ahead of time. I really feel like the Christmas season just creeped up on me this year and I was totally unprepared.  So instead, I threw all the Christmas books in a basket and put it next to the Christmas tree. And the kids totally love going through the books, so it is still a win. 

Two years ago, Ian's aunt gave the kids a Veggie Tales nativity set. They both like it, but Connor spends a while playing with it each day. And a kid friendly nativity set sure beats an expensive one that gets played with and broken, which totally happened last year.

The biggest change I did this year you can't even see because, well I just didn't decorate. That would be in the dining room. I used to get the table all fancy and decorated. But to be honest, we use the table three times a day and at each meal, it gets pretty messy, so a fancy table just wasn't practical. And to be honest, it doesn't even bother me that it isn't decorated. I put up some of Connor's Christmas preschool art in the dining room instead and it makes me way more happy. 

Please someone tell me that they also spend way too much time staring at their Christmas tree?! Our living room is currently my favorite place in the house. The lit up tree just makes me so happy...it's always the little things with me! 

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