Christmas Decorations 2011

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!
Time to get out the Christmas decorations! Here are some snapshots of our Christmas decor this year.

I love this little tree. Christmas 2002 my sister bought this little tree for me. We'd just had Logan and decided that with a brand new baby and me recovering from a c-section that we were not up to the task of putting a tree up. I love this little tree.

My mom made me this beautiful quilted table runner. This is the fun "festive" side. The flip side is a poinsettia "formal" look.

We have a Firefighter Santa Claus! The wolf actually stays out year-round but it fits quite well doesn't it?! My mother painted it and we LOVE it!

A friend of mine was recently getting rid of this china hutch and we grabbed it. It's fun to have my Christmas dishes displayed (and my wedding china in the 'off season'). The Mrs. Claus on the top is a piece from my childhood and has always been a favorite of mine! The poinsettia is a gift from a friend and is waaay up there so the cats don't gnaw on it--poinsettia is poisonous. But it's beautiful!

These mice are also from my childhood. My mom painted them. I just think they're adorable!!!

This is our version of a Christmas Village. My little white church, 3 fire stations, a bunch of firefighters, a lighthouse and a gingerbread post office!

The fire station on the right is our most favorite! It is "Station 1" (which was the station Casey was assigned to when we bought it) and has the wooden folding doors just like old fire station 1 that he was at!

This little white church reminded me of the little white church (below) that is in Browns Creek, WV where a portion of my ancestry lived and attended church.

How cool is my San Antonio, TX snowman!?!?!?! Hehehehe! This is a new thing we did this year. I laminated the pieces and put small magnets on the backs so they're easily movable (except for the main portion of the scarf) and hopefully will be reusable for next year.

Our stockings! Mine has my name on it, the stripes is Casey, Logan is the cream colored one, Mckayla is the black and white cats and Tabitha is the pink and brown.

Our nutcrackers--a couple firefighters and then Logan's little collection. When Logan was 4 she asked Santa for a "Baker Nutcracker". What an unusual request! After searching and hunting high, low and everywhere in between, Santa found one! She was SOOOO excited!!! It's been on a shelf in her room ever since and he joins our Christmas decor every year.

This is our Abominable Snowman scene with the Marshmallow S'more Snowmen sitting around their campfire. It's very whimsical and so fun...we love it!

Also among our collection is a steadily growing Nativity collection. We definitely make an emphasis on the birth of our Savior during this magical time of the year. This is a particular favorite of ours--one that Casey made a few years ago. Is that not a super cute sheep?!

Hehehe...this is an Afghani camel! (Made with real camel hair)  When my best friend deployed to Afghanistan a couple of years ago Casey asked her to bring him back a camel...he asked for it, she delivered! We now include it in our nativity collection.

Our Christmas Tree! We purchased a smaller tree this year. It's taking some getting used to, but we are generally very pleased with it. It's so fun to our ornaments on it and recall the memories that they stir up. We have the lights 'blinking' this year so excuse how dark it looks in a still photo.

My tree train!!! I love my tree train! It choo-choo's, goes around the track and occassionally (when it's working correctly) it even blows smoke!

The handmade garland my mom made for one of our trees in my childhood. That was a favorite tree! Funny thing, the memory I recall of that particular tree when I see this garland...always makes me a little teary eyed.

Our advent calendar. The girls move Rudolph every day and this year we've started a new thing...each day/glove has a small piece of paper on it that indicates an activity, craft or treat we will have that day. For example: Go see the Riverwalk Lights, Read Luke 2, Make Christmas cookies, Make a reindeer craft...etc.

My light up Christmas Cow on my patio!!!

Our firefighter Christmas penguin!