Decorating A New House For The Holidays: Part Two

I don't know why decorating for the holidays gives me so much angst.

Typically, no one sees the inside of our houses over the holidays except the people who have beds and actually sleep here. I have to remind myself of this frequently. We have no one to impress. This house needs to work for us, period.

We realized that we really don't have an appropriate place to put a Christmas tree. The front room with the window looking out to the street? Nope. That's our dining room, and I can't fit one more thing in there. The family room? Nope. It would be too hard to move the furniture to accommodate a tree.

So we've decided that the tree will go in the corner of the sun room, which will kind of sort of be visible from the backyard and the cul de sac. It's weird, I know, but we're a family that does weird on a regular basis.

As for the family room...well, the stockings are hung by the chimney with care, and the rest is pretty simple.

The plaid stockings from Target were my favorite holiday addition last year. We had to buy them because our silly old girl, Maggie (may she rest in peace!) chewed our hand stitched and hand sewn stockings the year before to get at the candy hidden inside. Silly old girl. We still miss her, crazy antics and all!

The boxwood wreaths are from Target (Smith and Hawken), as is the red gingham ribbon that I snagged from the Dollar Spot last month.

I had to take down the crazy collage wall. The boys really didn't like it, and they constantly referred to it as my Sherlock Holmes moment. Whatever. I remembered that I had this poster, signed by the artist, from my Mom. The winter scene is pretty, and I love the rustic painting paired with this gorgeous quilt. (The frame is cheap, yes, but I really didn't feel like shelling out big bucks over the holidays to have it custom framed. Good enough for the boys is good enough for me!)

The quilt actually belongs to Sam. It was a crib quilt from my sister, Tina. I'm loving it in the family room right now.

We may not have room for a Christmas tree, but there's always room for birch trees!

There it is...the room where I light candles, flick on the gas fireplace, and snuggle in for a night of Hallmark Christmas movies. A family room, decorated for family.