Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Have a Happy, Healthy Christmas!

Hello! Guess what I got for Christmas?  Sick!  My husband was very ill last week and I did everything I could think of to try and not get sick too, but it finally got me.  I'm not quite as sick as he was, but I'm still sick.  Merry Christmas to me.  Oh well.  I suppose a lot worse could happen. There are many people who will have a lot more to deal with this Christmas than just having a cold.   I will try and not have a pity party here.  But getting sick is never fun, especially when it happens on the biggest holiday of the year. So enough, onto today's post (when all the pictures were taken while I was still healthy!)

Because BlogLand is very slow this time of year, I decided to post pone my weekly travel and fashion posts and show you my house decorated for Christmas.

 Look at that healthy, radiant smile! Oh, if only you could all see me now.  I look nothing like that happy woman in the picture, I assure you.

I really down scaled my Christmas decorations this year.  I normally decorate every room of the house; there isn't a door frame anywhere that isn't dripping with garland!  However, this year I got off to a late start due to our fall vacation and my work schedule, so I did minimal decorating.  And you know what? I like it better.  I might do this every year.  Less really can be more.  I put just a 'touch' of Christmas in every room.  Some rooms you barely know it's there.  But I do.  It was a lot less work, less stress, and a lot less cluttered.  It's still elegant and at times flamboyant, like the arrangement on top of t.v. stand below, but because it's more contained, it seems more relaxed.
 I usually put up two trees;  a skinny tree in our dining room and a bigger tree in our family room.  But this year, I only put up our dining room tree.   I felt that we just didn't spend enough time in our family room to justify putting up another tree in that part of the house.  The dining room tree would be seen continually throughout the day, for it's in an area where we spend the most time.
My birthday this year fell on Black Friday.  Yes!  Black Friday!  Can you believe that?  But my sweet family made it all better by throwing a little party for me when I got home for work.  Ashley decorated the dining room with pretty birthday banners and she made a gluten-free chocolate cake.  My husband bought my favorite pizza (Chicken Mediterranean De-lite) from our local pizzeria for us to eat for dinner so I didn't have to cook.  And I got two awesome birthday gifts:  a Cuisinart Grind and Brew Thermal Coffeemaker  (The BEST coffeemaker on the planet!  How did I ever drink coffee before I don't know)  from my husband and a designer brand tunic from my daughter and son-in-law.

 I'm wearing the tunic in all the pictures.  It's from my favorite designer,  Michael Kors.  I love the detail in this tunic.  It has a zipper in front with silver studs on the pockets, and silver sleeve tabs on the arms.  The zipper pull even has the famous MK label on it.   Isn't my daughter just the sweetest?  This is the second Michael Kors item she was able to find for me.  Last Christmas she gave me a beautiful pair of gloves by him.


 
 Here is the pretty silver buckle on the sleeve tab.  I really love the subtle, interesting touch to the sleeve.


  This is how I dressed my upper level staircase with garland.  I used primarily golds and browns in the middle level living space of my house because those were the colors that complimented the room the best.
Here  are some little snibbits of how I decorated the rest of my home.  The first collage shows the master bedroom.  I draped both dressers in garland, and added some embroidered Christmas pillows to my bed.
This set of pictures shows the upstairs hallway and bath.
Most of these pictures are of my entry way and family room.  The top two on the right are what I did for son's bedroom.  I simply draped some garland on his head board.
This is the formal living room and dining room.
And finally, here's a little bit on how I wrapped my presents this year.  Since my tree is brown and gold, I simply wrapped all my presents in Kraft paper and tied them with a combination of gold and brown ribbon.  For tags, I cut two tag shapes out using a Spellbinder's Nestability.  On one of the tags I wrote the recipients name and the giver's name.  I then covered it with a second tag on top made of glitter paper.  I don't like my handwriting, and I find this gives a more polished look.
 
If you'd like to see more pictures of my home completely decorated for Christmas, start HERE.  I did a series of posts of how my house was decorated for Christmas when it was featured in a local Christmas Walk in 2011.  

I wish you all a Happy, Healthy, Christmas!  Amy 

3 comments:

  1. So sorry to hear you are sick Amy. I spent last Christmas at home alone (for a few hours anyway) because I was sick. No fun! Hope you feel better soon!
    Your tree and decorations are beautiful. I love the colors you used!

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  2. WOnderful images !
    Merry Christmas for you and your family !
    xxx

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  3. Hope you feel better real soon! I love your home and how you decorated it. Take care of yourself!...Kathy

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