It just wouldn’t be Christmastime without sneaking outside to add more lights. I have been doing this for almost 20 years. Micah had said something about putting lights on the apple trees. He wanted to use icicle lights, but I wasn’t sure how it would look. As it turns out, it looks very nice (especially from the main road nearby).

750ish Lights later.

There haven’t been many changes to last year’s indoor decorations, with a few exceptions:

Heavy stocking holders (finally!),

monogram ornaments on the kids’ trees,

a tiny silver tree on our nightstand,

and a wine bottle lamp.

We will head to the tree farm on Thanksgiving. Is it just me, or does it still feel like September? I have no idea where the last two months have gone!

We did not use as many lights as we did last year, but we made some changes. We brought back the inflatable Santa train, put candles in the windows, and illuminated the house with five red and green floodlights. I like the color scheme. We like to mix things up a bit so it doesn’t look exactly the same every year.

We also took out our nativity scene. I scoured the property for rocks to put in each piece so they don’t blow away as they did the last time we tried to put them out.

We finished the indoor decorations today as well. I will post pictures soon!

We had a lovely Christmas. It was uneventful and relaxing. We went out for dinner on Christmas eve, which was just what I needed. The kids loved their presents from Santa. I think they’ll have enough to keep them busy for the rest of their vacation! This was one of the best gifts Micah and I received:

We hope you had a great holiday too. A new year is just around the corner!

This year, my parents visited for the holiday weekend. It was so nice to have guests on Thanksgiving and to use our Christmas china for the first time!

We made our usual trip to the tree farm that morning. Micah is always so proud to bring the tree home!

We finally got around to hanging all of the ornaments tonight. We have many, so it takes a while.

I finished organizing the garage, and I have my fingers crossed that we will be able to fit both cars inside when the first storm hits. I’ll post some updated photos soon.

Eleven years ago, Micah gave me a vanity table with a bench. It survived six moves, but the other day, it cracked under pressure. Literally. Will tried to climb on it, and the table couldn’t handle the weight! The leg bent, causing the table to crack. I was so upset! Later, Micah said he was going out to get some more clips for the icicle lights. He came home with this:

He remembered that I was looking at electric fireplaces at Home Depot a while ago. This one is very tiny, but it fits perfectly in the space. I’m so happy that the vanity table was replaced with something just as special.

The rest of the decorations are up! Inside:

Outside:

I’d like to have icicle lights on the sides of the house next year, but I am afraid to stand that high on our ladder. The idea of standing on one of the highest rungs without holding onto the ladder is too scary for me!

We have so much planned this year. It’s going to be a great Christmas.

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Up next: Thanksgiving, our main Christmas tree, and garage organization!

We’ve finished putting up about half of our Christmas lights. We typically decorate on Thanksgiving weekend, but my parents will be visiting this year. The kids have been asking to have their own trees, so I bought them this week. Molly and Mia wanted purple, Will wanted blue, and Lily got Molly and Mia’s old pink tree. Here’s a little preview:

We still plan to make our annual trip to the tree farm on Thanksgiving day. I’ll post more photos when we finish decorating!

My former next-door neighbor sent us a very nice letter last week. She had stumbled upon this site and noticed this post from December. I never did find Christmas dishes on the clearance racks, but she had a beautiful set and offered it to us for free! She stopped by today, and I was sort of shocked. There were literally boxes filled with every matching piece imaginable! If you are reading this, thank you again! We will use these dishes for many years to come. I organized the kitchen cabinets so they would all fit.

I decided, on a whim, to tackle the overgrown mess near the front steps. I’m sure it was nicely landscaped at one time, but it turned into a mound of ivy and weeds. The edge trimmer got it down to this:

I bought some endless summer hydrangea, plantain lilies, and royal purple veronica flowers. I still have no idea what I’m doing, but I think it looks pretty good:

I hope they will get enough shade. The big tree out front should help.

This is how Micah and my Dad spent father’s day:

The gazebo is up! I can’t take any credit for this. They worked very hard, and it turned out great. I have visions of quiet dinners without bugs, and hours in the shade with Lily while the kids play. I’ll take a picture soon. We can start grilling as soon as Micah replaces the ignitor.

Up next: The downstairs bathroom loses the built-in cabinet and gets a new vanity.

Molly and Mia decided months ago that they wanted a dollhouse for Christmas. I started doing some research for Santa, of course. It seemed that no one sold finished wood dollhouses anymore (at least, not at an affordable price). There were a lot of plastic ones, but they looked flimsy. Kits were also expensive, and I found them to be risky. So, we decided to get a bit creative and lend Santa a hand this year. My parents brought over my childhood dollhouse, which had also belonged to my sister. It was from the 1970s, and it needed a lot of work before it would look new again. The dark brown wood staircase was broken off and in pieces, and the rest, well, see for yourself:

I started with a coat of white paint on the window frames, roof, and exterior. It never ceases to amaze me when I see what white paint can do:

The walls were next. I used the bright pink paint that was formerly on the twins’ bedroom accent wall. Micah cut all of the vinyl flooring, and we made “hardwoods” to replace the 70s shag “carpet”. Lastly, Micah repaired the staircase, patched up some holes, and painted it white. Here’s the end result:

They’re also getting new furniture for each room, from the Fisher-Price Loving Family collection.

I think it was worth the effort to finish this! It actually took hours of work, but it will be so cool to hand this down to our kids (without them ever knowing we did a thing!).