Christmas Time {In Washington}

Despite the fact that I am NOT a fan of that song, I couldn't think of a more clever title for my Christmas decor post. I change the radio, every time the song comes on, but the chorus is extremely catchy, no? If you couldn't tell, my Thursday thoughts are more about my Christmas decor. I've always loved decorating for Christmas and sometimes go 'a lil over the top', but hey it's my house! No Scrooges!

We lil in a two bedroom apartment, so a lot of our decor is focused in our living room area. I try to spread it out where I can, to keep the whole home festive, but you'll be seeing the same room from various angles throughout this post.

Le Husband built our bookshelf with bricks and boards and I love the rustic feel it brings throughout the year. We have a TON of books so there is very lil space to decorate, but I've managed to find a few places for our decor. Peanuts snow globes and a Merry Christmas sign adorn the top of shelf.

This year I also dressed up our teddy bears. An aunt gifted them to us, as a bridal present, and they are a cute addition to our shelf. I thought it would be fun to make one Santa and the other a stocking holder.

We have a small hallway that leads past our two bedrooms and into our bathroom. It used to be a waste of space, but with this lil shelf and one of our Alexander Chen paintings, we've made it a fun lil nook. Last year I completely left this area alone, but thought it needed some Christmas spirit. Trip and Trip Jr both got their own stocking and I thought our lil tree, snowman and gingerbread house rounded out the shelf well.

I enjoy sprucing up our bathroom, with candles and yummy smelling soap. Wreath and spruce scented candles are my favorites and make the room smell delicious. Plus, they look pretty, too.

Oh, ho, the mistletoe, hung where you can seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, {yes, that is a pullup bar!}! I randomly found this in my box-oh-Christmas and promptly hung it in the hallway. Who needs nails?

This year I changed up our first end table, adding the Nutcrackers and Santa bowl for our keys. Mama B gave us all Nutcrackers one year and mine is a matador for my month spent studying abroad in Spain. Le Husband was gifted a Nutcracker last Christmas, which rounds out our collection. We normally have a different bowl for our keys, but I love how festive the Santa one looks with our red table runner.

One of my favorite Christmas pieces is this precious, glittery tree.Way back when, three years ago I think, I bought one similar for my girl, C-Lo, for the Glitz&Glam blog swap. I worried it was too much, but thankfully she loved it and double thankfully we became friends, IRL. Every time I pull out this tree, I'm reminded of the wonderful world of blogging and the amazing people in it. #pinksparklecrayon

#alilsparkleneverhurtanyone

Our second end table has become our Peanuts table. We have a Peanuts themeed manger and Le Husband recieved the Charlie Brown tree last year. Aren't they cute? I love our lil Peanuts corner. I also decorated our wine holder with one of our wreaths because we didn't have anywhere else to hang it.

Apologizes for the dark picture, but my camera was acting funky and I didn't have time to mess with it. I made the pink wreath a few years ago with my family and the Christmas pillows were an after Christmas purchase last year from Target. My mom gifted us the place mates and holiday bowl on our coffee table.

I posted a tree picture last week, but thought I'd do a close up on some of my favorite ornaments. A good friend made me this invitation ornament for my birthday last year, and I was so excited to put it on the tree. We have two or three other MARRIED CHRISTMAS ornaments, so this one rounds them out perfectly.

While we were on our big Alaska/Canada trip [which I still need to recap] I decided I wanted to start collecting ornaments from our travel adventures. I added one from each stop and love how cute they look on our tree. We actually had to buy something in one of the gift shops to use the trolly, so this bear ornament holds a double special meaning.

[like that Cowboys ornament?!?!?! ;)]

Isn't the moose couple cute!?!?

As I mentioned before, this year was the first year my childhood ornaments were on our lil apartment tree, instead of on the big Brady Bunch family tree. Mama B has bought us an ornament EVERY CHRISTMAS so that our first tree away from the family wouldn't be a sad, bare tree like her and my father's was the first year they were married. That's the kind of heart Mama B has, always looking out for her children. I love this tradition and had a lot of fun adding my ornaments to OUR tree. Every year the ornaments were themed, so we have many different shapes, animals and angels [Mama B loves angels]. This lil mint ice cream cone is one of my favorites, after a trip to Wisconsin one year.

Le Husband's mother is incredibly crafty and talented, along with being super awesome and kind. I saw this Advent calender in her home last year and mentioned that I liked it, so guess what I received in the mail in November? I love it and think it fits perfectly on our buffet with our wedding canvas and nephew's picture.

Instead of an ornaments, one year my mother gave us all small themed Christmas trees. I love my lil pink tree and it's always fun to set up in the kitchen, to bring Christmas cheer. I also love to decorate our small high-top with festive place-mats and napkins. BabySpice bought the themed napkins one year and I love setting them out with my Spode napkin ring holders I bought on sale. Even though we don't eat here, I enjoy how pretty I've made it.

[for some reason I took the picture crooked, so don't worry if you think it's a bit off]

Lastly, here's a picture of my Cowboy's Christmas wreath. My BFFer bought it for me one year and even though Le Husband isn't a huge fan of it, I put it up, every year. GO COWBOYS!

Please ignore my dirty counters. SOMEONE forgot to do the dishes ;)!

So there you go, our lil apartment all Christmasy. I'm excited for when we have a home, but right now, this works well for us! What are your favorite home Christmas decorations?

Linking up my Christmas decor thoughts with *Annie*!!!

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My cheer for today is my work outfit yesterday. We had our holiday potluck lunch, so I decided I wanted to dress up and show my holiday spirit. Hooray for busting out the Santa shirt, jingle bell earrings and Christmas bracelet. I even wore a ribbon in my hair, crazy right?!!? Fa-la-la-la-laaaaaaah!