A Christmas Tour of My (Parents') Home

One of the advantages of being at my parents' house is that I get to decorate their beautiful new home for Christmas. More importantly, I won't be here to put it all away! :) One of the blogs that I like to read regularly is having a little show off your garland thingy, so since my inspiration for the garland on my parents' mantle came from that site, I decided to participate.

So, without further ado, here's my garland: It was so much fun to make. I don't know if I can wait until next year to pull out my own Christmas stuff now. :) One tip: you know those power suction cups, the ones that you "lock" by pulling down the hook? Well, three of those are holding up that garland. That's it. They fell a couple times while I was messing with the garland, but they haven't fallen down since, and it's been about a week.

I love Christmas villages. This one is my mom's, but I have one in storage with like 40 houses. Did I mention I don't think I'll be able to wait until next Christmas to get out my Christmas stuff?
My brother gave this vase to my mom for Christmas several years ago. She usually has marbles in the bottom and tall seasonal flowers in it, but for Christmas we filled it with red and gold balls. I wish it could be sitting next to the fancy fireplace downstairs, but the kids are around that one too much. I think I might have to find a place for this vase in my suitcase. :)
Here's the tree that I decorated. Oh, and I put the garland on the railings too.

One of the first things that I said when we were looking through the ads the first morning I got here was that I wanted to make a gingerbread house. My mom and dad started laughing because they kept thinking about buying one for me but decided that I would want to pick out my own. After much deliberating, I settled on this one from World Market. I like the way the sides are imprinted with bricks. It was still a compromise, though, because I really wanted one with old fashioned candy. That gingerbread house kit doesn't seem to exist, however, and I was unwilling to spend more than $9.99 on a temporary decoration.

So, that's my (parents') house this Christmas. :)