Christmas Decor

I love winter in general. Call me crazy, but I think that there is something incredibly beautiful and peaceful about watching the snow fall when you're inside, holding a cup of hot chocolate. When I was in school and stressing out over a paper or studying for exams, I would look out the window and see the snow falling and it would calm me down. An overwhelming feeling of peace would come over me, and I would think, 'I'm OK'.

I have always LOVED Christmas. Absolutely loved it. From the earliest time I can remember, Christmas has always been my hands-down favorite time of year. It has less to do with the whole presents thing and more to do with snow, Christmas music, the smell of Christmas trees, decorating, the baking, the meaning behind it, the food, yummy hot beverages like hot chocolate and apple cider, wrapping presents, and getting together and spending time with people I love. And that's only the beginning of why I think this time of year is awesome. I used to wake up around 5:00 in the morning on Christmas morning, just so excited to get my favorite day of the year started. I actually only stopped doing this when I was in university and slept in a little bit on Christmas morning, not because I wasn't excited anymore but mainly because I was just always overtired then. So get ready Jeff, I may be up at 5am this year on Christmas Day!

Thus, given my feelings regarding this season, I have been extremely happy the past few days getting all of my Christmas decorations together. I'm so excited to spend my first Christmas with Jeff in our own home, and I think that feeling of love, and creating traditions for ourselves has really pushed me into action. I got super inspired and created my own Christmas artwork, which turned out fairly well, so I thought I'd share my decor ideas here.

My countdown to Christmas is on!

My Charles Dickens village 

My "mantle" 

I painted this design based off of a greeting card I found

I found the idea for this candle on Pinterest

The inspiration for this display also came from Pinterest - love that website 

My table decor - I picked up a huge box of ornaments at Liquidation World for around $10!! I ended up using them in my table decor, decor for my mantle, and on my tree!

First Christmas tree in our house :) 

A look at the living room