'Tis the Season!

It's here! The time of year I used to dread!  All the shopping, making, and planning for Christmas drove me nuts for years! I finally figured out that I was making the holidays a terrible time of year for myself and there was no one but me to blame(okay, maybe the merchants and media had a little something to do with it too). I love celebrating with my family so why do I dread this time of year? It hit me like a stack of hundred dollar bills falling off the table...it's the stress I have put on myself to get EVERYTHING done perfect. 

So I made a promise that I wouldn't make myself crazy anymore and that I was going to be realistic and reasonable with my plans for the holidays. I am going to enjoy them! Don't get me wrong, I still have days I'm overwhelmed and get cranky, but I've gotten better at being realistic about what I can actually get done and planning for help or changing my plans to keep me from GRINCHING out during this festive season!

Over the Thanksgiving weekend we put up our tree and decorated the hutch and foyer. Take a peek at what we pulled together! Chelsey is great at finding ideas(thanx Pinterest!) and making them work with what we have. Thank you Chelsey it was fun putting it all together!! Thanx Drew for driving us to Home Depot, Michael's and Staples for all our spur of the moment excursions!

We constructed the book page wings with sheet music, using foam core board as the base. 

The dining room is much less fussy than it's been.

There are a few more little vignettes throughout the house, but I've scaled back on decorating a lot. Mainly because I hate putting it all away after Christmas...I can leave most of the decor up throughout the winter, the Noel frame says Peace on the back, so I'll just turn that around! I am going to use the time saved to make gifts for friends and family. And those wings...I love them, they could stay up forever!!

How's your decorating going?

Go make something!

Nini~