My Christmas Home Tour
When I saw Boomama was doing a Christmas Tour of Homes and Thrifty Decor Chick was doing her O’ Christmas Tree Party, I thought it might be fun to participate.
So once you finish up here, don’t forget to stop by and see the other homes and trees on parade:
Let’s get started outside.
I took this picture last weekend when it was snowing. I hope you appreciate the fact that I stood outside in the freezing weather to get a more “seasonal” picture.
Brrr…it is cold. That’s enough of that. Let’s go inside to warm up.
As you come up to the front door (that really needs to be painted) Mr. Snowman welcomes you!
We decorate, but we keep things pretty simple. I can only take so much decking before I feel overwhelmed by the clutter and want to run from the house screaming.
Here’s the infamous over-priced Christmas tree (looking a bit droopy because I may have forgotten to water it–oops):
We let the kids put most of the ornaments up (because we are lazy) so most are low and there are a lot of clusters and gaps. Oh well, it really doesn’t matter. Christmas is supposed to be about the kids anyway, right? (i.e. We’re too lazy to fix it).
Our tree is a mix of ornaments that we’ve collected over the years. I thought I’d highlight a few of my favorites:
We bought this one when we were in Disney World last December. I’d love to be there right now (or anywhere warm really), but I’ll just settle for looking at Santa Mickey hanging on my tree.
While we are on the subject of Disney, here is the Tinkerbell ornament that we made a few years ago. It was a surprisingly easy craft project. We try to make a new ornament each year as a family and give some out as gifts:
Some other favorites include the ones my kids made for me in school:
And this this one made by one of my best friends:
I just love snowmen and I love that every time I pull it out I am reminded of our friendship.
Here is one of my favorite random ornaments:
This one cracks me up because we have an orange (boy) cat who is a cross-dresser. Yes, it is true. We often find him up in my daughter’s room with a feather boa wrapped around his body. Don’t believe me? Here’s the proof:
Alright, back to the tree.
When we decorated the tree this year, I was in a grouchy mood because my husband had done one too many things that day to annoy me so I put our “First Christmas” ornament all the way toward the back of the tree toward the bottom. I’m feeling a little guilty about that now, so I guess I should be nice and move it to a more prominent position on the tree:
Speaking of my husband, here is a little tea set that my aunt bought us that I’ve always loved putting out:
Yes, we are a “Brad and Jen” which of course used to be cool before stupid Angelina went and ruined everything.
Moving right along…here is where we keep our Christmas cards:
And last, but most definitely not least, here is our Nativity:
You may have noticed that there is no baby Jesus in the manger. We wait until Christmas morning to put him out. We’ve been doing this for a couple of years now and I think it is a really nice tradition. Now that the kids are old enough, we are planning to hide him the night before and have the kids pretend to be Wisemen and look all over the house for him. Not only does this reinforce the real meaning of Christmas, but it also gives us a little extra time to sleep in.
Now, I hope you’ll stay for a snack. I made a Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball especially for all my bloggy friends.
(That’s a lie-I made it for our neighborhood Christmas party last weekend and took a picture of it. Everyone seemed to like it, but really I have no idea if they were just saying it to be nice or if they actually thought it was good. I had way too much wine to know the difference. Either way, it was really easy to make so I thought I’d share the recipe.) Enjoy!
Click here for the recipe.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed the tour. If you like touring homes, make sure you swing by Boomama’s and Thrifty Decor Chick’s place.
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35 Responses to “My Christmas Home Tour”
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HA! I laughed out loud at the we are lazy comment, and then the cat with the boa! That ornament is PERFECT! Don’t you love when you find ornaments like that?
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Oh what FUN! Thanks for the tour, I enjoyed every second of it
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LOL about the First Christmas ornament. It’s the little things that help us get back at our husbands.
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Pretty tree and love the cat!!!
Merry Christmas!!
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Ack! Another snowy home picture! I am homesick! Your tree looks lovely! Thank you for sharing!
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Thanks for standing in the snow– it made for a beautiful pic! Love your ornaments and card holder– so cute!
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Oh man, you trumped my cheeseball recipe by putting chocolate in yours. No fair! ; )
Seriously, everything looks great! I really like the christmas card holder that you have and the cross dressing cat cracked me up!
We have the same tradition of leaving baby Jesus out of the manger until Christmas. Merry Christmas!
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Awwww…it looks lovely! I wish we had snow here :/
And I am definitely trying the recipe! Thanks Jenn!
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it looks very warm and friendly! I have a cat who gets in the middle of all my posts too!
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I love your simplicity (and awesome humor!). The nativity idea is a great one and one I am sure your kids will continue when they get older. Very nice! And thanks for the chocolate chip cheese snack, I hadn’t had breakfast yet.
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Darn that Angelina!
Everything looks beautiful! I love the idea of making an ornament as a family each year. And hiding Baby Jesus and adding him on Christmas morning — brilliant! I’m going to remove our Baby Jesus from the Nativity right now. Thanks for sharing!
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Love the Angelina comment, if you meet any ladies with that name, keep them far far away from the hubs
Love the photos, the one of the cat is too darn cute
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Love the pictures and I think you’re tree looks great. Thanks for sharing!
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Thanks for sharing! Looks great!
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It all looks great, I especially like the Christmas card holder. And appreciate that you stood in the cold to snap the snow picture
Thanks for sharing!
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That snowman from your BFF is my favorite…. Thanks for the tour it was lovely.
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THank you for the tour!
THat cheeseball looks yummy!
blessings
mary
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You cracked me up with the “first ornament” comment! I know what you mean about wanted to put the ornament in the back. I might have felt a little of that myself this year! Your home looks beautiful! Kids and animals really make it a home! Merry Christmas!
-Kim
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Love the snow in the outside picture… Love that tree…. and that damn Angelina, ruining your cute names and all! Love the cat!! Looks like my cat… but she’s a real girl cat!
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FUN, Jen! I love it
Brad and Jen – too freaking hilarious. I love the nativity scene, I adore the tree, and that cat is really adorable. And cuz I love teapots, I think that one is the bomb!!!
Chocolate chip cheese ball AND wine? Seriously, does it get any better than that? You just made my day!
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Aw, your house looks so festive! Thanks for the tour!
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First, I’m confused about the religious aspect of Christmas and would love it if someone could explain it to me. You’ll have to excuse my ignorance as I am not a religious person, but have been trying to be more open-minded lately and learn more about religions. A co-worker of mine, who is religious, told me Jesus wasn’t born on December 25 and he was born sometime in June (he told me the exact date, but I can’t remember it now). So, why do we learn that Jesus was “born” on December 25? I do remember that from the many times my parents forced me to go CCD class and mass on Sundays. I’m very confused.
Second, Jen, if you have so many wonderful traditions over the Christmas season, then I still don’t understand why you don’t like Christmas?!?! It sounds to me like there is something else going on, b/c of everything you’ve told us lately, I can’t imagine there is any reason not to enjoy the Christmas holiday. I think you need to focus on ALL the positives and not the negatives (which there doesn’t seem to be many!).
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oh my gosh your place is just so cute and christmassy, i absolutely love it. and love the santa card holder, so fun.
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That homewrecker Angelina! The chocolate chip cheesball looks delicious!
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ok, so what kind of tree is that? is it a frasier fir? my parents were always cheap and got whatever the cheapest one was and then our feet got stabbed by the needles. i ‘ve just recently been introduced to the frasier fir tree, a little more in price but it’s actually soft. i was at the tree store and was actually feeling up the tree, i was amazed by how soft they were.. ha ha
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Awwwww how sweet!
I love the outside of your home. It’s really pretty and festive.
We are only just now getting our tree up. Well, trying to anyhow. We’ve had some interesting ornaments show up on it. More on that over at my place.
Whilst I really don’t *gasp* like chocolate, that chocolate chip cheese ball sounds kinda good. *lol*
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Love your porch!!! Picturing it in warmer times.
Your house looks very festive. Thanks for sharing.
Merry Christmas
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that was great and I LOVE that dip- make it all the time- we refer to it as “crack dip” because it’s so addicting!
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HA! I love the lazy comments and then when you ended with the kids looking for baby Jesus “to give you extra time to sleep in” , I thought that was too funny! I can SO relate. Also, LOVE the cross-dressing cat.
Merry Christmas!
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Thanks for the great recipe….looks yummy! Great decorations!
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Thank you for the terrific idea of the kids being the wisemen searching for Baby Jesus. I think I’m gonna have to try that, my kids are gonna love it! Great ideas and a lovely home . . . Merry Christmas!
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Thanks for the tour! I’ve never heard of a chocolate chip cheese ball before – it sounds interesting!
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We have the same tradition with Baby Jesus!
That cheese ball sounds amazing. Have a wonderful Christmas holiday!
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I haven’t been here for a while….sorry, but I’ve missed reading your ‘creations’. Love the snowman ornament-I forgot about that one. I think of you when I hang the mitten. Hope you still have the other one. MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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So I’m lying here on my death-flu-bed and your blog has brought me back to life. I just read like 10 posts that I had missed. But my absolute favorite part?
Brad and Jen.
I can’t tell you how much I’m freaking out with excitment over that!!!!!!!!!!!
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