Decorating for Christmas! (the tree! the lights! the sparkle!)

Friends, we decorated "early" this year and I only let it slip a tiny bit on IG.  People really get their feathers ruffled over early decorating.  With all the sadness that's in the news, I find it one of the silliest things ever (in the history of ever) to fuss about who decorates when.  My grandparents leave their Santa Clauses up in their living room year-round and I love it.  But I figured with Thanksgiving over I could finally come clean and confess we decorated for Christmas a whole week BEFORE Thanksgiving even arrived.  Shocking!  I can hear the gasping from the crowd even as I type that very sentence. :) 

In all seriousness, we found ourselves on a rainy Saturday evening wanting to stir up some fun.  I convinced Brett to get the tree down from the attic, even saying "You can watch football after even! Just please get it down?"  Of course, sweet husband he is, he would have gotten it down anyway without the thrown in football bribery.  I put the tree up (it's artificial) and strung lights on it as quickly as I could because the girls were hopping with excitement, eager to get their hands on the boxes of ornaments.

We don't have fancy ornaments or a themed tree.  We don't usually buy new ornaments.  My goal for the tree was to delight the girls to no end with it.  To let them decorate it, let them feel each ornament and enjoy the process and the tree the whole season long.  So, if you're looking for a perfectly styled tree, this isn't it! 

See how much fun decorating the tree can be?! 

I truly did enjoy this time with my girls.  It was one of my top favorite tree-decorating memories yet…right up there with my memories of decorating the tree as a child.  We always turned Christmas music on, had hot cocoa, and spent time together as a family. 

Since the tree has been decorated it's been "redecorated" by my two stylists more times than I can count.  And at our house, with ages two and three, that's ok with me. 

I threw this little mantle together that evening…and loved it. 

(is that bad to say?  I hope not.  I think everyone should love their home!)

A cozy, warm evening at home….

Here's a sunny peek during the day! I was going to wait 'till the house was perfectly cleaned to take these pictures and then in the next second realized how utterly ridiculous that is and totally not the point of my blog at all.  So what you can't see here is how dirty the house is. :) 

 This mantle is homemade and thrifted….as usual.   I made the paper trees, the painted paper decorations on the tailgate, and the branch tree!

This little tree was so much fun to make! It's simply branches attached with fabric and string and ribbon and all the good stuff.  Anthropologie has a lot of branch type decor this year for like close to $100.  I'm thinking the free branches from my yard sound a lot nicer. 

The other spot I restyled for winter is this one.  I suppose looking at this picture I seem to have hearts already prepared for Valentine's Day as well… Those are actually our thank-you hearts.  I'll write about them soon, for now we're just now putting them into action.  

I plan to string some lights on the front porch and maybe decorate another area or two in the house.  As always, I like to decorate in a kid-friendly and budget-friendly way.  And time friendly! If you're a mama, you know how most of our days are spent on simply keeping things running: laundry, dishes, cooking three meals a day, teaching kiddos, etc….

but I also love a pretty house.  I hope to show there is a way to have both! :) 

I'll leave you with a favorite….a huge, make tears fill my eyes, favorite.