I'll Be Home for Christmas

Henderson and I will be spending Christmas day in Texas, just the two of us.  As hard as it is to be away from family during a special time, we're excited about our first Christmas together!  His parents and sister are coming a couple days after Christmas and staying for several days, and I'm going to Mississippi right before Christmas to hang out with my family.

Since we have family coming in, we did do some decorating.  But because it's our first Christmas and we had to start from scratch, we tried not to go completely overboard (as in spend a ton of money.  I'd rather spend it on presents!)

Here's a few things we've done so far.  I still have to get a few items from my mom and grandmother when I go home, and our mantle isn't installed yet (don't worry, I'll have those pictures plastered over every social media site available!) so no stockings hung by the fire.

After lighting the tree, Henderson topped the tree with our new angel topper.  I got her at Belk for $10! Score!  She's not lit, so we had to make sure we had enough lights at the top of the tree.

All of our wedding ornaments, clockwise from top left: cowbell from the wedding, wedding cake ornament from Mrs. Annette, ornament from Kathy Bailey, our invitation made by Aubrey and Mary Beth Caldwell.

All done and lit!  I wish it had twice the amount of lights, but it was a hassle lighting a real Christmas tree for the first time.  Maybe next year I'll have the hang of it!  

These are the dogs stockings I ordered from Etsy.  I'm in absolute love with them!  I ended up buying Henderson and my stockings from Belk for $7.50.  Ran out of time and everything I liked was ridiculously expensive.  

Here's my china cabinet filled with my Lenox Holiday China and my AnnieGlass pieces.  The garland will be used on the mantle.

Here is Henderson being all Clark Griswold hanging the lights on the outside of the house.  Love him!

We bought this live wreath on our expedition to Canton to hang over our mantle.  Unfortunately, since we haven't had a mantle, we didn't even think about this 4 foot monstrosity being a little large.  So, I found 900 feet of this Stewart plaid ribbon (it's all over our house now) and we hung it on the front of the house.  

Here it is in the light of day.

I bought this beautiful burlap ribbon wreath to go on the front door, but I decided I liked it better on our fireplace.  So, I ran to Lowe's, found this wreath, and added some ribbon.  

I wanted to do small lit trees on either side of the door, but since I already had these two items inside, I just used them.  I got the gold, lit branches from Bed, Bath & Beyond.  All the other filler came from Hobby Lobby.  Henderson's mom bought me one of the metal vases for my birthday.  They go perfectly with our red door!

Here it is in the dark.  

Love, love!  The spotlight automatically turns off at dawn and comes on at dusk, so every night I get to come home to it already on.  The flash on my iPhone isn't great, but you get the idea.

I can't wait to get the rest of the decorations and celebrate our first Christmas together!  

Saturdate - Canton, Texas

Last Saturday, Henderson and I woke up bright and early and headed to Canton, Texas, for their monthly First Monday Trade Days.

Henderson rented a cart and then proceeded to carry it all day long.  I wish I would've gotten a picture with it loaded down!  We couldn't even grab the handle at the end of the day!

This is our brand spanking new cedar mantle!  We are getting it installed in the next couple of weeks.  Henderson told the contractor that it had to be up before Christmas or I wouldn't have anywhere to put our stockings!  :) 

After looking at junk the trade days for 3.5 hours, we decided we had seen everything and went tree hunting!  This is my first year to have a real tree; Henderson's family always had a real tree and we decided to continue this tradition.  It was sooo much fun to go.  We went to a Christmas tree farm in Canton; not only did they have trees, they had live garland and wreaths as well!

We found her!!  She's 8 feet tall and about 4 feet wide at the base.  We are in love...

I had to get a picture with Henderson's truck loaded down.  I wish I had taken a picture of his back seat; it was full of wreaths, garland, and lots and lots of items from the trade days.

We had such a great day.  I'm hoping this will become an annual tradition.  I love going and exploring Texas with my favorite person.  And, if we get to come home with lots of goodies, that makes it even better!