My Christmas Crayons

 We're all busy coloring our house with Christmas and I'm no exception.  We put up six trees; five artificial and one live.  I'm only showing three today as the other three are in each of the kids' rooms and they are not fit for public viewing.  First up, the "Fir in the Foyer."  I only wish pictures could capture the beauty of these trees.  Maybe it's the photographer, but they just look so much more lovely and sparkly in person.  I decorate this tree with prisms and ornaments made from crystal, glass, silver colors, and gold colors so they are all sparkly and refract the lights. 

Many of the ornaments on this tree were selected for their iridescence or brilliance, but several have special meaning, including the little couple in the gift box just below.  It is a "First Christmas Together" ornament by Enesco Precious Moments given to us by my mother the first year we celebrated Christmas as a married couple in 1987. It's "precious."  Our family room tree coming up below has all the other "precious" ornaments.

I  love these sparkly white swans - - a mama and her three babes - - just like in our house.  I couldn't find their Daddy, unfortunately.  Usually one of our kitties is sleeping under the tree, filling in for the missing Daddy.  Things are a bit more rosy for my three babes.  The kitties don't have to step up.

I recently painted the formal living room and dining room a grayish/silver color (metamorphosis post here) and am loving the lighter, more sophisticated look of the rooms.  I'm able to pair the new color with purple this Christmas season, a seldom used color from my crayon box. 

The dining room

I am enjoying the new bright color on the walls in these two rooms with the purple as the accent.

I have some work to do in this hutch.  Since I only recently painted, I'm still enjoying the Blue Willow against the new back drop and have been procrastinating about changing it out for the Spode Christmas Tree china.  But, I'll do that soon as I really enjoy seeing and using those dishes too, and having the opportunity one month a year isn't quite enough.

Gold and silver balls in different sizes add a simple touch above the windows in the kitchen.

I'm not thrilled with the way the sideboard in the kitchen turned out, but I needed a place for the nativity.  I have to work on this space so that it makes more of a statement. Then I need to take a better picture. I just read a post at Centsational Girl about photography basics for bloggers. For any of you who are new/inexperienced like me at taking pics for a blog, I urge you to spend a few minutes reading it here.

This more traditionally decorated live tree in the family room.  This is my favorite tree as it has all the ornaments we've collected over the years either as gifts from people who mean so much to us, some from places we've traveled, some made by sweet chubby little fingers when the kids were small, and the list goes on.  Every ornament has a special meaning.  There is the angel I found when shopping at antique stores with my daughter, the ornament that matches my blue willow my Mom gave me from her trip to George Washington's estate at Mt. Vernon, ornaments from my Grandmother's estate, and many many others with unique, special meaning.  I know that all of you have the same ornaments.

The mantel in the family room has my collection of Santas.

And that it is for now.  I'll be back with the nutcracker collection, a Spode Christmas Tree tablescape and, hopefully, an enhanced nativity display.

Merry Christmas.