Happy Sunday!
Now that Thanksgiving is done, it means my house is ready for Christmas. Pictured above is my living room (and I look at that photo and realize I should have done a little bit of tidying before snapping it but, well, whatever. The open cupboard is where we store our couch blankets and the kids are always in and out of it. Just cropped outside the bottom is a big pile of cars that the boys were playing with. It’s like I tell people who come over, come on in, make yourself comfortable, and please realize we live here, not a museum.)
We got home from lunch with my parents, sister, and in-laws on Thursday and the boys were begging to get the tree up. So we did. Then Friday, we spent the day decking the rest of the halls and the front lawn (which stays *just* this side of Clark Griswold). And now we relax in the happy glow of twinkling lights for the next five-ish weeks. I have to say I love having the decorations up. (I’ll also be pretty glad to take them down when all is said and done.)
I have friends whose parents decorate on Christmas Eve and take it all down on the 26th. That seems…sad to me. But I guess it works for them. If you decorate, when do you do it?
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Last Week:
Monday: Valerie Comer brought us an Interview with Cameron Kraus
Tuesday: Julie Arduini gave us a Book Review of Calming the Storm by Melanie Snitker
Wednesday: Ginger Solomon gave us Part 9 of her Love Is series
Thursday: We were closed to celebrate American Thanksgiving
Friday: Melanie Snitker talked about how Everyone Needs a Little Grace
Saturday: Kimberly Rose Johnson brought us A Christmas Surprise Excerpt and a Free Book
Coming up this week:
Monday: Brenda S Anderson
Tuesday: Lindi Peterson
Wednesday: Krista Phillips
Thursday: Staci Stallings
Friday: Annalisa Daughety
Saturday: Roxanne Rustand
New Releases:
November 2017
Rooted in Love (Garden Grown Romance 2) (Arcadia Valley Romance 11) by Valerie Comer
A Time to Love (Hope Series 2) by Staci Stallings
Love’s Choice (First Street Church Romances) by Liwen Y. Ho
December 2017
Texas Christmas Twins by Deb Kastner
Tropical Kiss and Tell by Liwen Y. Ho
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Elizabeth Maddrey is a semi-reformed computer geek and homeschooling mother of two who lives in the suburbs of Washington D.C. When she isn’t writing, Elizabeth is a voracious consumer of books. She loves to write about Christians who struggle through their lives, dealing with sin and receiving God’s grace on their way to their own romantic happily ever after.
Hi Elizabeth. Yay, Christmas is coming:) When we have Christmas at home, we decorate. The boys can put the tree up just after school finishes (2 more weeks for them), and it stays up until after New Year. Being Summer, having lights up outside seems a bit counter-intuitive as it does not get dark until late, but we will put up lights around the outline of the roof. Otherwise, if we are inter-state visiting family, we don’t decorate our house- we decorate the relatives house!! This year we are off to my in-laws, so will have fun putting up their tree etc. If we are camping, I even have little decorations to decorate the camper trailer, the boys enjoy that. And yes, more often than not, the boys cars end up mixed with the nativity set- cos who needs a donkey or camel when you could have a Hot Wheels!!
Blessings:)
Hi Elizabeth! Most years the Christmas tree goes up on St. Nicholas Day – December 6. Started decorating yesterday with the Christmas placemats are out and the Advent wreath and calendar. Christmas books are out for the granddaughters and the Christmas toys – Santa’s village. May only put up a table top tree since the 10 month old is into everything. The children nativity will be brought out after St. Nicholas Day. I decorate in stages – a little each weekend. The tree stays up into January – Three Kings Day. Best wishes.
We normally put up the tree on Thanksgiving Day but this year I didn’t. I will be putting it up today. My mom likes to put it away on New Year’s Day. I love when it is up. It changes the feel of the house.
I love that you decorate wherever you are! And also that I’m not the only one with hot wheels right alongside the manger :D
Hubby and I have been decorating since the day after Halloween. I love Christmas decorations. This year will be extra special as our first grand baby was born in June. :-) He loves to look at lights.
A little each day is a great way to do it without getting overwhelmed – sometimes I think we ought to do it that way, but then we all get into it and just want to get it all out :) I imagine the boys’ enthusiasm will want some as they get older, so I’m embracing it now.
A tabletop tree sounds wise with a 10 month old!
We generally put ours away right around New Year’s day, my eldest has an early January birthday and he likes it to be away for his day.
It definitely changes the feel of the house :)
Congratulations on the new grandbaby! I think my boys would like to start earlier, but I have a firm Thanksgiving rule :)
Since we bought a tree on the day our younger daughter was born, it became a tradition. She says it’s one of the favorite parts of her birthday to go and pick out a tree. We don’t decorate it until the next day or two. We don’t take it down until New Years Day, along with all the other decorations, which includes my Nativity sets that I have collected. I have an It’s A Wonderful Life village that I put up right after Thanksgiving, and it sometimes stays up through January.
How fun! That’s a great tradition. And I love that she loves it.
I’ve started collecting nativities. Not on purpose, really, but I love them so much. I actually have two I leave out all year.
I’ll clean the house from top to bottom after taking down fall decorations before I start for Christmas. My daughter and family just left this morning.
The cleaning before decorations is definitely needed. Gotta get that dust before you plop a tree on it :)
I don’t start decorating until after Thanksgiving. We have a neighborhood Christmas get-together at our house early in December, but there’s enough people who come that we wait to put up a tree until after that. We’re away from home until tomorrow, so once we get home, I need to get started with all the other decorations. With Thanksgiving so early, I’m wondering how dry those trees will be by Christmas Day for the people who cut them down yesterday!
The trees really do take up a lot of space.
We have a fake tree because of allergies, so it’s less of a problem with the space between Thanksgiving and Christmas for us, but definitely a concern for people who can have fresh trees!
Hi Elizabeth and happy SONday! What a pretty, twinkling lights scene! It puts me in the Christmas mood :-) Our tree usually goes up about two weeks before Christmas and comes down the day after New Years. We have a small 4 ft tall fiber optics one that we’ve had for years since we’ve always had limited space. Now that we bought a house 7 months ago, we have plenty of room and are thinking of buying a 6ft pre-lit tree (if they go on sale!). I have the perfect spot for it too :-)
Congrats to the winners this week! I so enjoyed the posts and look forward to another great week coming up…can you believe it’s almost December…yikes!
Thanks Trixi!
We got our tree on sale after Christmas, so if you don’t see them before, definitely keep an eye out after Christmas.
My decorating starts on Friday and this afternoon my family decorated our main tree. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get most of the rest of the decorations out this week. I keep all of the decorations up until after New Years but how long after varies from year to year.
Main tree — you have more than one? :) That’s a goal for soon, I think, more than one tree. Then we can have a mom’s ornaments tree and the mishmash tree.
We tend to be a bit late in getting our decorations up (haven’t started yet) but leave them up at least until after the new year.
I don’t think there’s a wrong way to do it, as long as you enjoy the process :)
Yes, one tree with the family ornaments and a smaller one for my own collection, which started in childhood and continues to grow.
As we usually have a real tree at home that doesn’t last long, we set it somewhere in the middle of December. My grandparents though would set it on Christmas Eve and make a surprise for their children, but they would take it out on January 6th.