a few christmas touches

Now I realize if you are reading this, you have NO idea what my Christmas tree has looked like for the past 6 years. Unless you are my family. Or close friend. And I'm pretty sure none of the above mentioned are reading my blog.

Anyway. This year, the family and I moved from the country to the city. We sold our house that we built and are now renting a cool, older home smack dab in the middle of town. It took some adjustment, but we are loving it.

In previous years, we have had this big 'ol Christmas tree. I really love going all out with Chirstmas decorations. I'm quite certain I get it from my mother who decorates for each and every holiday. Even St. Patricks day. Well, this year, our house is smaller. I didn't want our Christmas tree taking up our whole living room. So we purchased a small little tree to go in the corner. I am so in love with our tree this year. Most all of our older ornaments are still packaged away. We only put our most meaningful ones on the tree and then added some I made this year. And now I feel like each thing on our tree has a story.  I moved from a complete "rustic" Christmas look to a more updated, fun look. I have been super pleased with it!

I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture, but that little tiny footprint ornament might be my all time favorite. I'm sure you can guess why!

I found this old window frame in a friends pile of stuff to go to a yard sale. She gave it to me and I added it behind our tree to spice up that bare wall.

And, as you could probably guess about me, I LOVE to wrap presents. I like simple. Brown craft paper is my all time favorite. But this year, I found the cutest idea from the martha stewart website. The use of initials as a package topper. So, I'm trying it out this year.

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is celebrating advent. The whole season leading up to Christ's birth. One of my very best friends gave us Jesse tree ornaments and a daily devotional book last year for Christmas. We love reading through the history of the old testament and how everything points to Christ. Here is our advent branch.

And last, a few shots of the mantle. I have been way into framing different verses and phrases lately. I just love seeing scripture in my house mostly. This verse was our church's main theme last Christmas.

And everybody loves something glass filled with ornaments right?

I really love the way our small house looks in the evening with all our lights on. It's so peaceful. And it keeps in the forefront of our minds the reason we even celebrate this wonderful time of year. The celebration of the incarnation of a holy God, sent to save sinners like me. This is worth celebrating.