Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Kris's Christmas Home Tour

I have a friend.  I love her dearly.  She has always been close to the heart of Christmas. For years Kris and her mom hosted a huge annual Christmas party/cookie swap for lots and lots of ladies. They baked and gifted and decorated.  They watched the Christmas classics together.

This has been a very difficult year for Kris, as it's her first Christmas without her mom directly by her side. And yet she bakes, gifts, and decorates.  Seeing her posts on fb, especially those honoring her and her mother's Christmas traditions has been meaningful for me. And so I've asked Kris if she'd open her home for all of us here at storybook-cottage, and share a little bit of what she's been doing this Christmas.  I was thrilled when she agreed.  Thank you Kris.

Now here for your Christmas pleasure is Kris's Christmas Home Tour...


I LOVE Christmas, and I love my home........and what we have made it. So, I was so honored when Linnet asked me to do a Christmas Tour of our home.

Christmas is definitely my favorite time of the year (I know, it is for SO many others as well). The lights, the decorations, the smells of all the goodies being baked, getting together with family, the excitement of buying a gift for someone special, the traditions we make with our families, the traditions we bring forth each year that were made from so many years in the past. We love retelling stories to our kids (who are adults now) about Christmas' past, and how much fun we had.  I would leave my decorations up year round if I could. I love the glow from the lights on our tree, and the all around cheeriness that is in each room of the house. But, I also enjoy that feeling of opening each box of decorations and the excitement of placing the decorations that I have collected, or that have been passed down to me, over the years.
Its been a hard year, we lost my mom this past June. So, even though each day of the Christmas season has its excitement, it also has its difficulties. But, my mom........now THAT was a woman who LOVED Christmas (I swear her middle name was "Elf").  Family, decorating, baking, get togethers and our annual Cookie Swap (21 years this past weekend). And as her "well trained in Christmas etiquette" daughter, its now my turn to carry on those same cherished and much loved traditions.

Before I could even think of decorating this year, we had to finish some renovating. It seems our home is in a constant state of renovation (or so my husband seems to think). We are currently working on our room and have just recently finished the bathroom. I like to decorate on "the cheap", or as cheaply as I can, and still make it look great! I am a re-user, re-purposer and try to think of ways to use an item that you wouldnt think would work for what I want it to. 

But, many of the items in our home are handmade. The Kitchen island, the Bathroom vanity, the Kitchen Fireplace/Shelving wall. I've salvaged glass panels from a local hotel that was torn down, the oak newel post and railing for our stairs, from an old furniture store that was demolished, and a barnwood wall for our Bedroom from a barn that belonged to a man my husband works with. Its fun taking something and making it into something else all together.
I also made several of my Christmas decorations this year, including a Coffee Filter Wreath (Im addicted to Pinterest, I confess), made from a wire wreath form, natural coffee filters and safety pins (Yes, I said safety pins........I am also addicted to Shortcuts that make my life easier!), a gingerbread garland made from brown felt, rick-rack and twine........and TONS of word garlands, cut from red construction paper.
The word garlands, I strung around the house and even did a series of smaller ones dedicated to my favorite movie "It's a Wonderful Life", and put them on our Living Room Christmas tree.

The Kitchen tree was decorated in Mom's memory. She loved the Cookie Swap, so it has cookie cutters, and words spelling out things such as........Sugar, Vanilla, Flour, Milk, Eggs........all those things you need to make yummy Cookies.
She was also a collector of Antique buttons and quilts, so I did a button garland and a word garland (Buttons), on the stairs, above the Antique quilt stockings she made years ago.

I like that I can look around and see some of her favorite things and know that she is here with us, and that she is enjoying Christmas with us, just as she always did.
I love our home at Christmas (and mostly through the rest of the year......once I can get past the renovations that constantly uproot my insane need to organize and have everything in its own place. Thats not OCD right??). Christmas music, memories of Christmas' past, those special things we do for family, even for the occasional stranger. The nativity and sharing the REAL reason for this season. The plays, the parades, the lights, the parties, the feeling that at just that one moment, everything is right with the world. The love of family and the teaching of traditions to our next generation. All those things that make Christmas special. 

So, that's (most) of my home. 
I hope I didn't ramble too much and that you enjoyed the stroll through our Christmas home, in pictures! I pray ya'll have a very Merry Christmas!



Thanks Linnet for letting me ramble and reminisce.
Kris

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