Merry Christmas 2013

I have not posted in a really long time but I really wanted to post pictures from our first Christmas as The Graves Family. We had a great time decorating our house for our first Married, Merry Christmas!

I was able to talk Chad into a fake Christmas tree. I know that seems terrible, but when it came time to take “Gloria” (our tree) down we were very happy with our decision on a fake tree. Yes, I named our tree. I tend to name almost everything. Gloria wore burlap ribbon and silver, white, and gold ornaments.

Two of my favorite new ornaments for our tree were two newlywed ornaments we received. One was from Chad’s Aunt Sharon with penguins. The other was a clear glass ball with shreds from our Wedding Program. 

Since we live in a planned community/neighborhood, everyone has one tree and they all look identical. We all put white lights on our trees. This was extremely neat for me because I grew up in a neighborhood that had a white light tree in each front yard. Chad put the lights in our tree on one of the coldest days in December. I learned not to walk outside and say, “You missed a spot”.

 

 
We used some of our leftover wedding credit to buy two pre-lit trees for either side of our front door and used some of my mom and dad’s old wreaths on our windows. SIDE NOTE: suction cup wreath hangs work and the sticky tape ones DO NOT (especially in the humid state of Alabama).

I still LOVE our stone fireplace. We asked for two old Coca-Cola boxes from Chad’s mom when she moved and filled those with firewood and Christmas lights. We put two silver angels on the mantel and added an old window with a wreath (thank you Pinterest).  

Another idea I pinned on Pinterest and used was the idea to hang our Christmas Cards on our kitchen cabinets. I used the same burlap ribbon from the tree and the old window. We are keeping or cards up through the end of January. I wanted to appreciate them a little bit longer.  

We used one of our wedding pictures for our Christmas Card.
 

We enjoyed decorating our house and can’t wait to put our decorations back up in 10 ½ months!