Over Thanksgiving weekend, after the dishes are washed and put away, and after perhaps one day of rest, Christmas appears all over my house! While the turkey stock is simmering on the stove, I play carols, light the fire and begin decorating. This is totally my thing and hands down is my favorite time of the year. Let me take you room to room.

I decorated the mantles first and I'm so happy with both. The living room mantle has masses of tiny pine trees and lots of tiny, starry lights.

The family room mantle has more starry lights and two Santas from my mother's collection.

This year the kitchen got the rest of the Santa collection;  a few from my childhood home and a few from my husband's family.

The dining room has something new: four garlands of zinc leaves from Terrain  wound with more starry lights. The metal garland is gorgeous and was just what I needed to refresh my Christmas decorations.

The nativity is on a side board. I'm so happy my mom gave this to me as it holds special memories. I played with this for hours as a child.

I think I have banished my large artificial tree forever. It's still up in the attic waiting for the kids to take it one day. Last year I wanted a smaller tree and bought a 78" faux Ikea tree. I loved it and am using it again this year as it's so much more manageable for me to set up and decorate. It does not look real in the least, but it is very pretty with a nice open shape and pretty gray-green color, plus it's sturdy enough to hold my heavy ornaments. Another new addition this year was an update to my tired old Christmas tree lights. We replaced them with pretty incandescent lights from Target and I'm so happy with their white glow. (I used exactly half of what the box recommended for my size tree and it's plenty!) I have a large collection of glass ornaments and pulling them out is like saying hi to old friends. Years ago we invested in a rotating tree stand. It's simple to put up and the lights plug into the base. My husband set it up so I can flick a switch as I walk into the room and the tree lights up and rotates. It slowly revolves and is totally enchanting. I put my collection of painted wooden Wendt and Kuhn angel orchestra and villagers underneath.

The hallway that leads to our bedroom is a room in itself. There are two sets of window seats and at the end is a bank of drawers where I keep my shawls, ponchos and purses. I usually keep cookbooks and family pictures on the shelves, but at Christmas it gets a good thorough cleaning and is decorated with Christmas glitter. It's a private spot as only we use this hallway and it puts a smile on my face when I walk by.

Also retrieved from the attic is my son's old-school high-chair. Our new little guy is almost ready to sit in it. We put him in it on Thanksgiving but he almost fell out with no safety features built in! We'll have to wait until he's a little older. In the meantime it looks pretty in the kitchen housing an old German village.

Here's our little bear.

Isn't he the most darling thing? We're so looking forward to making Christmas memories with him!

The week after Christmas I have a special knack for overlooking the fact that my house looks like the bottom of a parrot cage.  The other 51 weeks I am a ruthless cleaner-upper of messes and devoted organizer.  But after Christmas, I just don't have the energy: people, I am pooped.  You are too, right?  Here at Casa Knitionary, activities are being kept to a minimum.  On Saturday I walked downtown in a half-hearted attempt to take advantage of the day-after sales and came home with nothing but a few packets of paper cocktail napkins for next year--it really was just an excuse for a walk in the fresh air.  On Sunday I went to the mall with my husband as he was determined to get some new duds.  Success!  After three pairs of pants and a sports coat he wanted to go out to lunch and I moaned, please don't make me eat again, take me home, my tummy needs to rest and anyway, we have those leftovers.  Back home I barely had the energy to click the needles together.  Haha, you know I'm kidding--I've been knitting like a maniac while binge watching Grand Hotel.  Can you believe my husband has never had the unique pleasure of binge watching?  After 6 episodes of diabolical intrigue, I informed him we had a mere 60 episodes to go!  You should have heard the groan!  

As for Christmas week--it was a great success with lovely visits with family and friends.  I'm happy to say that as a knitter, I received the best gift of all: my hand-knitted gifts were giant hits; my daughter loved her poncho, son his vest and granddaughter her hats, scarf and wrist-warmers.  Annie left with a new project on the needles; a hat for her best friend.  As for the kind of gifts you actually open on Christmas morn, I did manage to talk my lovelies into giving me yarny gifts even though they are worried I won't live long enough to knit my Christmas gift yarn, let alone the rest of my stash, and they haven't even seen the half of it.

Today:
I started this post and never got around to adding my pictures so I thought I'd add a postscript:  It's amazing what a few days of lazy will do.  I am a new person with energy to spare!  Yesterday morning I hopped out of bed and attacked the Christmas clutter.  It's mostly gone now, but I kept a little bit of the shiny and twinkly up, just for January.  My houseplants had been banished to a guest room and are now gathered together in a sunny kitchen window and look very happy.  My yarn is stored away for now--until the right project comes along. Here are some random shots of the past week.

Meet the choir girls, or the church ladies as we sometimes call ourselves.  My long-time girlfriends and I host a party every year after our last Christmas concert.  We met when we had toddlers, now we are grandmothers!

Annie came to visit.  Remember when she was teensy?  Now she is 15!

We stayed one night at the Fairmont, and my son upgraded us to a pretty nice suite!

Annie loved her fingerless mitts and hat.  More on that later.

There is a Christmas tree on top of that crane!

My son and his girlfriend.

With my husband at a Christmas party.  We didn't know there was a photographer station until we were heading out the door!

Here and below--my favorite kind of gift!

Here are pictures of my house decked out for a Christmas party.

First is the front hall and next is the entry.

Next is the living room and dining room where we have the tree, candles and tiny white lights, the knitted tiny tree garland, mercury glass filled with our very early blooming camellias and paperwhites, my family nativity I played with as a child,  and the Wendt and Kuhn angel orchestra.

On to the little tree in my son's former bedroom, now my "sewing lounge", lol, hung with ornaments I've made over the years.  My husband really fought with me over this tree as he just absolutely did not want two trees.  I'm so glad I persevered as I have enjoyed this little tree so much!

 The guest bath below.

 More Wendt and Kuhn figures with tiny vintage glitter houses in our bedroom.

I put a little bit of Christmas in almost every room as I like to go a little over the top when I know we will be hosting parties.  Two weeks ago I had a Christmas tea for all the women, young and old, from our church.  It turned out to be the day we had the rain storm of the decade--a huge drought busting gully-washer if there ever was one but that didn't stop anyone from coming!

This weekend we had such a fun party.  We invited my husband's golf buddies and their wives over for a chili party.  We had 26 people and set up an open help-yourself bar with a few appetizers passed around to start.  I hire a woman who has helped me dozens of times and knows my house and my style.  She'll assemble and pass appetizers, refill wine glasses, scoop up dirty dishes and generally keep things tidy.  She is a treasure.  If you've never used a party helper before, I highly recommend that little treat to yourself. 

We set out two home-made chilies in the kitchen, one chicken and the other the more traditional beef (plus all the fixins like chopped onion, grated cheese, etc.), plus a spicyish cornbread then asked our guests to serve themselves.  With a mug of chili in one hand and a drink in the other, guests were able to find a place to perch and eat.  This means every seat in the house is taken and the house is crowded, but I think a crowded party is fun!  The only picture I managed was this platter of cookies!

I wish you a Merry Christmas with all my heart.
xoxo, Kristen