It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I'm hooking up with some of the blogs that I read for their Christmas tours so for any visitors, welcome!  I'm going to also try to hook up with instagram.  You can follow me here. 

It's my favorite time of year and I take a lot of pride in our decorations!  Every year I want to put up my décor super early but I normally wait until right after thanksgiving but it's hard.  This year with the late thanksgiving and busy month we have planned, I went ahead and did it before Thanksgiving.  I was "one of those" that people talk about being insane. As insane as it is/was, it's been super nice to enjoy this busy time without having that added responsibility.  Plus, I get to enjoy it for a week longer than I would.

Matt and I are fortunate that our family (Charlie's Aunt Knee-knee and Papa this year) to keep Charlie while we are pulling everything down from the attic and getting it all set in place.  He was very happy and surprised to come home to a Christmas tree.  I'm posting a picture of us looking at all the ornaments.  Disclaimer:  it's a long video and I'm the worst person to take videos.

 
We have 2 trees.  This is our "big tree" as Charlie calls it. 

This is our "little tree" which we carry down from the attic and plug in.  Easy enough!  It fits perfect in our family room. 

Here's a view of our breakfast nook area and Charlie's advent calendar.

Here's a view of our dining room:

 I have Christmas villages that are all pharmacies and this year, I got a new one from Matt for my birthday. I think I have officially hit the max that I can set out. 

I really didn't change too much different this year.  Last year and this year, the theme is toddler friendly.  Here's Charlie's corner (some of the "toys" belong to Matt)  :-)

These are my most recent updates which I love:

We don't have much outside in the way of decorations other than the candles in the window and our Christmas flag. If it were up to me, we would have a lot or at least one large tacky item but Matt doesn't seem so crazy about my ideas.  We did have a deer incident where one of them wouldn't light.  We worked with it but couldn't get it working.  We were tired at that point and pretty much needing to go get Charlie so without really thinking, we put it out at the trash.  That means we had a lone deer out.  It was working fine but now it only has 3 legs lit.  So, until I get time to work him the poor deer, he's out but not lighting up.

Our stockings (or "socks" according to Charlie) are hung by the Chimney with care...

Also, if you come by, you may or may not see our visitor. Santa sent us an elf on the shelf. 

Charlie got to name him and he named him "Bear". 

I'm taking pictures of Bear because every morning, after he has flown to back to the North Pole to report to Santa, he winds up in some silly places.  Santa said since Charlie is only 2, he has given Charlie permission to touch him  and given Bear some special medicine so he doesn't leave his magic.

My favorite decoration this year is this nativity set for Charlie.  Thanks Grammie!

I think that's the tour of our humble abode.    Merry Christmas!