three days to spare.

Well friends, I've finally uploaded some not-such-great-quality Christmas decor photos. I think a new camera is going on my birthday wish list, for.sure. I'm not head-over-heels for our decor this year, but I have seen so many photos from all of you lovely bloggers that I have fabulous ideas for next year! I know, I can't possibly be planning for next year already right? Oh, I am. :) Maybe Santa will have a 'special delivery' for us next year. ;)

Let's get right to it. Our tree, well, it's fake one this year. A battle I fought long and hard about with the hubby, and I finally lost gave in. It's a 9 foot beast that took me next to forever to "fluff", with very little help from the mister that wanted a fake one to begin with of course! (Aaarrrgghhhh) And it's adorned with mostly silver and red, with touches of turquoise and a few random sweet ornaments we've been given over the years. I like the way it matches the Christmas presents wrapped underneath...

Don't worry, I'll tuck those presents away before my niece shows up on Thursday since she has a better understanding of Santa and will expect it to be bare until Christmas morning of course!

A few of my favorite ornaments are from the year Jack was born.

This is of Pooh and Piglet overlooking a "Moses basket" with a new baby tucked snugly inside. It reads: "How delightful," said Pooh. "to be oh so brand new".

And this one of a baby bottle on ice in a champagne bucket. (Sorry it's blurry)

I'm very disappointed that we could not find a tree topper this year that we loved, so we don't have one. Maybe I'll stick a bow up there today but we wanted a glittered star. Or should I say, I wanted a glittered star. You see, Jack (the little guy) is obsessed with stars! I think it came from a little cartoon skit he liked which was all about the seaside and had starfish in it because he calls stars, "star-bish", which, as you can probably figure out, means starfish. Any star, any where, he spots it. He even calls the snowflake ornaments on our tree "star-bish" with such excitement. Had I thought about it sooner, our tree would simply be filled with silver ornaments and white starfish... there I go with ideas for next year already. I only hope we can keep this obsession of his going strong for another year because my gosh, it's cute!

The staircase has garland tied with red ribbons draped from it:

And since I draw so much inspiration from the lovely and talented Holly and her own holiday decor I just had to put this together:

I already had the jars and a few tapers. But after finding the glittered "Noel" and tall tapers for 60% off, I just had to grab them. Hubby likes the simplicity of it. I like that hubby likes it. Makes us both happy. :)

And as for my favorite of all things "Christmas" in our home right now:

I grabbed a grapevine wreath for about $3 and the white berry garland for $2 and am in complete love with our simple wreaths. Originally I only had one on our back door but having fallen so deeply in love with it, I removed our very busy wreath we had on the front door and replaced it with a matching white grapevine one. I might even leave these wreaths up through the winter season, not just until the holidays are over. Is that un-cool? Lol.

Next year, absolutely no red in the house. None. It's fine for this year, seeing as Christmas is 3 days away, but I'm over it. Looks lovely everywhere else I see it, but it doesn't feel quite "right" for us.

As for that adorable little elf perched up on the wreath. It was a gift from Jack's grandpa and "Bubba" as he calls her. My father-in-law sent it to Jack in the mail and although Travis nor I had ever even heard of it, it's one of the most fun things about the season this year. The idea behind it is, the elf returns every night from the North Pole to a new spot in our house to keep an eye on the child(ren) to report their behavior back to Santa. The child(ren) are encouraged to talk to the elf, send messages through the elf to Santa, but not to touch the elf, as he is not a toy. Although at just 2 years of age Jack hardly gets the full concept of it, it's absolutely precious to me to watch my hubby contemplate a new spot for the elf every night so that when Jack wakes up in the morning he can search for him. And, he does. It's so cute to see my little guy wake up and set out to find something that makes his face light up when he finds it. It's like Christmas morning every morning already!

I have tons to do still in preparation for Friday but I hope to finish a small project I've been working on so I can share it with you all tomorrow! I mean, you want to know that there are stocking in this home, right? ;)

See you tomorrow then!