Christmas Home Tour

Today I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner and The Nester on their Christmas home tour. This is my absolute FAVORITE time of year! I LOVE coming home to the lights and smells of Christmas! This month has been super busy so I'm so excited to have a few days off next week to just lay around and watch Christmas movies and bake goodies and ENJOY the season!

This year we decided to go with a pencil tree instead of our usual BIG tree and I'm so happy with our decision! With the pencil tree, we don't have to move furniture out of the living room so it is so much easier! This picture makes it look like I have thrown presents under the tree - I promise they are organized and attractive! ha!

I bought these stockings a few years ago and have debated on getting new ones but I'm just sticking with them for now.

The mantle - I want to get more apothecary jars because I think they look so good and are a cute and inexpensive way to decorate. The "Joy" sign is a picture frame I had at my house. I used scrapbook paper and did vinyl letters. I like how it turned out.

I did more in the kitchen than I usually do. This was a hutch until a few weeks ago when we decided to take the top part off and make it a buffet. It makes our kitchen seem so much bigger and I love it! I'm still trying to figure out how to decorate it. I'm hoping to find some decorations for it at some after Christmas sales!This is a Disney plate (you guys know we LOVE WDW) that we got for a few dollars a few years ago and I added vinyl to it. If you look very close you will see a certain mouse's head! :)

This is a ceramic tree from Rob's childhood. His mom always displayed it in their house and we got it after she died. It's such a neat tree and I love that it was something he remembers from being a kid!

This is a printable that I got from a GREAT BLOG here. I had it printed as a 16x20 at Costco for around $6 and bought the frame at Michael's with a 50% coupon and I LOVE how it turned out! I will blog about this project later!

When I got married I got quite a few Fitz and Floyd Woodland pieces and they are some of my favorite Christmas decorations!

Kitchen window
This year, I also added a small tree in the kitchen. I got these Williams-Sonoma chef snowmen ornaments as a gift a few years ago and found this cute tree to display them on. I think next year I will add a small strand of lights. You can never have too many Christmas lights...am I right? :)
I also added a table top tree in our bedroom! Since we went with a pencil tree as our main tree, I had a LOT of ornaments that weren't used and that wasn't an option! ha! So, on this tree I put all of our wedding ornaments, along with some from places we've been and some of the dogs' ornaments. I love waking up to this tree every morning - I can't say the same for the Hubs! ;)
In our guest bathroom, I added this cute little snowman towel and cute picture frame.

Christmas is, by far, my favorite time of year! I LOVE decorations and decorating my own house! I love seeing and visiting family that we don't normally see, all of the candies and cookies, the smells, the lights, driving around and looking at Christmas lights on houses, and everything else that comes with it. But I am most happy and thankful for the Son that God sent to the Earth for us!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

Merry Christmas Y'all!!! :)

Christmas Craft

I bought this cute, plastic platter at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago for $5! The outer rim was polka dots but the white middle part was plain and needed to be jazzed up a bit! Tonight I used the handy Cricut machine and "gussied" it up a bit! I'm going to put it on a plate stand in the kitchen! I love how it turned out! So fun!

Georgetown Cupcake

While in DC, we decided to head to Georgetown and try out Georgetown Cupcake. If you have watched the TLC show DC Cupcake then you know all about this cupcake shop. It is really a cute little shop but CRAZY busy!

These pics were with my phone so they aren't very high quality.

Inside the store

The daily menu...the cupcakes were $2.75 each which I didn't think was too pricey. Considering, GiGi's cupcakes are like $5 each, their price was a steal. And Georgetown Cupcakes were MUCH BETTER!!!

The packaging - how cute are these little boxes

I had the chocolate and vanilla cupcake (on the left) and Rob had the red velvet (on the right). They were DELICIOUS!!! Like I could see myself ordering them and having them shipped delicious! :)

US Capitol

We also toured the Capitol while we were in DC. If you've ever seen the Capitol, you know how beautiful it is. It's even prettier than I remember it being.

Inside the dome

Closeup of the Dome

Speaker of the House, John Boehner's office

Such a beautiful and historic building

Smithsonian - Air & Space Museum

The Air & Space Museum was also pretty interesting. This was my first visit here and I would have liked to have spent more time there.

Spirit of St. Louis

Lunar Landing Module

Rockets
Seats in an early commercial airplane....can you imagine? UGG!
Different planes...I really like how this museum is organized, even though it's an overload! :)

Smithsonian - Museum of Natural History

The Museum of Natural History has a lot of cool stuff in it but it was really crowded so we didn't get a lot of pictures. We did see the Hope Diamond but didn't fight the crowd for a pic.

This was probably the neatest thing to me. This is the actual capsule used in saving the Chilean miners. It is TINY!!! But I guess if you've been underground that long, you don't care how small the capsule is if it's going to save your life!

Smithsonian - American History Museum

The first Smithsonian museum that we did was the American History Museum. Of course, we were only in DC for a week and it would take WEEKS to do all of the Smithsonians but I would love to go back and hit a few more.

Many of the displays did not allow photography so there aren't many pictures. Of course, my favorite is the First Lady display with the Inaugural Ball gowns along with some of their personal items.

Julia Childs' kitchen

The original Washington Monument was a depiction of George Washington as a Greek God.

This is the actual lunch counter from the Greensboro Sit-In. In 1960, MANY African-Americans as well as some white students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University staged a protest at the lunch counter at a Woolworth's department store. I never knew the story of this sit-in (as I only know of the civil rights events that happened in Alabama from my high school Alabama History classes) so I read more on it here.

Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery is, in my opinion, one of the most touching places in the country. Every direction you look, you see rolling hills and rows of headstones of our service members. This was my second visit here with my first being in 1999. Though I did appreciate it then, it took my breath away this time. Not only am I years older, but my last visit was pre-911 and before our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Times were different then, as well as my wisdom. Arlington is a reminder of how blessed we are to live in this country where we are free! We need to be reminded that this freedom came with a high price and many, many men and women gave their lives for it!

The eternal flame for JFK. John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy are both buried here.

The changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is so touching. The precision and synchronization of their moves are nothing short of amazing! It is such a beautiful and touching event.

Washington DC - White House

We are back from our weeklong DC trip. It was a fun-filled, action packed week! This was my second time in DC but Rob and my brother's first trip. I don't think you ever have enough time in DC to enjoy everything that the city has to offer!

The only way that I know how to blog this trip and keep it from being one LONG post is to break it up into specific places that we saw. Blogging this trip could take a week or two so enjoy or come back in a few weeks and we will be on to something else! ha!

We were actually lucky enough to get into DC in time to take the White House Fall Garden Tour. On this tour, you can tour all of the White House grounds and see all of the beautiful fall plants and colors along with other notable White House notables.

The last time I was in DC we were unable to get close to the White House. We were all in absolute awe of the history and beauty of this national treasure.

View from the front of the White House looking toward the Washington Monument. This is the area where Marine One (the President's helicopter) lands when he returns from a trip.

The Rose Garden where the President gives many speeches. I will say that this area seems SOO much bigger on TV than it really is. I will be honest and say I was in complete awe of this area when I stopped to think about all of the speeches that have been given here.

The swing set that was put in for the Obama girls

View from further down the lawn

If you follow the current presidency you probably know that Michelle Obama is very passionate about healthy eating and active lifestyles. You may have seen articles or news pieces about her White House garden. It is one impressive and beautiful garden!

Such a beautiful scene

I took TONS of pics on this tour so this could go on forever but I still have LOTS of pics to share so I'll leave it with these. I will say that if you are ever in DC for the Fall Garden Tours weekend in October, you should definitely check it out! It is BEAUTIFUL!