Whoa there, 2013! I hope you guys had a great holiday week! Because we were so chaotic just trying to get ready for Christmas, I majorly failed at posting anything Christmas related. But it’s only January 2nd, right? Better late than never?? Maybe?

Since I changed up our Christmas decor this year, I couldn’t just skip over it like it didn’t happen. I planned to start decorating early (and did). I also planned to do a less is more approach (which I did). Even with all of that, I still didn’t do everything I wanted to. But that’s okay, no one noticed that I never DIYed that new wreath for the front door.

Anyway, I started by wanting some felted wool garland and at first I was going to make it. After a day I realized I was insane and I would just buy some felted balls and string them myself. After another day I realized that was also a bad idea with all I had on my plate so I just bought some. I had a Land of Nod gift card from last Christmas (I’m a serious gift card hoarder), plus I caught a sale and got free shipping. In the end I ordered 3 strands of goody gumball garland in red, green and white for about $20. I originally wanted to do a mix of fun colors for Easton’s first Christmas, but then I changed my mind and went traditional.

I first hung a strand on the mantel (right after Thanksgiving, this decorating thing literally took me a month to nail down), then everything just kind of evolved.

The second strand of garland went on the entertainment center, after realizing that I didn’t have enough to decorate the tree. I put my white spray painted deer bookends up here and planned to add some ribbon or something to make them more festive, but never got around to it.

I bought some red pillows at Target to stick on the couch. They ended up being one of my favorite parts.

The red stockings are new this year and from Target. I replaced Easton’s newborn pictures with some Christmas pictures we took for our Christmas card. I already told you guys about the chalkboard that’s on the mantel.

The two small trees are from Target about 2 years ago and the large tree on the floor I got from West Elm last year on super clearance (I think it was $7).

My other favorite part this year is our stockings. I was going to make some chalkboard tags or something until I found these pins at Target.

Mike and I had stocking pins since our first stockings and I just love them. They’re so clean and minimalist, thankfully we all have different first initials. Oh and the “M” and “D” are mommy and daddy, that one confused a lot of friends and family.

Since I didn’t buy these ones the week after Christmas when I usually buy my new decorations, I didn’t have to buy a “W’ and flip it upside down to make a “M” like I did last time 🙂

If the memory card our Christmas pictures are sitting on will cooperate, I can show you the outtakes and behind the scenes shots from our Christmas card. We took some of the additional shots we loved and placed them in the frames that were holding some of Easton’s newborn pics.

One of my ideas I never got around to was to cover these mats with wrapping paper to add some more color to the mantel. In the end I think I like them without it.

I also updated our chalkboard for Christmas Eve (which we hosted). I seriously love this thing. It takes me 10 minutes each time and it’s so much fun for me.

The tree this year was something I was just winging, but I love how the color scheme worked out.

I used the dark blue/gray ornaments from about 5 years ago only because I wanted to use our old tree topper and skirt. I’m usually not one to change up Christmas decorations too much since you use them for only a few weeks a year. I mostly repeat color schemes and just move things around. Last year I used a combo of the dark blue/gray, green, silver and aqua, which I loved. After Christmas last year, I picked up the red snowflake ornaments, which were 25 cents for 4. They jump started this whole red revolution (redvolution? too far?).

Since the playroom is in the entryway and it is now the room we spend the most time in, I decided to take the last strand of garland and hang it over the door. I loved it right away.

Easton had a great first Christmas and I’ll have to share some of his pictures in another post. He was a pro at opening gifts after 3 days of celebrations.

I hope you all had a great last week of December, full of naps and good food!

ps- Dear god why am I up past midnight??

Do you know how many times per day I nearly write 2012? Everything I’ve been doing lately at work or thanks to baby has involved 2012, so my mind already thinks it’s here. But anyway, Mike and I finally got around to putting up our tree on Saturday. And that’s as far as we got with decorating.

We kept it simple and used the same teal/green/silver/gray-blue color scheme as last year. Next year I want to change it up a bit, but since I had a couple of final papers to write this weekend, simple was key.

I even still wrapped the banister in the same ribbon that I used last year. I’ve always wanted some lighted garland to hang and I considered buying some this year, but yeah, it was December 18th and I was trying to get a tree up. Once again, simple was key this year.

But! You may notice that I changed up the tree skirt this year!

It’s just 2 yards of fabric that I picked up at Joann wrapped around the tree stand. I was never a fan of our previous skirt, which was a blue velvety thing with some embroidered snowflakes on it. I bought it when we lived in our condo because it was the only blue or silver skirt I could find. The problem was that it was dry clean only and attracted some serious cat hair. Considering that Darwin loves sleeping under the tree, it never looked good. So i decided to look for some cotton fabric that would be easy to wash and would have a little more style. I might eventually sew the ends or make it a tree skirt, but for now it works perfectly fine.

Our tree got wet during Hurricane Irene and we were so relieved when it actually worked. Considering we just bought this 9 foot guy last year, I would have been seriously annoyed if we only got one year out of the first artificial tree we’ve ever had.

I guess the pictures kind of speak for themselves at this point, so here’s a bunch. Ps- Bonus points for the person who notices Macky’s butt….

Last year I had done some serious crafting and shopping for Christmas accessories by this point. This year is all about survival. I’m taking the day off from work on Wednesday and will hopefully finish decorating then. Our outside is not decorated, nor is the mantel… or dining room. I’m going for a minimalist look this year, even if its unintentional 🙂

ps- I just turned in my final graduate school paper ever! Now I just need to make it through class tomorrow night and I’m done!! 😀