Christmas Decor at Brown Wren Acres - 2013

 I'm so glad that red is my favorite color - and that shades of green can be found all around my house.  Why?  Because for the first few weeks of December, that was all that decorated my house.  Touches of red and green with one half-lit Christmas tree standing halfway between the family room and the dining room.  

It's been such a crazy busy summer, fall, and now winter that I barely had time to clean my house let alone decorate for Christmas.  And decorating for Christmas is something I love to do.  I managed to find about 20 minutes a day for a whole week and finally got some decorations set out around the house.  

Like I said before, the red and green colors I already had in our home really came in handy - all I had to do was add to it.  

Ready for a tour before I have to take everything down this weekend?

Here is the front porch.  My son found the old firetruck and refurbished it.  It is perfect to hold some greenery and a package.  

The foyer china hutch is the perfect place to hold my collection of snow globes.  You can see a glimpse of the card holder in the hallway.

 An antique mirror helps to reflect light in the dark hallway.

 The card holder is really fun.  The wire spirals don't hold the cards very well, so I use miniature clothespins to secure the cards to the wire.

 I always hang our stockings on the railing because we use our fireplace a lot and it's too much of a pain to have to remove the stockings every time we light a fire.  

 A just added a little touch of sparkle with glittered starfish ornaments in the powder room.

Our fireplace is difficult to decorate because the mantle is really high and the ceiling is low.  I just used some garland and metal stars.  I added some battery operated lights that I got at Costco but they don't work very well - bummer.

I had to doctor up our "pre-lit" tree since half of it decided to give up the ghost.   I love the size and texture of this tree, so I guess I'm stuck with putting lights on it like we used to.   It's not that big of a tree, so I don't think it will be too much of a problem.  

I use each of my children's baby shoes as ornaments on the tree.  I wrote their names and birthdates on the sole of the shoes.  Sweet memories!

I love the shelves that Hubs made for me last Christmas from old barn wood.  I also set out our grandchildren's nativity set on a tray on the coffee table.  Sometimes there are also green army men, matchbox cars, or a pink binky nestled in with Baby Jesus.

Some simple greenery picks and berry picks soften the rustic shelves and I wrote "Joy to the World" on my grandpa's old slate from grade school.  

Hubs found this old vintage tractor in a barn at an estate sale.  I found a small tree at Michael's to stand next to it.  Hubs is slightly obsessed with Farmall tractors right now and so this is a nod to his interest in them.

The dining room table is our only table to eat at, so the decor must be easy to remove.  A few lanterns and a small bird keep it interesting.

I added an old metal truck and some bottle brush trees (from our train set) to a small greenhouse and then sprinkled Epsom salt in for snow.

A little snowy scene.  This might be all of the snow we see this winter!

I had a fun time decorating my new kitchen (just finished this past May).  I mainly added some wreaths to the window, my Coca-Cola crate, and a Christmas plate.  The green stool and red dish cloths were already in the kitchen.  

A small pitcher and plate with pine cones was added to the glass cabinet .  

A star bowl holds candy and Hub's Nana's corn pudding mold holds mixed nuts with a nutcracker.

I guess you could say that I have a collection of angels since I have 3 now.  Two came from students and the one with a gardening shovel came from my dear mother-in-law.

My kidney donor surprised me with a "sisters" figurine this year.  We call each other "kidney sisters" because a part of her is now a part of me and we are also sisters in Christ.   I am so, so blessed.

I put this little vignette in the kitchen window every Christmas.  Hubs gave me the wheelbarrow ornament and I made the greenhouse out of another ornament, a milk glass urn, and a glass coaster.  I made the nest in the ornament from twine and buttons.

When the sun starts to go down, and the chickens are heading into the hen house, there's nothing like coming back into the house with all of the lights are on and enjoying the warmth of home and family.

May you and your family have a blessed Christmas and a happy and healthy 2014.