Why bother unpacking when you can decorate for Christmas, instead!?

We are slowly but surely continuing to unpack the new house.  Unpacking is not that much fun.  So we took a break and busted out the Christmas decorations instead.  Here's a little glimpse of Christmas at the Schween's this year.  With all the money there is to be spent on things for a new house (who knew door knobs cost so much!?!), we didn't want to spend much extra money on new decorations this December.  We used what we had from our last house, and supplemented with a few new purchases, as cheaply as possible (think, split peas from the bulk section at the grocery store...).  Next year?  Outside lights!!!  I had to let that go this year with everything we have going on, but next year...watch out.

 

 

Can I just say that having banisters is AWESOME....until you realized how long it takes to hang, shape, and fluff garland!  81 feet of artificial greenery later, my hands and arms looked like I lost a fight with a cat.  Wounds aside, one of the first things I thought of when we looked at his house was how fun it would be to have banisters for decorating at Christmas :)

 

Finally got our stockings hung!  And we can't believe that next Christmas there will be 6 hanging from our mantle.

I wasn't kidding - you thought I was.  Split peas are filling up my candle holders.  I already had the candles and the variety of glass holders...add split peas and you've got the cheapest green décor you've ever seen.

Aaaand my one, token "Glassy Baby."  LOVE.  Why do they have to be so cute!?  I probably won't own any more at that price tag (in my mature state of motherhood, I would rather buy a few lattes...or 50 lattes, or whatever the cost equivalent would be)

And then of course there's our 9 ft tree.  Thank goodness for super high ceilings in the living room!  And thank goodness that I could reach down to decorate the top of the tree from the balcony, lol!  Otherwise this pregnant mama would have had a solid 2 feet at the top without any ornaments.

Hope all of your Christmas prep is fun-filled!  I finished most of our Christmas shopping a while ago.  Thank you, Amazon.com, I never even had to leave the house.  Very much looking forward to Christmas morning with 3 little ones tearing open presents this year!!!  I have always loved envisioning a house-full on Christmas morning with our family, and we're definitely getting there!  The big kids are enjoying our advent calendar and understanding the Christmas story a little bit better each year.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!