Our Christmas decorations!

I am finally doing a post on our Christmas decor. I am going to present it in a way that is not just showing pictures of it.

See the book in the center called "I believe in Santa Claus"? 

I love this book.  It is one of my favorite Christmas books. It is about how Santa Claus symbolizes Christ in a lot of different ways and, since I believe in Christ, I believe in Santa Claus. At the end of the book it gives other things that are symbols of Christmas that symbolize Christ. So what I am going to do is take those symbols and explain what they represent and then show our decor of that symbol. I hope this makes since. Well her goes...

WREATH

Eternal love, no beginning, no end. Love comes full circle.

Well here is our wreath. We don't have one so I created one with cards. I love all my mantel pieces but now that I look at it in this picture, it really doesn't go with everything around it. Oh well, I think the mantel is pretty and simple. In this picture you can see two of the prizes I won from Ann's blog contest she had last month. I had to keep track of how many times she used the word Thankful or anything that meant the same thing and then at the end of the month post a comment on her blog how many times she used the words throughout the month. I won and so I won 3 prizes. The two prizes are the beautiful tree on the mantel and the JOY tiles. I love them both.

 CANDLE

The light of Christ, our own inner light.

This is our candle area in our living room. They are all on top of the Computer desk. The deer holds a candle, the Nativity holds a candle as well and there is a white candle next to the deer. The snowman is made from a gourd and it does not hold a candle. I got this from the airport as well, just like the little pumpkin gourd I showed in our Halloween decor.

GIFTS

Giving, sharing, thinking of others.

This is where we keep all the presents, inside the pack and play. Yes, it keeps Ayla from getting to them plus it keeps her away from the fireplace. Yes, baby proofing. I do love snowmen though and so I hung a snowman blanket over the edge to kind of hide the "eye sore."

BOW

Tied in bonds of brotherly love.

This is the bow at the top of our tree. Our tree is covered in red bows. I don't usually like bows but I do love red bows at Christmas.

BELL

Rings to bring to lost sheep home.

I love these bells. I got them from Kurt's mom's house. I hung them up when we lived there and they ended up in our decor box. So I guess I am just borrowing them but I love them anyway. I also like how they match our lamp.

TREE

The evergreen of everlasting life, pointing heavenward.

Here is our cute little tree. I love the red bows all over it.

We had to have a small tree this year and I had to put it on a chair for obvious reasons. 

If you look on the wall, you can see three Christmas plates. This was my third prize that I won from Ann's contest. I love them too. They are so cute.

CANDY CANE

Shepherd's crook for bringing lambs back to the fold.

Well technically this is not a real candy cane but I have red and sliver hooks like this on our tree. Also, can you see Ayla's baby's first Christmas ornament? Yeah, it is the baby bottle with the tree inside it.

RED

The Savior's sacrifice for all.

I just took a close up of our tree and of all the red. I think the picture turned out awesome. Plus, if you look close you can see me taking the picture inside the reflection of the red bulb.

STAR

The Bethlehem star, a sign of prophecy, the light of the world.

This is a star ornament that Ann gave me this year. I love stars so, for it to be a star and to be silver, I was stoked that it matched my tree ornaments. Thanks Ann.

SANTA CLAUS

The spirit of Christmas, giving and receiving love, caring, sharing, kindness, cheerfulness, happiness, peace, good will to all, Christlike living.

Here is Santa under our tree, on the chair, chilling with Frosty holding some of my favorite children books than Ann got me through 3 different Christmases. Yes, Ann got me a lot of my decor and I love everything.

Well, so I am done with the symbols so I am just going to show some odds and ends of our decor.

Here is a picture of our Christmas corner from the door. 

I also like to hang cards on ribbons. We didn't get all of these cards this year. These are cards from all the years that Kurt and I  have been married. I didn't put all of them up of course but it is fun to see all the cards we have received through the 3 years we have been married.

 

He is Ayla's favorite spot. She loves to play with my Nativity in the left corner and she has pulled some of the grass off of it. So it is bald in one corner. I let her play with it though. I just watch her as she plays with it. I let her play with everything on the chest except the books. 

This is on a little dresser I have at the other end of the couch, near the front door. It holds my favorite Nativity and our present we got this year from my friend Leah. Leah made the family sign for us for Christmas this year and I love it. I am so proud of Leah for making it. She did a great job.

I get us an ornament every year and here is this years ornament. 

See in the back the Santa door Hanger? Leah also gave us this for Christmas. It was on our front door but Ayla kept playing with it, so I put it leaning against the tile behind our tree, so that Ayla wouldn't destroy it.

Here is a close up of the plates. I couldn't get a picture without  a glare on the bottom plate. The bottom plate has Santa on it. I think the plates are all so cute.

Here is a close up of the JOY tiles. Love these too.

And of course, a close up of the beautiful tree Ann gave me. 

I also wanted Ann to see how the tree matched everything I have on our mantel. Thanks Ann for all the prizes. I love them and they add to our home. 

Well that's our decor, I hope you enjoyed it!!!