Sneak a peek.

I love decorating for Christmas. It's a stree-free, exciting thing for me. I love pulling all my treasures down from the attic, I love unwrapping the ornaments and I love walking around the house and setting all my Christmas stuff out.

You will notice I do not have one of those perfectly, perfect houses, where everything is intricately placed and ready for the pages of a magazine. Our Christmas decorations are like our lives....simple, and rustic and homey.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Everything is very homespun and "earthy", just the way I like it.

I filled my little tin cup up with black beans and stuck a grungy candle in it.



My primitive bowl filled with pine cones and dried fruit and candy canes.



A little candle in a wooden box.





Remember that other wooden box I picked up last week?





Now it's filled with a baby pine and some glittery pine cones.

My kitchen windowsill. There is a mister for Mrs. Snowman on the other side.





The cutest baby mouse peeking out of an old stocking.

I just love him.




I collect bottle brush trees. It's an obsession. My forest has grown and grown over the years. It's resides on top of the entertainment center. Here's the left half:






Here is the right half:





Here's the whole things. Yeah, there's a lot of 'em.







Oh yeah, I'm also into Santa's in non traditional colors. This is the Santa in the "woods".





I love that he's in gray. How many times do you see Santa in gray?

I also love my little Santa hat on top of one of my trees. It is red, but it's adorable.





Some candy canes I made last year...or the year before... I can never remember.





The big dough bowl in the middle of the living room table.





My other Christmas obsession...mercury glass. It's so sparkly, I just can't resist




I've had this basket for years and years and years. I just adore it.





One of my most prized possessions. A Santa that my Uncle Al and Aunt Claire bought me. It makes me think of them every time I see it.





Yup that's more mercury glass.

The tree.

It's a big one this year.




9 1/2 feet and a little blurry. I took the picture in a hurry.

This tree is gigantic.....all the better to hold all my precious ornaments!!!! Bahhhahhhhaaaa! I couldn't even get the whole tree in the picture.

I would have taken a few outside shots, but it's just too darn cold to do it now.

So that's my little peek into our Christmas house. Like I said, it's nothing fancy, but it warms my heart and makes me smile (and isn't that what Christmas is really all about anyway?)