Thoughts of Red and Green

As Chief Executive Decorator of our household, I'm about to make an executive decorating decision. After much deliberation, I've decided to jump headlong into Christmas decorating. (Even though I'm having Thanksgiving dinner at my house.)

I know. I know. It's only the first week of November, but wait and hear me out. You see, since Monkey #2 made her entrance, my decorating energy (along with my housekeeping energy) has been, well, zapped. Just the thought of dragging down those boxes of decorations makes me tired. And then, of course, just about the time I get the house decorated, it'll be time to pack everything back up. Uggh!

So, rather than be a Scrooge and just not decorate at all, I've decided to give myself a head start. Tackle it little by little. You've heard the riddle:

How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

That's my plan anyway. A little chewing each day.

Now that I think about it, I probably haven't left myself too much extra time. This week is practically over. That leaves only one week before we go to Disney World. We'll get back home two days before Thanksgiving, and then - Whammo! - It's officially the Christmas season.

Can you believe it? It's almost Christmas!!!!! I've seen so many cute and creative Christmas decorating ideas while roaming through the blogosphere. I want to try them all. Maybe I can squeeze in some Christmas crafting between housework, school work, pizza work, mothering, and sleeping.

Maybe.

Probably.

Definitely!

Also, while browsing through blogs I ran across this linky party featuring mantels of Christmases past. So, I decided to link up. Here's what my mantel looked like two years ago:

And last year........I added some glittery trees from the dollar store and a few magnolias.

Then there's the rest of the house...

The stairs...I'm not sure if you can tell, but I hung silver balls, crystal ornaments, and glittery snowflakes from the handrail using fishing line. Time consuming, but worth it, don't ya think?

The hutch got a little cluttered with all the Christmas cards we received throughout the season. I need to come up with a more creative way to display those this year. There are tons of ideas out there. Just need to find the right one for me.

And my "favorite-est" thing...

I just love my ladder/pot rack! The only trouble now, is that it is full of pots, and I don't really have anywhere else to put them. So I'm not sure if I'll be hanging ornaments from the ladder again this year : (

Be sure to check out the link above for more holiday mantel inspiration.