This weekend we focused on getting the Christmas decorations sorted, put up or sent out. We have a ton of Christmas crap and we don't use a fraction of it. My goal this year was to sort through it, as we put it up, and get rid of things we don't use. We had stuff we have never used, we had stuff that we took from my mom's collection that we have never used, and we had stuff that we have just outgrown that style. Goodwill here we come.
We have the "forest" in the den - a group of three narrow trees that are decorated with white lights. We put the "Heritage Tree" in the dining room. This tree has all of the sentimental ornaments we have collected over the years or ones that kids have made. Damon and I both have ornaments from our grandparents and those are on those as well. The sitting area/fireplace has the "Photo Tree," which has 5x7, 4x6 and 2x2 picture frames, with pictures from the last year. We also put on some red Christmas balls. This tree is still lacking a little, so we are going to try to find some 3 x 5 frames or wallet size frames to fill in.
Damon worked on getting our Snow Village houses out and used those in the dining room, mixed in our with the glassware. The only thing missing in the dining room is the table centerpiece. I will finish that up when I get the linens later this week. I decided to do the dining room table in white candles with candy canes, red ribbon and silver bells. The Polar Express is kind of our "family movie" and I love the symbolism of the silver bell.
The kids each have a tree in their room and we took them to Hobby Lobby to pick some additional ornaments for their trees. Jackson has a tree with blue lights and a golf theme. Reid went with red lights, soccer ball ornaments, and blue ball ornaments.
Party prep is still in full swing. I wanted to get decorating done this past weekend, so on party weekend I could focus on cooking and cleaning. Cooking won't take too long. I am contributing the chocolate fountain, onion dip and chips, and sausage balls. Cleaning, on the other hand, will take a while. My theory is it is necessary to invite people over at least once a year, just so the ceiling fans get cleaned, both bathrooms have a full roll of toilet paper at the same time, the floor is vacuumed, and everything is in its place.
I also need to figure out what to do with the goodie bags. We are going to do a treat exchange, with everyone taking home a goodie bag of treats at the end of the party. I bought white handle bags at HL and now I need to figure out something very Martha to do with them. My contribution to the treat exchange is Cowboy Christmas Cookie Mix Jars, courtesy of an idea from www.bakerella.com.
I do have to give a big shout out to my wonderful husband, who has worked his tail off for this party, just as much as I have. He has painted (a lot), trimmed, touched-up, hauled stuff down from the attic, lifted trees, and helped me sort through decorations. This weekend, I know he will be there to help me cook and clean. I wouldn't be able to do a fraction of the stuff I do without his love, support and hard labor!
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