I can’t lie, I really love Christmas. I love decorating for it. I love the colors. I love the lights. I love giving people gifts. I love what it means especially! So, being that it was Hubs & I’s first Christmas in our husband and wife roles, I was very excited. But, since we really didn’t have much in the way of Christmas decor, I knew I had to be wise about where I spent my money.

Luckily, I found our 7.5ft Christmas tree on Craigslist for $50. What a steal! I wanted to have a mostly red & white color scheme, so I bought a box of 50 of the red plastic ornaments at Target for 15$. I made probably 20 poinsettia ornaments out of of my burlap aisle runner fabric & some red fabric I had on hand from the tree skirt project. Then I filled it in with ornaments my grandma sent me, my personal collection from over the years, and some of Andrew’s personal ones as well. Since I’m not a huge fan of the shiny garland stuff, I decided to just use a spool of cheap velvet ribbon, I think I got that for maybe $4. Pair that tree with my loveable tree skirt I made, it was great! Since Roux decided he wanted to eat curtain one day, we were missing a curtain in that corner of the room, so I made my own out of the aisle runner as well.

Then there was the mantle. Hobby Lobby had a sale way back on their Christmas stuff. This was like, early October. I took advantage. I remember seeing the beautiful pine garlands, and noticing the INSANE prices.. I mean, at least $40 bucks. I couldn’t bring myself to do that. Instead, I bought the plain one for $10 and a few embellishments for it. I wrapped it with a few twigs I had, then lit it up with these great pearl lights my grandma sent me. On black Friday, Kirklands had stockings on sale for $5! And red knitted ones, which fit perfectly for the scheme. At the time, I still envisioned being able to make a few burlap ones, so I only bought 3. Next was the mantel sign… I have a love hate relationship with it, but everyone seemed to love it. I distressed it a bit, then painted it… I could use to work on my letter painting. It was too late to start over, so I went with it. Andrew’s mom made Andrew, Roux, and me stockings – so I used those instead of making burlap ones! They worked great with it all anyway!

This was Christmas Eve. I was being silly with Roux. His ears are as big as my hands!

Andrew and I

We had a great Christmas with my folks in town! We were happy to get a lawn edger from my parents! Oh the joys of owning a home! Andrew got me a beautiful pair of earrings and I got him these cool Gunnar computer glasses. We had a great gluten-free dinner, including honey ham, collard greens, scalloped potatoes, and green bean casserole. Next year I’m making rolls, I missed them this year! But for sake of insanity, I didn’t attempt them. We have so much to be thankful for! Hope you all enjoyed your holiday season as much as we did!

Find it,

Rachel