Merry Christmas!

The tree is up, the garland is draped over our banister, and the fireplace mantle decoration is a little lacking. It’s Christmas, 2017 style! Mostly good, but with some disappointments. Such is life!

(Honestly, the home feels warm and cozy, and will even more so when friends and family arrive.)

Things are very much as they were last year. A few new ornaments that the kids made are on the tree, but the rest are the same. The background has changed slightly, as we have our lovely rugs in the double parlor and custom pink linen curtains behind the tree. I am planning to have a custom curved curtain rod made for that bow window, so the too-slender rods that are there now are only temporary, but the effect is still so pretty.

The presents under the tree are looking cute too. White wrapping paper with gold foil (Sugar Paper sent some over and I liked it so much I went and bought some more) plus ribbon in various widths and shades of pink, coral, and red complete the scheme.

The library doesn’t need much more for Christmas, but I do tuck a some greenery and berries on top of the secretary on the other side of the room.

The stairs look as they usually do this time of year. They’re at their best for Christmas.

The fireplace, well. I was trying to work with the decorations we already had, but also to come up with something I haven’t shown before. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen the earlier incarnation in my Stories: white bottle brush trees a’plenty. I took them all away, changed it up to some greenery and my peacock, and called it a day. It’s a peacock forest scene? Not my best work, but what I really had in mind needed a beautiful, huge mirror.

This was the vision.

Still weird, but a prettier weird. So I think a giant Louis-Philippe-style mirror is in our future? Time to make that fireplace really shine like I should have from the start. (Not just for Christmas, obviously. The mirror will be a welcome year-round addition.)

And then outside the house looks like this. Hey there, roofers!

We have some house stuff to discuss, but that’s a story for another day.

Merry Christmas!