My home at Christmas

Christmas is around the corner, and we've finally finished decking the halls around here, so I'm happy to welcome you to our home. Just a word of warning: our Christmas decor is very traditional, so I hope you like red and green!

Here's the outside of our house this year:

Here's the scene at the front door:

I made that "JOY" sign a few years ago (click here for easy directions to make your own), and I love hanging it up at Christmastime.

The front porch seating area is a favorite spot to decorate:

We never know what the weather is going to be like in December. Last week was freezing cold, but yesterday it was warm enough to sit out here!

When you come in the front door, here's the scene that greets you:

The first room on your right is the dining room, where I add just a few Christmasy touches.

This room is full of furniture that belonged to my mother. She loved "The Twelve Days of Christmas," and I have fun hanging twelve special ornaments in the window in her memory.

The Nativity scenes on the sideboard are special to me. The plate is from El Salvador, a gift from my sister from her missions work there. And the little wooden creche is from Israel; it was made of olive wood.

The sideboard in the dining room holds three Lenox "Trees Around the World" plates—one from each of the years that our sons were born. I pack these away very carefully each year!

Now into the living room, which is the hub of our Christmas activities. We have just one tree in the house, which stands in the corner of this big room. You can see more photos of the tree here.

At the other end of the room are the fireplace and the television. The TV can be shut away in a cabinet, but I left it out for these photos. You can see the stack of Christmas movies just waiting to be watched.

A doorway from the living room leads into the kitchen, where I have a few of my favorite Christmas things.

I made the NOEL sign in the window; click here for a super-easy tutorial. The green island is fun all the time, but it works especially well at Christmas. I love having a "variety store" vignette on it at Christmastime:

The old wrapping paper cutter works beautifully. And the candy scale is just like the one at Heckerman's Variety Store in Belle Plaine, Kansas, where my grandmother lived. How I loved going there and buying a bag of candy for a few cents!

The breakfast area holds our big table and my mother's dough cabinet. The table holds a simple centerpiece that we can easily whisk to the side, and the dough cabinet holds my old Department 56 village.

Our little beagle is 14 years old now, so you can often find her snuggled up here.

The breakfast room leads out to the screened porch, where I've added just a few Christmas things this year:

I hope you've enjoyed this look around our home. I wish you could come for a real visit!

In this holy season, I wish you and your loved ones every blessing as you celebrate the fact that God is with us.