Princeville Christmas Walk 2013

A couple of weeks ago, a lovely lady from the Princeville women's club called and asked if we would be willing to open our home for the Christmas walk.  Foolishly,  Bravely, I said "yes!"  I honestly love decorating for the holidays and thought this would be a fun event to be a part of.  This past Saturday evening , the "walk" took place (after 8 inches of snow fell Friday night!) It was impossible to get everything done with all the 'help' from our 3 little elves!  So, Alan took the kids to my SIL's house around noon on Saturday and we got down to business with the final decorations!  My mom, dad, MIL and FIL all came over and pitched in.  We are so lucky, because we never would have made it without our families help!  My dad put handrails on our basement and main floor staircases that day, my FIL painted said handrails, and my mom and MIL loaned me Christmas decorations and helped me place them in the house, whew!  It was a crazy day!  It all came together in the end though and our house turned out beautiful (I thought).   Here's your personal tour...

Our Front Porch

 On the left side of the porch was an old sled with ice skates.  My chalkboard has a quote from the movie Elf on it "The best way to spread Christmas cheer, is to sing it loud for all to hear".  On the right side is my palate Christmas tree that Alan made, I loved it!  I need some more burlap to wrap around the trunk next year and maybe put some glittery, burlap ornaments on it.  The wreath on the front door is the same one from fall.  I added some Christmas ribbon & berries and a  little "We believe in Santa Claus" sign and it turned into a Christmas wreath!

The entry table 

 The snowman basket hold our Christmas cards.  There are a few candies in the tree dish and our family picture in a red frame.  Two snowman reside there as well.

The first floor view as you enter our home

Our home is very "open concept", as in there are no walls on the main floor separating the rooms!  As you walk in, you see our living room, dining room and kitchen all in a row.  

Our Living room- my Mom decorated the post and it turned out so cute!

Our upstairs Christmas tree-we had a few wrapped gifts beneath for the tour

     

An armoire in the corner that we use for toy storage

Walking by our stairs,  a closet is on the left

Our closet is where I display our picture Christmas cards that we receive.  We set up a table and had Christmas cookies for guests to take (I wish I could say I baked them, ha!).  The candles and tablecloth were both from my MIL :)

Our Dining Room

The dining room was my favorite!  The chandelier has greenery and burlap ribbon woven through it and ornaments hanging down.  I got my table runner from Hobby Lobby (love!).  The snowflake place mats were a borrow from my mom and my MIL loaned us her holiday dishes.  The napkin rings were made from jingle bells (also my mom's), so cute!  My Tiffany champagne flutes completed the set up. 

Cranberries with the green ribbon really "popped"!

The center piece is a steal from Pinterest (another love!).   The chairs were wrapped in burlap ribbon and then I hot glued a sparkly (dollar store) ribbon to the center of each, I love how they turned out!

You then walk immediately into my kitchen.  Alan bought me some beautiful flowers that day to display <3

Chair ribbons courtesy of my MIL

I made the NOEL letters and the jingle bell tree
A set of snowmen salt & pepper shakers, cookie plate and snowman hang out on the counter  

I had big plans for this window....unfortunately, what I wanted didn't turn out.  It still looked pretty though!

After the kitchen, we turned toward the basement.  My shelf by the back door had these wood blocks displayed, courtesy of my mom!

 The little office/art area on the right had the books Baby's First Christmas and The Night Before Christmas books displayed (I know, I needed something over the couch-I ran out of time and decorations!).

Looking into the basement family room, such a cozy room!  My village houses were set up on the shelf to the left and I'm just realizing Sonja (one of our dogs) photobombed me, ha!  The wreath in the window was lit, so it glowed at night.

On the way to our upstairs, I put this impulse buy tinsel tree from Target.  I got so many compliments on this silly, little collapsible tree!  I may go try to find a few more after Christmas!

We wrapped some old canvas pictures and hung them on the walls for decoration
(This picture looks TERRIBLE, our walls need some to be repainted!)

The upstairs railing

The plant was a gift from the Princeville women's club for hosting and the jingle bell wreath was my Grandma's

The girls room

Colson's room

I didn't do much upstairs, but I let people check it out anyway.  Alyvia loves that little tree and has it set up in her room every year :)  We may have to get Cole a tree next year, we keep telling him the big one downstairs is his!  I made "Santa Claus" letter for their doors with jingle bells on them too.   All the bathrooms had Christmas candles burning and the house smelled delicious!  After the tour, our guests departed back out the front door :)

We had a great time hosting the tour of our home!  It was a lot of work, no lies.  But, we got to meet new people and we enjoy sharing our home with others.  I don't know how eager I'd be to do it again next year, but if we get asked in a couple of years, we're in for sure!  Merry Christmas!