Hi Cristi
Your home and your decorations are just beautiful , everything looks so warm I love them, Sorry about the pictures I ,wanted everyone to be able to be able to enjoy the Christmas thread. I was a little to excited and didn't realize that they would be a problem,for everyone else ,but if I can figure out how to do what you did I will put them back if you would like.I am so happy you finally got your pictures posted they were well worth the wait. Thanks so much for sharing them Cristi HAPPY HOLIDAYS
Cristi I was just checking photobucket and is it where it says invite a guest r how did you do it ,I need help

Cristi your house is beautiful too!! My photos just don't seem to compare!!

Ellen, I did get a chance to show James your photos and he was amazed as I was! Said wow, she put a lot of work into that. Very beautiful.


Later on today when I'm done running around, I will take better photos of my house and post. I like Cristi's idea of getting close up photos of the ornaments on the tree....I'll try that.

BBL!

Cristi - your decorations are gorgeous!!!!! I really, really like all the photos you posted. Noticed there are 6 stockings, and 5 of you in your family.... is the extra one for Ernie, or is it for me?

Pssst, Jane....didn't you know? That extra stocking is for ME!

http://photobucket.com/albums/v619/t...RISTMAS%202004
Heres my pictures everyone it took me a long time to figure it out but I finally did,

Oh Ellen!! Can I come over and move in???
I looked at every one of your photos and just loved everything!! Your home looks so magical! And I LOVE your furniture!
SO beautiful!

So glad you put these back up!! Thank you for sharing Ellen!

Hi Marti
Your very sweet, of course you can move in the more the merrier ,but can I stayIt really wasn't a big deal it just took me a while to figure it all out I have only just learned how to use a computer ,about the same time I joined , so you girls will have to be patient with me ,till I learn all the yes's and nono's I appreciate all your kind words, this little place has been a five year project, when I moved in there was nothing here ,except some really ugly builders carpeting I removed hundreds of nails and staples on the stairs and refinished them myself ,I have also filled every hole primed painted and decorated every inch of it myself ,I had a friend build the bookcases and fireplaces in the living and kitchen which I designed myself, and he did all the trimmwork , my son and I did the brick floors in the living room and landings and I had the tiles laid by a professional that was a task I wasn't taking on.It has been a labour of love thats for sure, looking back the amount of work that we did is mindboggling and I would not want to undertake it again at this stage in my life. I am quite content here the only drawback is that we are attatched to another house ,but my neighbours currently are wonderful and I hope they don't move , but they are a young family ,so chances are they will at some point,but I try not to worry to much about that.any way leave to me to make a short story long as I always say,but I am so happy you enjoyed the pictures ,not many people see the decorations ,but I loved sharing them with you all. I also loved your decorations Marti your home looks warm and thats the most important feeling of all in any home.

Ellen--I think it's great that you did some of the remodeling of your house. James & I did that before we moved in. You should have seen it before....terrible. And it smelled horrible! How big is your house?

Cristi--I went to look at your photos again...how did your photo of the outside turn out so good? Everytime I tried to take a photo of our lights (which I don't have up this year) it never turned out...even using and not using the flash. The area you have decorated in the kitchen (above the cabinets) is how I wanted to do mine. I didn't get any greenery like I wanted so instead I put up all my nutcrackers up there. My favorite photo of all of them.....Ernie! That is soooo cute! Did he hate having those antlers on? Or was his a good boy and cooperated?

Who else is going to share photos? I will be taking better pictures tomorrow.....when I'm not running around. I'm going to try and decorate a little more. Then bake some cookies and make a dinner for James......oh this being busy all the time is making me tired!

Ellen, thank you so much for sharing these photos! They are just simply beuatiful! I am very fond of decorated staircases, so I think that one is my favorite, but they are all just gorgeous.

Hi Marti HAPPY HOLIDAYS
The house is 1250 square ft ,its a semi detatched two story, it has a beautiful yard , although we are attatched on one side, my neighbour on the other side is a wonderful older couple and they have a huge property and they have lived there for over 50 yrs,since they were married, the roads were dirt then and they were the only ones on the street for miles this was one if the last peices of land to be built on,so when they built these house here they were sad to lose
so many of the trees but happy to have neighbours , so our houses are the distance of two properties apart. the lot is narrow 35 ft wide but the length is over 300 ft long and its all treed along the one side and the far back. The whole property was treed, but when they cleared the land to build they cleared most of trees in the yard ,I don't know why, they were so big, old, and beautiful, it was new when I bought it ,but was just a shell.I knew that this would probably be my last home so I decided to fix it up to make it my own, to the best of my ability. With limited funds and a lot of hard word by us and friends I think we've acheived that..My son is hoping to buy the other side, if our neighbours ever decide to sell in the next five years, so I would feel safe ,and I would have someone close by which would be nice. Now its time for me to start remodelling myself ,not surgically ,just cosmetically since I haven't bought one peice of clothing in 5 years ,had my hair done, or done anything for myself, so I think this year that will be one of my new years resolutions and everyone here agrees its time to stop working on the house and focus on myself, You know what they are saying don't you " MOM YOU NEED HELP" and I do agree.So see Marti you asked how big the house was and I wrote a novel and I even left out all the peices of furniture I refinished in the house, I will leave that for another day , So now how do I make this into a Christmas post, OH yeah HO HO HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS , thats good enough isn't it.Thanks Marti and looking forward to any more pictures you can post.
HI Jane hAPPY HOLIDAYS
I'm happy you enjoyed the pictures, I love staircases to , I don't have a lot of railing area but what I do have is nice and its enough to have to decorate , if it went all the way up , I'd have to go shopping for more decorations and I am trying to stay out of those stores at least for the rest of this year, although my son went to one of the greenhouses he does business with a couple of days ago and they have the whole christmas store set up which is amazing ,and he brought me home angel wings made out of real feathers they are about a 11/2 feet wide by 1ft long they look like real angel wings, not that I have seen a real angel but you know what I mean , anyway he bought me three sets and I have place one set on the banister and the other two on the columns. so you didn't get to see those. He said Mom you have to go to this store and see the stuff there you will love everything , I said no doubt, but I don't really think thats a good idea Thanks Jane

Your houses are beautiful, ladies Thanks for sharing the pics.

I don't have a lot of decorations up. Have a big green wreath on the front door that smells fantastic. My nativity scene is really pretty on the mantel over the fireplace -- it's under a painting my BIL painted of a star showing through bare trees on a winter evening. The painting stays up year round, but the first time we put up the nativity scene under it, we realized it looks like the Star of Bethlehem.

The tree is pretty. I have an angel in white for the top my sister in Washington bought for me a few years ago, so she's special to me. Almost all of our ornaments have a special meaning or story behind them, and some are pretty unusual. I have one that kind of looks like a wooden nutcracker -- I'm not ususally very fond of those, but this one is Good King Wenceslaus, carrying a basket of food, and that was my granddad's favorite carol. I have a stained glass lute and mandolin that I love. And we have some unusual and beautiful glass ornaments that my MIL sent to us from Michigan -- a pickle and a carrot (traditional German designs for good luck), some fruit like cherries and a pear, some beautiful dark blue globes with snowflakes on them, and a Canadian Mountie snowman (since she is from Canada). So it's not like anything "matches", but it all comes together and works, I guess

Hi Katie
Your decorations sound beautiful and they have differents meanings behind them which is very special ,one thing with Christmas decorations they don't have to match they always work together because of the feelings they give us. Your painting sounds beautiful, I can picture it with the nativity scene under it ,and how it must look,.I love the smell of fresh greenery although I have done my decorating with artificial about a week before Christmas I like to insert some pine bows into the mantles,railing and floral arrangements just to have the fragrance of the pines.and it works out well as long as I do it carefully, I am happy you enjoyed our pictures ,I know I have enjoyed everyones and am looking forward to seeing more.I hope your Hoidays are Happy Ones

Katie~I agree, your tree and decorations sound very pretty. Wanna share some photos?

Ellen~thank you for putting your pics back up. I haven't showed DH yet but did show DD some of them last night and she agreed they are beautiful! Your house really is gorgeous! I too love the stairs. We have the stairs going down to the basement but not really anything we can decorate. I hold on to the railing going down as I am sure the kids do to so can't really put anything there.

Didn't put up my nativity scene as I have been looking for a new one. The one I have I have had for years, 18 I think since DD was 2 and it is looking a little ragged. So next year I will have a new one for sure to show off. I usually put it on the sofa table with some of that fake snow and then put white lights thru-out it so that they shine thru the back of it.

Marti~look forward to seeing some more of your decorations. I had taken more of the ornaments on the tree but couldn't decide which ones to show. Not sure how the pics outside turned out like they did. Just crossed our fingers and hoped they would. No special camera or anything.

Jane~yes there are 6 stockings, Ernies is a puppy dog one we hang somewhere else, usually by the tree. The sixth one is for Nathan(iel). We bough one for him the first Christmas after we lost him and include him every year. Just wouldn't seem right to us not having a stocking for him even though he is not with us physically. He will always be with us spiritually and in our hearts so we always include him.

Anyway, a big THANK YOU ladies for the compliments. Nothing fancy but I love the way it looks and feels. The funny thing is when Christmas is over and everything is taken down the house looks so empty without it. Get used to seeing all the red and the lights.

Almost forgot...Marti, DS#2 put that on Ernies head and made him sit still for a few mintues to get his picture. The few times I put it on, it was off as fast as it was put on. He hates to have anything on his head or even to wear anything. We put a sweater on him once in a while when it is really cold out, and he will just freeze. He won't move until we take it off. Too cute and too funny.

Cristi--What a nice thing you do for your son. That touched my heart. Brought a smile and a tear. I think it's wonderful that you include him every year.
Your Ernie sounds just like our Cocoa! She can't stand to wear a sweater and when it's put on she'll freeze.....forever! The first time we put one on her, she froze and we didn't realize it until an hour later that she was still standing in the same spot she was at when we put it on! What got our attention was the noise of her little feet. she kept adjusting herself because after awhile, her little paws got sore. We finally took it off. Stubborn little dog!!

I'm going to try and get a Christmas photo of the dogs....not sure how yet. And....tomorrow is a nothing day for me so I will get those photos. Keep saying I will but haven't yet.

Cristi - (((((HUGS))))) for the story of the extra stocking. I'm sure he's smiling down on your family....