It's beginning to look a lot like...

It's December!  Although I've been lackluster and disorganized some years, this year I have been on point with decorations.  This has been kind of a lousy year, so it feels nice to have good things to celebrate. 

Plaid tablecloth and mini "Christmas tree" made out of leftover pine boughs?  Check.

Christmas tree up and decorated?  Oh yeah.

I love our ornaments.  We each only have one or two from our childhoods.  The rest have been cobbled together from thrift stores, are homemade, or bought with intention to signify "an event" in any given year.  I love all the little animals we've bought over the years, the metal bells, the tin stars.  Almost no ornaments match, but the tree just feels like "us."

The mantle is punctuated with red (Todd has a stocking, but it's on the other side!)...

...and if a side table has room for a Christmas display, it's got one.

We have red and white/tan Christmas "banner flags" over all the windows, and golden snowflakes on our kitchen cabinets...

Advent calendar on the fridge!

I even made two Christmas pillows this year.  You saw the quilted one from a few weeks ago, and the other is a badger cross stitch.  Thanks to water soluble fabric, I can now cross-stitch on anything.  Can you see the clear fabric that I've stitched on?  A few minutes in hot water and it disappears.

I decided to make it into a small pillow.  I think I may make it even smaller when time permits.

I've got red balsa wood snowflakes scattered in our bookshelves and red velvet bows tied everywhere.  I love how festive it feels.  In 2018, I'm planning to be much more intentional about celebrating EVERYTHING and changing up the house with the seasons.  But for now, I'll enjoy our Christmas explosion.  Cuddling up in the living room with our hand-made quilts, in the glow of our lights, is so, so wonderful.  Even the cats are getting into the spirit of it!  I think they enjoy using the quilts even more than we do.

It's getting a little cooler here, too.  We've had some beautiful nights...

...and cool, foggy mornings.

Seemingly keeping with the spirit of the season, the Japanese maple outside my office window is a gorgeous vibrant red.

We're not anywhere near what I'm used to with an Indiana winter, but we're going to dip down into the 40s this week!  It's wonderful weather for hiking.  We all love being outside in these kinds of temperatures!

Have a great week!