Christmas Home Tour - Toddler Edition

It's holiday home tour time!! I love seeing everyone's homes in all of their festive glory this time of year! In full disclosure, I feel like our house this year is missing the mark. The amount of time I have had to spend on decorating has been negative (-) 289 hours. The energy I've had to decorate has been sub-par at best. Every single gift we are giving to someone has been purchased online this year. I will admit I even pre-paid for items AT WALMART online, and then picked them up in the store two hours later just because I didn't have time to fight the aisles with people and carts. 

I read an IG post earlier this week that said something along the lines of I worried about having the perfect Christmas but my house is a mess and I'm just going to sit down in the middle of the mess this year, embrace it and love it. That's what I'm doing. There's not enough hours in the day to get it all done. There's not enough bursts of energy after LITERALLY chasing two toddlers all day. 

I could try and try to make it perfect, but then I might miss all the excitement in the girls' eyes this year. Last year, they slept through it all because hello newborns. This year, they're into EVERYTHING. There have been so many cringe-worthy moments so far and so many moments of just pure happiness in their eyes and laughter. I don't want to to be so busy that I miss these moments. 

All that to say, this picture above of our tree....is a photo from last year. This year, the top section of lights went out earlier last week, There are no ornaments on the bottom third of the tree to avoid grabby hands. There are 0 glass ornaments on the whole thing. There are no presents underneath because Amelia and Mae see it as a personal challenge to rip into any wrapping paper they see in a 1 mile radius. It's bare, dark and just a hot mess. 'Tis life this year and our girls could care less they just get excited to see it lit up (what few working lights remain.) 

Something else we skipped this year was my I Love Lucy tree in the kitchen. In fact, it was never even an option to get out of storage this year. HA. But there it is...I love it dearly and miss it. Perhaps next year!!

For our mantel, I did change that up a bit than in past years. 

I saw a post on Pinterest that used three white canvases with "Let it Snow" on them. I altered it to my likings of phrases and sized down to our space. I still used garland and market street lights from our wedding. I had first said, no lights on the mantel this year, but I just couldn't resist. Love them so much!

However, the irony of the phrase I chose is not lost on me. All is certainly NOT calm under this roof. I didn't even think about it when I was painting it. Only right after I finished, I thought....ha....yeah....no, not this house. I have such a hypocritical Christmas mantel. 

Pretty wreaths are my love language and these two are my favorite!! I like to put them on side of doors so I can enjoy them every day. Put them on the outside and I'll never notice them. 

I also scaled back the table in our front entrance this year. The photo of my nephews from years and years ago will always be on of my all-time favorites! The photo of my cousins and I is from last year...these are some of my favorite people ever. 

I spruced up a milk glass vase I had with some greenery, berries and Christmas candy picks and placed it our floating shelves in the kitchen. Nothing else. Also an area I greatly scaled back on this year. 

Making it's return for the 3rd year in a row are my red and white buffalo check curtains and simple wreath at our kitchen window. This was also "pinspired" and behind our mantel, is my next favorite Christmas decor in the house. 

 I changed up a few things on the girls' "gallery wall" to make it a little festive for them. And yes, that's a pack of wipes ON TOP of the wipe warmer. That's how those things work, right? 

I love the metal signs I found at Hobby Lobby - I just felt like they "matched" their room. The "merry Christmas" hanging sign is something I've had for several years and re-purposed to their room. 

For the shelf, I picked up this little glitter house and bottle brush tree at Hobby Lobby and mixed it with the snow angel that my father-in-law gave me last year. I just love how it all coordinates together! 

I added a picture from the girls first visit to Santa last year along with a Mickey Mouse print my mom got them and plush Santas they received last year to the top of their book case. 

Amelia may or may not be able to reach and get the Santa on the right every morning when she wakes up. Ok, she totally reaches and grabs that thing from her crib every morning. 

These cute elf stockings were a gift from last year and they're too cute not to use, so I hung them on their dresser drawer knobs. Just ignore the unsightly cord for their sound machine and the frames underneath that I pulled off the wall to make room for the Christmas pieces. It's real life. 

This year, I felt like we're at 50% Christmas decorating spirit. The next couple of years I hope to be at 75%...and then by age 4 maybe back to our A-game. Moms, is that realistic?? Or will everything just be thrown up willy-nilly until they're off to college?

Like I said, I'm soaking in these moments embracing the chaos. We longed for these days once and now those days are here. Merry Christmas friends..ENJOY this season!