There is something so addicting about collecting and displaying decorations and ornaments. I can't believe I'm saying that. But it's true!
I blame it all on BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes. I posted my meager decorations on my blog, and since Anna was up at two in the morning to nurse, I was able to get my link in the top 50, which means that I got A LOT of blog traffic this week. Over 800 visits. It was incredible. But more to the point, I visited about eighty or so bloggy homes, and I totally got the bug.
You can all chuckle quietly to yourselves smugly saying, "I knew it'd happen eventually."
Since I posted my Tour, I've added some new additions to my house. So, for my regular readers, you get to see a bigger and better Home Tour. Congratulations!
Chris found a few of his ornaments from his childhood (the brown star thing, for example), and my mother and I picked out a flat of penguin ornaments from Target for my husband (he loves Linux, logo is a penguin). The snowflakes were purchased because they were cheap (no kidding), and I think they're a little pretty. For the ornaments that are within Ben's reach, I bent the branch around them so they can't be pulled off.
I made these paper flowers the day of the Christmas tour. I think they are my favorite thing I've done so far. They look so totally festive and happy and perky. They also kind of dress up our house from the outside, which is nice because we live a block away from a big office building, and we get about a dozen or so walkers past our house every lunch hour.
I've had these fake red orchids for a couple of years, but grouped with some flowery picture frames (with no glass and just red construction paper), Anna's Christmas headband around one, and some new niece/nephew pics on display, this seems Christmas-y to me now.
This isn't technically a Christmas decoration, but I just got these decadent, lovely, shimmery throw pillows from TJ Maxx, and they completely dress up my living room. They are reddish, which seems to fit the holiday season. And I wanted to show them off.
And most importantly (and deliciously), I finally made the cheesecake cups yesterday. It was a lot of fun. These are actually my "mistake" ones. I am such a klutz in the kitchen, and I was making a royal mess when I was putting the cheesecake filling in those little muffin cups. I got smart and spooned the filling into a sandwich bag and clipped the tip of the bag. I squeezed the filling into the cups like icing a cake, and they now look too beautiful to eat (but I think we'll manage). I chilled them overnight, and they popped right out of the paper cups. Some light cherry pie filling, and voila, absolutely delicious. You guys should come over and have a cup of french vanilla coffee with me and help me eat these.
PS. I knew it would happen. In April I blogged about a friend from my college years who I had lost touch with and had no idea how to contact again. Since I wrote that post, my sitemeter has logged about ten to twenty google searches for this guy's name, but still no comments or emails leading me to him. He emailed me himself last night. :) There was much joy in my living room this morning when I found it waiting for me in my inbox. Woo-hoo!
