12.13.2012

{Home Decor} Christmas Time!

I contemplated whether or not I'd put up much of my Christmas decorations this year, with four six-month-olds in the house and a bustling schedule I can barely ever stay on top of. So the husband got all my red and green storage bins down from the attic, sweet man that he is, and set them in the garage just in case I wanted anything out of them. Next I knew, ALL the bins had made it inside and then proceeded to stay right there for a week. At last, I peeked into a couple and pulled out a few things and completed all my decorating in one hour on an evening after the quads had gone to sleep and I was so tired my feet were numb and I had no idea what I was doing. I even decorated the tree with about three-fourths of our ornaments. Not bad, huh?


The hutch holds our Woodlands china, crystal bowls and decanters, and beer steins from Germany, Prague plus several bottles of our best whisky. :)
Any ornament to remember our trip to Paris while we living in Scotland for a year.

A hand-painted ornament from my mom years ago.
More memorable ornaments, like the star on the right from a Hill Country town called Gruene, TX. 
Our first family Christmas ornament! My husband loves penguins so this was perfect. :)
YES, presents are wrapped & under the tree. I finished my shopping weeks ago!!
Then yesterday I completed the stockings. It's so surreal to realize that we went from two stockings last year to six this year. I can't believe we have our entire family already!! Oh wait, yeah I can...there was that insanely difficult 7 1/2 month pregnancy, the 12 weeks of bed rest, two months in the hospital and two months with babies in the hospital and the crazy adjustment period that follows when you bring four preemie newborns home! Alright, so the memories aren't so distant just yet but our house sure is filled with babbling babies and happy smiles everyday—parents and grandparents included!—thanks to our fantastic four.


My mom does a new Santa painting every year, and I absolutely love these two that she's gifted me!
I opted for classic-looking stockings that I scored 50% off from Hobby Lobby, I wanted them to be able to mesh with any style of decor we may have over the future years. And I wanted ones that could allow for monogramming at the top. I have friends that do fantastic jobs monogramming and sewing names with their machines, but I really wanted to do these myself. I'd already been picky about the stockings, returning the first six I bought for the style you see below. Then I found big cursive iron-on letters a few aisles over and thought, BAM! That's it, easy, done. I ironed them all on yesterday and could not be happier with the results!


Now to show you the rest of our Christmas...

The quads first Christmas art project, a surprise from my nanny and my mom who were brave enough to dip eight little hands into green paint!!
The artwork hangs proudly by the front door, next to my always-festive hallway table.



The photo on the left is our Christmas card photo this year; the large number 4 was a very thoughtful gift from my dad and his wife; and the photo on the right is the quads at one month old, while in the hospital's NICU.




The top of my piano holds all my crystal and glass frames, which are filled with photos I love to see every day from the night the husband proposed and our wedding to our maternity shoot and the latest quad pictures. 
I tucked in sprigs of holly berries and festive things for a five second decoration.
A wreath on the guest room door.
A little touch of Christmas in the babies' room!

My simple kitchen table centerpiece.


A banner I assembled from Hobby Lobby, it says "Merry Christmas" in French.
The scene over the kitchen table.

My Christmas card display on the pantry door.
Ta-dah! That's the Christmas tour of our small and crowded little home. It was tricky to take photos around all the baby paraphernalia everywhere, so I have to keep it honest. The mantle and the kitchen table typically look more like this...



Merry Christmas, y'all!


12 comments:

  1. Well done Amber. I am impressed that you could decorate so well in the short amount of free time that you have. I know this will be the first of MANY Wonderful Christmas' to come. Enjoy these precious moments.. they tend to flee quickly.

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  2. Wow ....Love them all! You are super!!

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  3. Love all of your decorating, especially the babies wreath.
    Your home looks so warm and festive.
    You could of omitted the before pics of the kitchen table and mantle at the end, kinda spoiled your "super mom" image:)
    Merry Christmas!!

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  4. you are amazing! love all the christmas decorations!

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  5. You never cease to amaze me. Seriously, I have a tree up and that is it. How you do so much with 4 little babies is beyond me. I'm beginning to think you are "Super Woman"!

    LOVE LOVE LOVE the stockings. I had never thought of iron on letters. I may just have to steal your idea next year. That is if you don't mind.

    Your mom is so talented. I adore her paintings.

    Hope you all have a Merry Christmas as well! I'm sure it's going to be a fun year with the Quads!

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  6. Beautiful...I believe you are super women for sure. Your Christmas will be so special this year with your four little ones. Merry Christmas! Sherri

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  7. Everything looks great! We put most of our decor up, but left a good bit in the attic due to lack of space. I just love the baby art. I found a footprint project I keep meaning to do but can't find the spare time. Ha!

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  8. We have the same bottle of Royal Lochnagar Whisky! I wish we could get it here in the states! Your Christmas decor looks good for such a short time put into it!

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  9. I am SO IMPRESSED with you!! Seriously, want to come decorate my house?? You are an awesome mom and I love your attitude- helps keep me going. :)

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  10. I just love the way you put in each and every idea for decoration. I will surely try this out.
    Thanks for sharing.
    House Buyers Of America

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  11. Love those painted ornaments you're mom did. May have to see about commissioning her for some for our tree. I had to smile when I saw 6 penguins. Never found the stuffed one that I so stupidly lost and never found another. Sorry.
    I also love the Little Bells artwork. I have something simular. You can this next year. Make a headband out of paper
    trace their little hands, cut them out and attach each little Bells hands to a separate head band and it looks like reindeer antlers. I think they cut a bright red circle of construction paper and stuck it to Pam's nose as I walked in the door of her Montesorri school.

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