Home Tour Wednesday - Week 3

Today is the third installment of the Holiday Home tour!  Welcome and come in!

Last week we toured the front door and entryway and the week before we saw the mantle only.  As I promised that first day, I would show you all of the fireplace.  And since we are in the living room, let's complete that room before next week, with the possible exclusion of the Christmas tree.  So here we go!

Elves abound at my house, some little, some small!  

The fireplace is where the "big" elves warm themselves.  All of the elves have been known from time to time to get into some mischief!  There are other elves in the house but they don't live in the great room.  We will get to them at a later date.

I love coming into the living room with all the decorations.  Besides the tree, I have to say I probably like the fireplace the best.

Over in one corner is my piano.  If you look closely, you will see the North Pole village.  The elves and Santa are hard at work there!  This is Olivia's favorite of the Christmas collections at PamPam's house.  She is second in line by age of the Fab 5.  She loves working on getting the North Pole Village just right each year and tells me if I get things out of order!

In the opposite corner nearest the dining room are where the Santas have their yearly convention.  They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.  It's a great collection and it grows every now and then, only God knows where any new ones will go!

There are some even on the floor at the base of the table!  As with the other collections, some have been given to me, some rescued from yard sales, some I painted, and some I gave myself just because I love Santas, especially unusual ones.

And these stick ones I painted years ago when I had my painting business!  Oops, one is bashful and won't turn around!  Silly Santa.....  He and the other stick one were painted from pine trees that were downed in a tornado that came oh, so close to my neighborhood almost 25 years ago.  My painting partner, Faith, and I gathered lots of free tree branches and turned them into Santas!

 On the top of the entertainment center sit two wooden geese decoys adorned with their big red bows.  They like their vantage point up above everything so they can watch whatever is happening.  And on the shelf, a vintage reindeer and two vintage choir boy planters peeps out from the greenery.

 Now for my absolute fav...the Christmas tree.

I love all the ornaments on my tree.  These ornaments have been collected for 38 + years and I still collect them whenever I receive one or find an unusual one.  It's just so much fun!  There are handmade ornaments, there are ornaments from the White House Association, Hallmark and high end stores and there are ornaments from WalMart, ornaments from friends, ornaments from family. It doesn't matter how expensive or inexpensive an ornament is.  If I love it, I buy it and embrace its own little personality.  Everyone who comes into my home is drawn to the tree and lots of people spend a  very long time just looking at all the variety of ornaments.  One of my favorite decorating tricks for Christmas trees is to tuck bigger ornaments "inside" the tree or to put some ornaments in places that surprise the eye.  And don't be afraid to hang more than one ornament on a branch.  Just make sure the bigger or longer one is further back on the limb and the smaller ones are up toward the front.

That ends today's tour.  Make sure that you come back next week for the final installment of the Christmas Home tour.  Oh, and I will share the latest addition to the outside Christmas decorations....a cute and thoughtful gift from a lovely friend and co-worker.

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Merry Christmas!