Cottage Blue Designs: Christmas Tour 2015

Merry Christmas Friends!
I've missed sharing with you lately as I've been on entirely too many planes going here and there.

I'm so happy you stopped by for my Christmas Tour. Are you ready for the holidays? Traveling forces me to be ready because I only have so many days at home. As of today, all gifts have been bought and mailed. Christmas cards have been mailed and I'm having a ball opening the ones I receive in the mail. Cookies will be baked and decorated by my two rascals this weekend while listening to Christmas music.

This year I successfully talked Mr. Cottage Blue into 3, yes 3, trees. Miracles do happen! I should clarify that is 2 decent trees for inside the house and 1 pitiful little tree for our back deck that we purchased last year that I thought would be much fuller and larger (I have since learned the importance of reading the height and diameter dimensions on the box before buying!!!!!!)

Any-hoo, let's proceed.....

C'mon on in..... we have the front of our house decorated with white lights....

My absolute favorite area in our house to decorate for Christmas is our most used zone....our family room/eat in kitchen/everything zone..... starting last year I branched out in here and strayed away from the traditional red and green décor and went to blues, silvers, and white. Most of the ornaments on this tree I made or bought at the dollar store. See what you think....

Family Room:

Some of my handmade ornaments...

Some starfish left over from our wedding décor....

I taught myself how to crochet these sweet little white yarn snowflakes from watching this video on you tube a billion times....she makes it look so easy! But I was teaching myself how to crochet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSefNeFfuTI

Some other shots of our blue and white Winter Wonderland in our family room:

I LOVE my white winter wonderland creatures that come out to visit each Christmas....

The two tree pieces are new this year (thanks to 50% off at Michael's Craft Store):

Dug through the house to find all things slivery....

What Christmas IS all about...

In the eat in kitchen I added a new advent calendar on a tray that consists of 5 mason jars with bath salts from the bathroom in the jar with a candle each plus greenery from my yard....easy scheemezy.....

Here's a little bit of Christmas spirit in the entryway....

Framed past Christmas card of the kids...so fun remembering how small they once were....

Let's stop over in the dining room where red and gold are featured....burlap garland over the doorway with more handmade ornaments....

The only pictures I have of our kids with Santa...priceless...

Let's head upstairs where the traditional red and green décor gets some attention....

This is one of our favorite Christmas traditions that I know I've shared before....each night in December the kids get to open a 'present'. Each present is a Christmas book that has been hidden away in the attic since last Christmas and wrapped. The kids loved rediscovering their Christmas classics and I also retire a book each year and get a new book or two.

Christmas cards are starting to collect....I love receiving each and every one of them!

Some of our past Christmas cards...

Lastly, let's stop by our Bonus Room (think family room #2).....

This is the kids' tree plus it has all of our special ornaments from our many trips and adventures....