Decorating for Christmas, the time I made Hubs take out another tree edition

Christmas is one of those holidays I love decorating for because you can change the look from year to year. You can do pastels one year, traditional red, white, and green , silver, gold, you name it. It is just fun having the opportunity to play around with looks and watch how your house transforms.

This year I had decided I was going to do a traditional cherry red and white with a smattering of green for good measure. I had done jewel tones last year, so I was looking forward to doing something a little more classic and traditional. I have barely left the house during the pandemic and my mom who is a frequenter of the the Tar-jay had gotten word of when the Bullseye Playground Christmas merchandise was dropping, so we planned to take advantage of her Senior hours (don't tell her I just told you that) and decided to do a quick run over and get what I had been stalking on Instagram. For some reason, South Florida seems to release all of their Christmas merchandise after everyone else. I follow a couple of really great Target Instagrammers and they seemed to have gotten all of their Christmas stuff for weeks and they are only in Northern Florida.

Anywho, the Mamala and I ran out to Target at their opening and I was able to get everything that was on my "list" and many things that weren't (typical Target run). I pretty much was hoping to get my hands on the Cookies for Santa jar and the small advent calendar (as you will see in the pictures, I am an advent junkie), both of which I was lucky enough to grab. I also grabbed the coveted Bullseye dog ornament and because I was there the morning while they were unpacking everything (I swear I am not one of those people that hover over them as they unpack boxes), I was able to get alphabet letter ornaments to spell out our last name (see below). I always seem to miss out on these when there released, so being able to get the letters to spell out our last name was a score (thankfully there are only four letters).

Yes, I am one of those girls that loves the Rae Dunn, no I do not go to the openings and mow other woman down and take pictures of my ten cookie jars in my cart. Totally not shaming those that do, you are a lowkey GOAT (do I sound cool now?), but this is not my schtick (more of what I sound like). Honestly, I am more of that girl that waits till the day after Christmas and I scoop up anything I like for 50% off. My big score was at our Marshalls last year when I was able to get the reindeer snacks and cocoa cup set for $7! Anways, onto the basic girl, Rae Dunn set up.

The red Rae Dunn Plates say Believe and the Appetizer Plates are a mixture of "Jingle" and "Joy"

I love these bottle trees and never could figure out what to do with them ($1 win...I am THAT girl that grabs all of them and figures out the design later). I also have empty candle sconces by our TV and filled those with them too.

EV looooooves the Bullseye dog and this ornament is resin and I knew would last all of five seconds on the tree, so now it is happily below glass in the middle of our dining room table.

These spatulas are awesome! They were only $1 at Target and shipped without the primary $35 order. I was shocked and ordered 4 just to celebrate :)

Anyone else decorate and never feel like you have enough even though every part of the house is covered in Christmas/Holiday Decor?! The current state of our living room below. I switched a majority of our Gallery Wall pictures to family Christmas pictures and Santa Meet and Greets in Disney from the time EV was 1 (le sigh).

Absolutely love THIS pillow and the fact that the kiddos can put their letters in them!

Told you, I was a fan of the advent calendars....and all the vintage automobiles decked out in Holiday spirit. Not even the least bit embarrassed by this.

and now you also know my secret love of the Gilmore Girls which if you know me at all...is not a secret in the least! I love the above advent calendar, it is really sturdy, large, and the lights flicker, track, whatever you want to refer it as....they move lol. The reviews were subpar, but I was quite happy with it and thought it was a great price for $25. Plus, I am a fan of anything that says Sleeps til' Xmas. I have a JaxnBlvd one that I got at Hobby Lobby several years ago for $7 and you can mark of the days with chalk (an unbelievable deal if you have anything of theirs and the quality is amazing). That piece currently resides in the kids room with another advent that I got at Kirklands (I have a serious problem I am beginning to realize).

The Hubs was kind enough while I was out at Target to pull out all the Christmas boxes, which I did actually feel terrible about as I barely took out anything. Okay, only kinda bad...

Because my Christmas style can vary and change year to year, I just sifted through what I thought would blend it with all of the new stuff, which also occurred with the ornaments much to my kids disappointment of wanting to take out everything and having it all hang on one branch.

I basically just ended up taking out our stocking hanger (see above) which is Opalhouse (It was the only thing I bought full-price last year and I LOVE it), stockings (obviously), and a couple of signs that I had gotten from Target and Homegoods last year (after Christmas sale), a couple of small flocked tress and that was basically it.

Every year during Target's 70% off Christmas sale, I always grab extra jammies for the next year for the kids and us. Sean is always incredibly thrilled by this endeavor (lol) and we end up with oh so many Christmas jammies for the next year. I do the same with Christmas sweaters for family photos, and all the soft Wondershop ornaments. Because the kiddos are still really young I do not normally put any of the commemorative ornaments on the tree in fear of them figuring out how to get them down or pulling the tree on top of themselves in order to get said ornament. Plus, I figure that we will end up putting a tree in the kids room as they get older and these ornaments will be able to merge with them and will be fun for them to decorate without worrying about them destroying them.

Which brings us to the tree debacle of 2020. When we first moved into the house, we had a big 7.5 ft tree that we would put in front of our front window. Over time and because I am the one that decorates it, this got tiresome and we opted to do a smaller 4.5 foot tree. I love this tree. I love EV being able to enjoy this tree as it is a kid-friendly sized tree, but for some reason, once this tree was out this year, fully decorated and I had the kids in front of it ready to pose, something was niggling in the back of my mind. Then I added a gorgeous wired candy cane ribbon from Michaels' and then the niggling became hatred.

Me: "Heyyyyyyy Hubbbbssss?!!?"

Hubs: "You hate the tree don't you?"

Me: "Uh-huh" cue batting of eyelashes and perfected sad forlorn face

Hubs: "Your not even going to grow to like it are you?"

Me: "Nope"

A lot of sighing and hemming and hawing came from this and the other tree was brought into the house and dropped at my feet...

Hubs: "I'm going to go work on the lights"

And did I get the tree up all by my lonesome with a step stool?! You betcha.

Was it worth it?! 100%