Christmas Decor Update

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It was so nice having everyone at our new house for the holiday.

We had 19 people, so we decided to do two turkeys. Michael smoked one of them in his green egg, and I cooked the other in our oven. I have been using the same recipe since we hosted our first Thanksgiving 12 years ago - Kidd Kraddick's Brown Bag Turkey. It's so easy and the turkey turns out perfect every time! The only thing we change is brining the turkey the night before. The only other thing we make for dinner is the mashed potatoes (we used truffle oil in them this year - so good!) because everyone else brings the rest! I actually planned on making some appetizers, but my mom and sister-in-law brought some, so I saved my apps for another day. It was a day filled with family, food, and football - it doesn't get much better than that (well, maybe if Texas had won the game it would have been a little better...I didn't say it was good football!).

The rest of the week flew by! We visited with Santa, saw The Peanuts Movie (cute!) and Love the Coopers (much better than the critics gave it credit for), celebrated two birthdays, played trivia at a local wing bar/restaurant, and put up our Christmas decorations. Whew!

I don't know about you, but for me putting up our Christmas decorations is always fun, but stressful! We usually pull out all of the containers at once and I feel like Christmas threw up all over my house! It's just overwhelming. This year I was smart and only took out one container at a time. It went so much quicker that way - I think we were finished in just a few hours! I haven't gotten a chance to hang our initial wreath yet, but everything else is up and it's so pretty! Now we get to blast the Christmas music throughout the house (so happy I talked Michael into whole home audio) and gaze at the beautiful lights. Love!

Similar stockings and tree skirt (ours has our last name, but no Santa):

Solid Red Quilted Stocking

Quilted Tree Skirt

We got the Willow Tree Nativity several years ago right after Christmas on MAJOR sale. I actually wasn't even looking for a nativity when I came across this one, but as soon as I saw it I knew that I needed it. If you can be patient (I usually can't) you can find the best deals after Christmas! 

Talk to you soon!

XOXO,