Christmas at the ol' Downton Blabby was really special. Although we were booked up working and unpacking until Christmas Eve, we did get some Christmas decorations up and we've made great progress on finishing regular decor. Can't wait to show you the "regular" stuff, but I'll save that for another post.
Most importantly, it SNOWED on Christmas Day! I'll never get over the wonder of a white Christmas. Growing up in San Antonio, it snowed once in my life, and i was 8 months old. This is the second or third Christmas since I've moved here that it's snowed, and it was beautiful. We were away from the house most of the day, so this is a photo from this evening.
It was a treat to get to put up Christmas decor. Our tree we inherited from my Grandma last year got ruined thanks to a leak in our storage (I don't want to talk about my childhood stuffed animals, prom dress and FAVORITE BOOKS that also got ruined. :-( ) so we were without a tree. We got a really beautiful tree at Garden Ridge for not too much. I love it. We've never had a mantel before, so it was really fun to put together decorations and hang our stockings from an honest to goodness mantel. I also made a Christmas card tree. I got the idea from Martha Stewart and we ended up getting like 30 cards, so it got really full. It's like getting presents every day when Christmas cards from friends showed up in the mail box. Speaking of mail...
Zach's Elf moment
Pierre has a love for shoes. Even Christian Louboutin Christnmas ornament shoes. This is my favorite photo ever of Pierre and it's the wallpaper on my phone. He's a cat after my own heart.
Alfred and his ornament. He hates being held. :-)
Ellie was scared of the fires in the fireplace at first, but when the fire dies down, she thinks the crackling is a bug or something and she's obsessed.
We don't have any Christmas lights yet--hopefully for next year--but we do have some decorations. I love poinsettias, so I put the bright (fake) flowers around the front door.
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is one Zach and I started when we got married. I got these special mugs (starbucks) and we do Christmas Eve morning together. We have stockings for us and the pets and a little gift each. This year was made even better with a fireplace too.
Christmas Eve, Zach's parents and siblings stopped by for a bit before we went to other festivities. It was neat to have everyone over for the holiday, even just for a little while.
We spent Christmas Eve with the Boatwright side of Zach's family. Lots of fun with the famous White Elephant exchange. We spent Christmas Day at Zach's parent's house in Cedar Hill and his Aunt Jan and Uncle Tom's house in the evening. We rented Jan and Tom's home for a few months until we got our house, so it was kinda cool to go back. Christmas was wonderful. I think the snow made everything magical!
Dad and David came up for Christmas, and it was a first White Christmas for both of them.
We'll be celebrating Christmas with my side of the family soon. But for now, Merry Christmas y'all!
