Holiday Decorating

We had a really great end to our Thanksgiving break! It was 9 days and almost felt like Christmas break! On Friday, I played around with my blog design, we watched our Hogs play, we watched How the Grinch stole Christmas with the kiddos, and then an awesome Garth Brooks special!  I had every one of his tapes when I was a kid!  I still know every word to every song.

 We really did lead for a bit!

On Saturday, we cleaned the house, got our Christmas decorations down out of the attic, I did some grocery shopping and then I came home to watch the 2nd half of the BEST GAME I HAVE EVER WATCHED IN MY LIFE!!!  If you aren't sure what I'm talking about, it was the Iron Bowl.  Google it.  AMAZING!!!  We also decorated the tree :-)

We went to church this morning, had some fabulous gumbo afterwards, I ran to a local "junk" store, and then we proceeded to decorate our home for Christmas!

Here we are decorating in 2010, the tree in 2010, the tree in 2011, a deco mesh wreath tutorial of mine that is the only post I've ever had go viral, and decorating in 2012.
And now, 2013-

C Girl was SO into helping with putting the lights on the tree!

We went with colored lights for the first time this year and I'm loving it! The kids are over the moon about it!

We added a second Christmas tree for the first time this year.

This is in our office/sitting room.

I found this 3 ft. pre-lit tree at the "junk" store for $8.95! I love thrifting! 

All of the decorations were stuff that we already had!

The nativity that Tim and I bought together shortly after we got married.  I LOVE it! I've never found one that I love more than this one.  It is carved wood.

Our scripture advent from last year that we are using again!

Our Christmas book advent is so fun!  I wrap 24 Christmas books and we unwrap and read one every night!  I have collected books over the years and we use the same ones each year, but they are put away until Christmas time!

24 days until Christmas!

We bought Tim a ton of fresh pecans the other day. He is loving them!

Tim did an awesome job with entryway lights!

Christmas Deco Mesh Wreath Tutorial

I know that these wreaths are not new, but this is the first time I have attempted to make one.

I was so tired at looking at our old wreath that we had used for years.

Sooo, I did what anyone would do. I went to Hobby Lobby to pick up some red deco mesh and some glittery ornaments!
1. I stripped the old wreath of all the stuff on it.
2. Next, I rolled out a bunch of the deco mesh and then bunched up one end and twisted it secure with a branch of the wreath.
3. Then you "pouf" up the deco mesh and secure the next part with a branch of the wreath.  You continue to do this all the way around the wreath.

4. I fired up my hot glue gun and glued the glittery ornaments on the wreath. I also had some red glittery sticks with balls on them and some decorative leaves that I glued into it as well.

5.  I could have stopped there, but then I decided to use some small green glass ornaments that I had.  I also added another set of deco mesh "poufs" sort of in the back/top of the wreath.

So, what do you think? Do you like the way it turned out?  Have you ever made a deco mesh wreath?

I now realize why wreaths are so expensive! LOL

Here are a couple of more ideas I found on Pinterest: