Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Christmas in the den.

And moving right along... to the den!

This is one side of my mantle. I absolutely loved it. I liked all the lights in it, and the funky ornaments hanging in the middle, and especially our new monogrammed family stockings. On top of the mantle were sparkly presents.


and about 6' tall trees loaded with ornaments and each topped with a sparkly red top hat.

They look rather diminutive in relation to the humongous fireplace, but they are actually pretty big.

And here she is... the 2011 Miss Fireplace International!

As promised, there's Ellie Sue, clamoring for the limelight in THIS room now. Oh, it's not the last you've seen of her. I promise ya!! She followed me to every room and made her way into every setting.


ANd now, the tree!

This was the first time I'd ever a) used an artificial tree in our den and

b) used those big ol timey multi colored lights.

And might I say, I am now a big fan of BOTH of those!

And when I tell you I cover every square inch of a tree, I mean EVERY SQUARE INCH!

Hey there, TG!

Ok, so I did add a few new ornaments this year. I always do! And I always add the date on my ornaments so I can keep up with what year they were added to the collection!

THe above is the ornament that Ellie and Gabbi made at their daycare Christmas party at our house this year. ANd the below ornament is a small canvas painted for me by Ellie Sue.

I decoupaged this wooden ornament last year when we were just moving into the BAH! I LOVE that ornament just because of that. And so I will ignore all the green Sharpie on the top of it and scribbled ALL over the back of it as well. I will just have to remember that December 2010 was all about toddlers in the Groves house!

And I know I have shared that I have photos ALLLLLL over my tree. I just L.O.V.E having picutres of my family and close friends on my tree.

Can you tell that's Hunter in the dark green frame when he was about 3 years old?! ANd Todd's parents years ago when we all went snow skiing. Before he and I were even married! And they hang amongst Jake's M&M ornaments which always remind me of him.

I added all the big gingerbread cookie-looking ornaments with our initials... M,T, E, G.


And I added a couple of new photo ornaments of my girls this year.

I also LOVE these decoupaged ornaments from last year. I kinda wished I'd taken the time to make some new ones this year. Maybe next year!

And if you look way in there, you can see a photo of me and Hunter and Hayden when they were 2 and 3 and we were all at the skating rink!

There are JinJin and Staci, somewhere around 2000 or so.

And my cute Justin Bieber look alike nephew, Hayden. Such a good looking boy!





There are lots of Jake on this tree. I honestly think there are more of Staci's kids than my own.

I pretty much adored those boys when they were little. I still love them,but they are too cool to want to hang out with their Aunt Mo nowadays!

I let the girls each work on a snowflake ornament for my tree. This one is Ellie Sue's.

and this one is Gabbi's. I LOVE this one!! I LOVE that every time I would walk into the art room, it would be a totally different color! Totally green, then totally pink, then gray, then black.... I didn't think it'd ever be finished. But when she started swirling thick paint around with a skinny little brush, then pushed it back and said, "I'm done"! I was so impressed with her knowing that she was actually finished and how COOL and swirly it looked.

I have a few handpainted ornaments on the tree from the 90's.

And this is also a 2011 photo that I particuarly like!

I bought a couple of new ornaments in Canton this year to add, and hope to make these in art class or in a retreat next year.

Oh, and this Santa was painted by none other than Miss Ellie Susanne.





Wow. Look how young Jake was. This was before we'd ever even heard the "c" word. When those three boys were the center of all of our universes. and that fish?! It was from a trip I took to Alaska with mama. Did I ever mention she used to live in Alaska? She married her second husband who was from Sitka, Alaska. They lived there in the summers and in Louisiana in the winters. Nice set up!



Ok, almost done. This was the buffet area in my den, which I was never quite satisfied with the entire season. I had to work in my collection of Krinkles, and this area just kinda became the hodge podge of all my stuff that wouldn't go anywhere else.

This photo stayed up the entire season, because I wanted to remember my dear friend, Pammy.

And as you know, at MMPT, we make our gifts to each other. Keith drew my name and made this arrangement for me. I really needed something with height here, and Robin put the bug in his ear. It was perfect.

The Believe bucket, above, and the sleigh below, both have Christmas cards in them. I just can't throw those away either. I am dangerously close to an episode of Hoarders!

This is this year's batch.



So, next up... the master bedroom. Peace out, y'all!


MO

4 comments:

Zhohn said...

Love all of it! What a very meaningful tree. It reminds me of our trees growing up and nowadays you rarely see 'old time' trees. I never knew Jin lived in Alaska!!!
Can't wait to see more! You're inspiring me!! I'd have all year to make some ornaments. ;)

Riley said...

Love getting a home tour of your Christmas decorations! I did the same on my blog last week. Anything you need at Canton? I'm heading that way today to shop, shop, shop!!

kimybeee said...

glad you showed where my christmas card to y'all ended up lol! keep up the tour, lovin it!

kimybeee said...

and i remember jake's halloween tree when he was so sick and came home to be with his peeps!!!