Christmas this year was extra special since it was our first Christmas in our new house. We got to decorate our own fireplace and our own yard outside. I couldn’t wait to decorate this year. Even two weeks before Thanksgiving I was itching to start decorating, but I knew we had to wait until afterwards.

Once it finally came time, it was a fun experience. We turned up the Christmas music and got to work.

I was most excited for the outside, where we ended up finding a dachshund to stand with our snowman from last year.

New Dachshund Decoration

I wrapped the whole tree trunk in lights. I wish I could have reached all the way to the top, but we got them wrapped pretty high. Next year I’m hoping we have enough lights to do each branch in lights, but we’ll have to wait and see. We also put our net lights on the bush next to the stairs, and wrapped our railings in lights too. I was also happy that we decided to buy a photo-cell timer for Halloween, which turns the lights on when it starts to get dark. That meant we wouldn’t forget to turn the lights, because the timer did it on its own.

Outside All Lit Up

I would have loved to put up icicle lights, but we didn’t have an extension ladder, and I wasn’t ready to buy one just to put up lights. We currently have no way of getting one home anyways. Something for next year. Maybe next year we can make it look more like our neighbors. They just kept adding and adding to their collection over the weeks of December.

Our Neighbors Across The Street

When we got inside, we filled up our tree pretty quickly with ornaments, but realized we didn’t have a nice lighted tree topper, so we had to get one of those. We also have come to the conclusion that by next year we might need a bigger tree to fit all of our ornaments.

Our Christmas Tree

I was proud of our fireplace.  I hate wires, so I’m very happy that I managed to hide the extension cord to power the lights above the fireplace pretty well. Also, on Christmas morning when we lit our fireplace for the first time since we’ve lived here, it made it feel cozy.

Our Fireplace

This year we also managed to fill underneath the tree pretty quickly. I was excited and bought everything pretty early, and wrapped it pretty much as soon as I got it. Once Ashley added presents it looked pretty full under there.

Next year we’re probably going to have to figure out a new setup since we’re hoping to have our built-in cabinets and bookcases finished on both sides of the fireplace, and the TV mounted above it. I guess that will make for a fun new Christmas all over again!