Merry Christmas!

I hope you and your families had a joyous Christmas celebration!  Here are a couple highlights from mine.

Christmas would not be complete without busting out the Gansner Family Christmas Carol Books.  Too bad we had to leave before it was show time.

 My gran, still gorg and sweet as pie at nearly 93.

What would Christmas be without the littles?! My oldest and youngest nieces, all ready for Santa visits on Christmas eve.

Stalled

Our man cave renovation has officially come to a standstill.  Eric found out a couple weeks ago that he will be upgrading his position at work (yay!) and that he'll be going to training (boo!) which will require him to take several tests in order to do so (boo studying!)  

Long story short: the mister is spending every waking moment reading up and studying, leaving no time to finish the window trim and floor trim.  We're hoping that during the holiday time off he'll feel comfortable enough to take a break from his studies to complete the floor trim (fingers crossed!)

Also, I just want to thank everyone for the prayers and well-wishes.  I'm feeling much better these days and I'm down to 2 cups of green tea daily (even though I still miss coffee.)

Creative Christmas Coverings

This year, I was trying to think outside-the-box for my holiday gift wrapping.  As I was looking around the house, I found these old flying charts of Eric's that are out-of-date and thought oh yeah.

How fun are these?!? I'll admit, sometimes I get annoyed since I hear about flying ALL THE TIME, but these are just cool.  

Since it's sort of a busy pattern I kept things simple with a twine bow and homemade tag.

The charts were nice and thick, unlike some of the wrapping papers you buy in stores.  Plus, I'm glad we could save money on wrapping paper and give these guys a destination besides the airport trashcans (for the time being.)

How are you wrapping your presents this year?  Traditional or out-of-the-box?

O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree

...thy leaves are so unchanging!  

Thank you thank you (be happy you aren't actually hearing me singing-it sounds much better in my head than in real life!)

Anyways, I forgot to post pictures of my tannenbaum with my other Christmas decorations.  I didn't want him to feel left out.

I mentioned that I scaled back quite a bit on the decorations and went for more of a rustic/silver and gold this year.  The tree was no exception.  I kept all of the non-silver/white/gold decorations off this year.  I really would have liked to do a tree skirt like this:

taken from here

but I just haven't had the time.  Yet.  It might happen now that I'm healthy and Christmas break is looming.  So close yet so far!

Yes I scaled WAY back on tree ornaments.  Mostly because our little $15 tree can't hack it.  Seriously it's fallen over multiple times each of the 3 years we've had it.  So far so good this year *knock on wood.*

Here's a close up of some of my favorite ornaments.

And here he is in all his glory with the lights on.

We've already decided that the big guy is going to be transitioning to the airplane tree next year since our little guy is overflowing with airplanes.  Yes sir we are in the market for bigger and better in the Christmas tree department once December 26 rolls around!

Are you doing a real or fake tree this year?

New Furniture

The new furniture that we got back in October has finally landed in the man cave!  We're so happy it no longer has to be hidden under plastic tarps!

When I purchased these babies, I thought they were straight up gray.  Now that I've got them in the room, they're reading a bit more warm brownish-gray.  I like how it ties in the Brown Tepee color from the living and dining rooms.

And how about that rug?!? LOVE IT!

Forgive the picture quality-I take pretty much all pictures with my phone now since it's so easy.  I'd like to get another yellowish throw pillow or two to warm up all the blue and gray tones.  

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Xmas!

Welcome to the first post at 912 ELM Tree's second home! 

It's Christmas time so that means things are looking holly jolly around the house.  Other than in the man cave (which is still reserved for airplanes and of course fun!), I was really going for more of a traditional/rustic/silver & gold theme.

(Man cave transformation spoiler alert!)

Here's our airplane tree.  I think this is the first year that it's starting to look full.  There are also a couple ornaments from our summer travels.

Big thanks to Grandma Meyer for the candle holders.  I knew they would look great for a wintery holiday arrangement!  Plus, aren't my birds cute?!

I'm on a little bit of a burlap kick.  I had it up for fall, but since most of my house was covered in dust and tarps all of the autumn season, I just didn't get enough.  It's sorta wintery too, right?!

Here's the chalk board I made last summer.  I love changing it for the different seasons.

Hope things are looking merry and bright in your home too!