No Place Like Home For The Holidays...

Lest you should ever doubt my dedication to the cause of blogging, let this tale convince you otherwise: This morning, as often happens on the weekend, I was awakened by the sunlight streaming around the edges of my bedroom blinds. As I cursed my lack of curtains, and tried to fall back asleep, I was struck by a thought: "If there's enough sun coming through the window to wake me up, there must be enough light to take pictures of my Christmas decorations for my blog." That's right friends -- I voluntarily got out of bed at 8:30 on a weekend in the name of blog photography. So here it is, the snowflake-themed, non-demoninational winter wonderland that I created in my apartment this year:

Actually, this feather wreath doesn't really fit in with the snowflake theme, but I think it's kind of neat, and I use it every year, so I thought I would throw it in for the sake of being thorough.

The dining room showcases the changes that I've made since last Christmas. For one, we were finally able to secure a dining room table, now that our building has finished the multi-year tuckpointing project that kept our patio furniture indoors for over two years. The new table gives the tree the prominence it deserves to showcase an entire crop of new iridescent snowflake ornaments, frozen raindrops, frost-flocked icicles, and glittering gems. Returning from last year are the snowball Christmas lights (not illuminated in this photo), but instead of a paper snowflake garland for accompaniment, this year I have new icy snowflake garland. New Victorian-style snowflake decals adorn the floating wall, and modernist wire snowflakes dangle from the track lighting instead of my previous handmade paper snowflakes.

For the most part, the living room decorations have not changed this year. I once again wrapped the wires for the hanging shelves in beaded garland to simulate ice crystals, and I hung beaded snowflake ornaments from the underside of the mantel and the nook by the door.

I thought the kitchen merited some pizzaz of its own this year to accompany the bounty of baked goods that it produces, so I spiced things up with more snowflake decals on the cabinets, and another snowflake ornament for the oven door. Now I'll have something beautiful to look at during all the time I'll be spending there this season.

I hope you enjoyed that little peak into my humble abode, and maybe even got a little inspiration for your own holiday decorations. I'm so fond of mine that they'll likely outlive the holiday season by quite a while...