As another Christmas season comes and goes, here are a few photos of the kitchen and family room. All the decorations will be down by the end of the day, boxed up and stored for another year. Hope you enjoy!
On the kitchen island, I keep this Tiffany silver trumpet vase and change the flowers depending on the season. It doesn't take up much room, so that I can serve or prep when needed. If you look behind the vase, I hung snowflakes from the window valence. I used a tension rod, and hung the snowflakes with white thread and ornament hangers. At Christmas I use a butler's tray table in the corner to hold extra Christmas trays and wine glasses.
For Christmas morning breakfast, I again used my Christmas china, with red chargers and Lunt flatware.
For the centerpiece, I used decorated greenery and gilded fruit, silver antler candleholders, and red votive candleholders, which match the sequined red chargers.
The centerpiece bowl is a unique piece--silver and crystal--with four taper candleholders. It's one of my favorite estate sale finds.
For beverages, we used champagne flutes for our mimosas and vintage glasses for water or milk.
Above the patio doors, I added these love and joy signs. They are battery operated, but I had to climb on a step stool to turn them on.
On to the family room. On the cocktail table, I used a garland with a gold ribbon, my gold reindeer that I love, gold trees, and ...hmm are those artichokes? pineapples? acorns? Well, whatever they are, they were used on the cocktail table vignette with gold battery operated pillar candles, which were on a timer. The candles provided a nice glow when coming into a dark room.
A shot of the family room in the evening.
The main Christmas tree was again gold and bronze. I added some new decor this year, musical notes, large bronze snowflakes, deer heads, and lots of grapevine.
I changed up the mantle and placed my garland straight across instead of swagging (is that a word?) it. I found these stick garland mini lights, which I added, as well as the gold pieces on the end. Have no idea what to call them, but they were sort of a paper mache and I have ornaments shaped exactly the same way, so I had to have them. I also used musical ribbon bows, and decorated with the same notes that I used on the tree, and cupids playing different instruments.
Here's a close up of the decorated mantle. Behind the garland, I used gold finials that I found years ago at Kirklands, with tall gold candleholders on each end.
I made this little arrangement for the hearth using a lantern, greenery, and other gold/bronze accents.
Big items have big impact, but sometimes you just need something small. I found these petite gold Christmas trees and thought they were cute on a silver tray.
The bookcase was decorated and I again used my silhouette angels for the top. This year I ordered votive candles on a timer so that they would come on automatically in the evening. Yay! No climbing up to cut them on! Worked like a charm.
I have used this woodland scene vignette before, but this year I moved it to the end table with my leopard lamp.
We were again blessed to have our son and daughter home. Our son finished up at Virginia Tech in December, and is beginning the job search. Our daughter is still in New York and is in a show called
"New Dawn" at the end of the month. If you are in the area, I hope you will go check it out.
Christmas night we had 30 of my cousins over for a Christmas get-together! Everyone brought an appetizer, and we had a lot of fun. 2015 was a great year, and I am very thankful for my family and friends! On to 2016!
Happy New Year to you and yours!
