Deck The Halls, part 2

I've gotten sick the last two years at Christmas. Once a stomach virus hit late at night on Christmas Eve, and last year it was the day after Christmas. So, this year, when I start sniffling and my throat felt scratchy literally minutes after everyone left the party, my first thought was that at least I wasn't getting sick on Christmas, and at least it was after this weekend, because I had way too many things going on to be sick any early. Today, after my 2-hour nap in the middle of the day, it finally occurred to me that maybe I was sick because I had so many things going on this weekend.

I don't have a lot planned between now and Friday, when I leave to go home for the weekend, so I'm taking it easy - drinking hot cocoa to soothe my throat, chilling out in front of the TV. At some point, I'll put in White Christmas (my favorite Christmas movie) and have a marathon wrapping session, and I'll store up on alone time hanging out with my dogs until I go to the chaos that is my parents' house.

As promised, here are more pictures of my decorated house.


The window, decorated simply, though I think next year I'd like to add a big wreath in place of the star ornament, and maybe a garland across the top of the window. I love my curtains and the way they set the color scheme for the room. The dining room is, as a rule, my most complete room.


This is a shot of the table, all decked out for the party. The mini trees have lights on them, but they run on batteries and only last a few hours. I made the tablecloth out of curtains from Ikea - there are two matching ones that allow me to completely cover the table when its extended into a square (though, because the curtains are thin and the table is sensitive, I would still use placemats.


I normally store more glassware on these shelves (because I love collecting them), though most of the items were already on the table for the party. I normally have turquoise plates there with quotes, but bought the Christmas plates over Thanksgiving weekend this year. I loved them last year, so when I saw them on sale at Kohls, I went ahead and purchased them.



These are the other shelves, above the sideboard. I bought the wire basket on clearance at Ross a few weeks ago, and I love the way it looks filled with ornaments. For November, I filled it with plastic pumpkins and gourds that I had painted blue.

That's it for now!