On My Mind This Holiday Season

Hello friends!  I thought I would start the week by taking a break from our Christmas home tour and take a minute to post a bit about the goings on around here.  I feel like I have been immersed in a whirlwind of decorating, picture taking and writing blog posts.  I don't enjoy getting caught up in the perfection of it all.  I have always enjoyed holiday decorating and love being able to share it, but it starts to feel a bit superficial.  And not at all what Christmas is really about.  The other evening, while I was photographing our living room tree at night, my youngest boy was practicing playing his saxophone in the room.  I was struggling to get that "perfect" glowing tree shot.  He kept standing in front of the trees, so I took one quick shot and got this.  I love it.  Sometimes, I put so much planning into getting the perfect picture.  But usually the best shots just seem to happen, don't they?  I need to remember that.

Our younger golden retriever, Keeper, just did not feel like being in any of our Christmas pictures this year.  She is not a poser or a people pleaser like our other golden, Forrest.  She found it exhausting and fell asleep (after pulling Forrest's scarf off of his neck) with the plaid scarf around her neck while loudly snoring.  I understood how she felt!  Christmas can be overwhelming :)  

Speaking of dogs, I have a great gift suggestion if you still need a gift for a dog lover on your Christmas list.  While shopping at Marshalls, I spotted this Paper Pups book on the shelf and thought it would be a great gift for Matthew, the biggest dog lover I know.  When I got home, I took it out of the bag, put it on the kitchen counter, and got a call from the school nurse that Matt wasn't feeling well.  So I rushed to go get him and when we got home his face lit up when he saw the book sitting right there waiting for him on the counter.  Oops! (actually, I used a different expletive in my head, but you get the point :)

I felt so stressed.  I had planned on photographing our entryway that afternoon.  As you can imagine, most of the pictures I take for this blog happen when my kids aren't home.   And now, the only gift I had purchased so far for Christmas was ruined.  So, instead of getting upset, I sat down with Matt at my desk and we started folding paper dogs.  It was incredibly therapeutic!  We folded and chatted until we both felt better.  I didn't get any pictures taken that day, but he got a bunch of pups to display in his room.  It was a good day.

Matthew is 9 and although he needed a bit of assistance, he really enjoyed making these.  I think I may have enjoyed it more than him!  So I think this book would make a great gift for any dog lover.  It is called "Paper Pups" and it is by Papermade.  You can find it on Amazon here.  

I also wanted to share a couple of my other favorite little finds this year.  I saw this car with a Christmas tree cookie jar pop up in my feed on Instagram, and I just had to have one for our hutch.

It is from World Market and it is under $10.  Continuing with the Christmas tree on a car theme, I picked up these ornaments at Target.  

 I will be back tomorrow with our Christmas master bath and bedroom.  

I hope you are having a wonderful week!