Welcome, Welcome!!
Come right on in and join me for another home tour. I’m pretty sure I’ve told y’all 15 bajillion times that Christmas is my favorite holiday, so no need to tell you again right? The past 2 years have been a bit rough for our family for many reasons… one of those was reasons has been the fact that we moved across the country 3 TIMES in 1.5 years and that put us in a bit of a financial rut, and we’ve been trying to dig ourselves out of the debt that put us in. I’m all about the Dave Ramsey method and making sure we are focused on paying off our debts, so the past few Christmas seasons I’ve been focused on making everything and trying not to buy anything new as far as holiday decor is concerned.
Sometimes I look at my pictures and I think they are not nearly as pretty as I want them, they aren’t exactly what I would like, or its obvious we don’t have the money to buy new things.
You the know the voice, the one that whispers in your ear all your short coming and inadequacy’s. That nasty little voice is not my favorite and I try to shush him/her(?) all the time. It’s especially hard when I take a peek at Pinterest or Instagram and I see all the pretty pictures and know that mines nothing like that. Man is that voice a downer.
So in keeping with my effort to quiet that voice, I present to you my Christmas home tour, the one that’s my favorite, even though the little voice tells me it’s not good enough….. we all know better, right?
So without further ado I present to you our real life, perfectly imperfect, not magazine worthy, lived in, laugh filled, 5 kids making memories everywhere, Christmas home tour.
My camera has been on the fritz lately and my pictures are definitely not what I want them to be, but that’s life right? Sometimes things just don’t work out the way we want them too or intend for them too?
My poor nutcracker’s arm has been broken off and brought to me no less than 15 times so far this month by my curious toddler, he always hands it to me and says “Uh oh!!” And I can never ever be upset when I look at his adorable little face. He can’t help it if curiosity is in his DNA.
When we look at this picture lets pretend that the fridge isn’t there and that we have a real actual working one in the kitchen. (No fridge since September is no fun.) I am the worst at hiding cords and I didn’t realize until I uploaded the pictures that my plates aren’t even. Lol! That’s my life y’all, mom of 5 in all its disorganized, crazy glory. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
See the knob broke off the bottom left cabinet door? Yep that broke off in our move….. 2 years ago, and I still haven’t fixed it. It’s on my list, but somehow never makes it to the top of the list.
I love the open staircase wall and the wood paneling on the wall with the tree in front of it. All those months and months of planning and building that wall finally paid off. I was so excited to see it with the Christmas tree and it didn’t disappoint.
That bottom drawer of the dresser did have knobs but a particular 9-year-old with Hulk like strength broke them right off. And when I say broke I mean full on broken, can’t fix them, buy new ones kind of broke. And I can buy new ones, I just seem to forget EVERY.SINGLE.TIME I walk by the knob section at Hobby Lobby. I even stop for a second because I feel like I am forgetting something, and then move on because surely I would remember if I needed knobs. Yep, my memory is that bad.
Can we also talk about ornament placement with a toddler in the house? Well hold that thought…. its not just my toddler, its my 6-year-old too. They move the ornaments ALL the time, ALL over the tree, even though they have their own tree. They just really like mine the best I guess.
I’m also not the lady who stages presents for pictures. I mean I could, and I would love too, but with my house full of little kids and an army of little men at my disposal, I know the staging won’t stay and I also know that I would probably get upset at them for messing with it. It’s just not worth it to me. Don’t get me wrong, I love looking at people’s pictures of their trees all staged beautifully, it’s just not in the cards for me right now, and that’s okay. I am rarely alone, I usually always have a kid by my side and more often than not I’m trying to snap the pictures as they are running through the room. Half the pictures I take have to get deleted because there is a child sized blur zooming across the screen. Sometimes it looks like we have ghosts living in our house…. nope just my kids.
And baby gates, there is no hiding those. I mean I guess I could take it down and hide it and put it back up just for the pictures…. but y’all, I just don’t have time for that. See my above statement about my mini shadows and you will know why.
I still need to build a box around the fireplace base, change lights in the kitchen and get new counters….. but somehow none of that matters to me at Christmas time.
The stockings were hung….. and the sign was moved by a goofy toddler and I forget to put it back and the backpack hook in the back hallway is out of control and my stocking wont seem to stay facing forward and the flooring underneath the hutch in the dining room still needs fixed. Like I said, real life.
This is probably my most favorite Christmas picture. We decided this year to do secret Santa’s instead of gifts for each other. We each picked a name and served that person (secretly if possible for the whole month). My 6-year-old drew our 9 year olds name. His daily chore is the dishes (which he hates) and she helped him do those dishes almost every single day this month. It was really something special to see them all in action helping each other. I think we found a new family tradition.
We moved around some furniture for the millionth time this month and shifted the bookshelves to this wall and started a gallery wall over the couch. It’s not nearly finished but I like it so much better this way.
The kids love how much room we now have for them to run around in the living room. I love the open space too. Now to get new flooring. I hate our carpet, it’s so gross but its better than nothing…. or subflooring (which is currently the floor in our guest bath).
Our keeping room/dining room was one of the things that made me fall in love with our house. I love the space so much. I have big plans for the bookshelves in here, but for now this will have to do.
The kids tree makes me smile. Its far from perfect by decor standards but it’s absolutely perfect by mom standards. I love how much thought my kids put into decorating it. I love that they put the unbreakable ornaments on the bottom of the tree and the “precious” ones at the top, so baby brother didn’t break them. I love seeing all the ornaments they have made for me over the years and I even love seeing the random ornaments on the floor, because it will always remind me of the year Fynnock decided that the round ornaments were balls and discovered that if he took them off and threw them back on the tree that more often than not they would find a place to latch on, on the way back down. It was like magic to him and I hope I never forget the look of pure joy that spread across his adorable little face every time it happened. This Christmas was very magical for him.
Our table top is covered in paint and needs redone. I also want to make bigger legs for it. And add in 2 more chairs. But honestly for now, its perfect. Its full of memories and glitter and tells the tale of a million projects that have been created on its sturdy surface.
The bookshelves are full of projects that my kids have made over the years. The Christmas village is full of pieces the kids have given me and that I got passed down from my grandmother when she passed away.
This is our home. It’s not really complete as far as decor goes. It’s definitely not something you would see in a magazine. The pictures are definitely sub par and you can tell we live here. And you know what? That’s totally fine by me… because we do live here. Our life happens here and I am enjoying every minute of it. I’m finding joy in my journey. I’m acknowledging things that I want to change but I’m not dwelling on them. I’m not hiding away until everything is just right. Because I might be a while before it’s just right and it might never actually be just right. My taste changes, my family changes, life changes and our home changes right along with it.
So welcome to our house, where everyone’s welcome, messes are memories, kids sometimes make me want to pull my hair out and never clean up after themselves, laughter fills its walls, friendships are made stronger, loud and exciting parties happen as often as they possibly can, siblings bonds are forged, tears are shed, and life happens. Life in all its beautiful, mess filled, chaotic glory happens within these walls. And that’s exactly the kind of home I want.
