Deck, deck, deck.

Let's talk about my house for a bit, because it's super festive. I was tired and sick the night I set up the tree, so I just did that and a few garlands and called it. Then for like the next four days I pulled something out every time Eleanor went down for a nap or to bed so that every time she woke up, NEW THING. This is how I decorate from now on.

As usual, I have hella nutcrackers. Nutcracker guarding the boots, nutcracker guarding the stairs. 

Nutcracker guarding the free pointsetta.

Lookit him, he thinks he's so big. 

I bought a full-sized tree this year. Fake, of course. As I'm setting it up I'm telling Joel, This is such a part of my Christmas memories, going to the garage to get the various parts of the tree, stuffing his spindly areas with spare branches. My tree is pretty spindly. 

And this WAS going to be The Year I Forgot I Had Bought A Train Last Year At 75% Off Until I Opened My Bins And I Was Super Stoked About It, but it's turning out to be The Year I Discovered Deco Mesh. 

Look how baller my tree looks now. And FULL. I wish I had put in even MOOOOORE mesh. Joel has started describing the tree as a woman who starts getting work done and then can't stop, because I keep adding things. A string of pearls, this glorious topper I found at Value Village. 

My tree is Fancy As Shit. I told him he was lucky he didn't come home to a house buried in deco mesh. I still have half a roll left. 

I also have an Ingrid. My aunt gave us Ingrid like two years ago, but she was at my parents' house for the longest time because you cannot fit her in a suitcase. She has hooks, and pocketses. 

Every morning, Eleanor takes an ornament from that day's hook and hangs it on the tiny tree of yesterchristmas, which is now her tree. A lot of the ornaments are 'friends with each other,' by which she means they are hanging side by side.  

She hangs her ornament, finds the elf (wherever I spent eight seconds hiding him the night before. I don't put effort into that, and I also don't tell her he's spying on her. That's creepy, you guys), and then goes to her calendar to get her note, which tells her what festive thing we're doing that day (and also spell her name like ten times). 

Sometimes the 'festive thing' is going to the library for Christmas books. Sometimes it's painting sun catchers from the dollar store

because I like combining Festive Activities with Decorating Opportunities. 

For the last two days, we've been working on the mother of all festive activity slash decorations. 

It's going better than last year, I tell you that.