Christmas Living Room 2014

I'm plugging away at putting the finishing touches on my Christmas decorations this week. The most important room, the living room, is done! I'm enjoying the fire as I type away and trying not to notice my kids are flinging around the pillows and throw blankets right now. At least I have the pictures to prove it was clean at one point.

You might notice I finally got rid of the ceiling fan. It's been an eyesore for so many years (10 but who's counting). My husband loves ceiling fans so this was a big deal. I replaced it with an inexpensive light from Overstock that is very similar to one Pottery Barn sells. I didn't have many options in this room because of the low ceilings, but anything is an improvement over the hovercraft I had in here before.

The reindeer is a recent find from Target. Isn't he cute? I have a feeling if he were real he wouldn't be thrilled with being called cute. I think he would prefer majestic or regal. He may be a bit of a snob.

I didn't change much else on the mantel. I doubled up a faux garland and then added varying types of real branches on the mantel. If I have any that turn brown it will be easy to take them out and replace them. I probably won't, but at least I have that option if I'm feeling industrious. The boxwood wreath on the window is from Trader Joe's and it was only $10! I think every woman in that store walked out with one that day. Oh, and that's Jingle, our Elf on the Shelf, hanging out inside the wreath. No one is supposed to touch him or he will lose his magic so he made it into the pictures this year. I'm not risking the wrath of my 6 year old by moving him. He is very much into the magic of Christmas this year. It took me by surprise, but I'm so excited that I'm searching for Christmas movies for us to watch at night and planning on taking him to see Santa soon. Oh, what fun!

It's not quite a Rockefeller Christmas around here though. I have to show you what I'm dealing with while trying to clean up this room and take pictures.

Serenity now! If you were wondering why Mario wasn't photobombing as usual, this would be why.

Would you ever know that was going on looking at this picture?

This looks way too peaceful to be my living room!