It's Almost Christmahanukwanzaakah!

Happy Sunday, everyone!

A few more photos of the decor to remember our 1st Christmas in our new house:

Up first, our puppy-proof tree - notice I didn't say "Chew-Free" because I'm sure that will still happen sometime between now and the 25th!

I had to get all new (mostly) ornaments this year because, well, I wasn't about to put glass/breakables on a tree with a puppy! (Or with a cat who was a kitten last year, who thinks he still fits IN the tree...LOL...when clearly, he is just too big now).

I wanted some more sparkle to my tree anyway, and I wanted to keep up the red/silver theme I have in my house for the rest of the Xmas decor. $15 of Kohls Cash got me 8 new sparkly ornaments, and $3.50 at Walgreens got me 24 other sparklers! The 'F' was my $1 WalMart score (just let me tell you ... how HARD it is to find anything monogrammed in the letter F! Seriously! Look next time, and there will be almost every other letter ... besides F ... so needless to say, WalMart made me happy!)

Also, I wanted a tree skirt this year...but I'm also super cheap. All the pretty ones were $30-$60, and I wasn't going to waste money on an ugly one. So, my friends, this is a round table cloth from Target ... yep, a table cloth AND I got it on SALE for $7.99, originally $12.99 --- SCORE! Yes, it's a little gathered-looking, but I LOVE it! (I also have the matching pillow, but darn, that was full price ;-)

Here's the tree:

Some of my favorite new ornaments...

And the last "festive" feature in our house (so far anyway) is my 'X-Mas Cookie 2010' to do list! Just some ideas jotted down on my DIY interior cabinet chalkboard - listing what I all want to get baked up this year. I usually use the chalkboard to jot down what I'm out of, so I don't forget to pick something up at the store!