My Christmas elves

Frances, George and I have been slowly putting up Christmas decorations this week, a welcomed change from our usual Saturday morning 3 hour marathon decoration sessions from Christmases past.  And while you can imagine, F&G are not yet able to actually help me, they have done a remarkable job playing around the house with the Christmas-themed stuffed animals and books (and there is nothing like Mitch Miller’s version of “Frosty the Snowman” on repeat to liven up a dull afternoon) while I’ve been gradually making things a little more red and green. 

Just a few of the highlights:

Our den fireplace

As an aside, I have aspirations of having a house decorated like the inside of a Pottery Barn store (surely I am not the only person who is instantly relaxed the second I walk into a PB and smell the combination of pumpkin spice, pine and clean cotton).  Right now during these lean years, we are closer to a combination of Garden Ridge and Michaels but I am hoping the dried cranberries on the den mantle are getting me one step closer.



Every former ballet dancer needs to display his or her collection of Nutcrackers



Marshall and Max enjoying the holiday throw pillows

Our sunroom

A year or so ago, Will had an idea to hang boxwood wreaths in our sunroom windows (I am telling you – I live with Martha Stewart).  I love the gold and white ribbons to match our gold and white little Christmas tree.

We spend the majority of our time in this little room, so we may see many incarnations of Christmas in here over these next weeks.

Our living room

I love our little family of Williamsburg carolers.

The real Christmas tree, lit but not decorated.  Our project for this week!

And finally, I woke up this Monday morning to find the following note waiting for me in the kitchen:

My surprise?

I’ll give you three guesses which elf is responsible:

Happy Monday everyone!