Decking the Cottage

I LOVE Christmas.  Love love love it.  I love the lights, the family, the food, the colors, the happiness, the joy, the presents, the decor... I could go on. 

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the hubs and I had a revelation that not only would this be our first Christmas together as a hitched duo, but it is also the first time we have our own place to deck with all the glory that is the holidays. 

So off we went. 

First Shawn put up lights around the house.  Just a few colorful strands lining the front of the house and roof and some running down the gutter next to our front door.  Sure, it's not anything people will ooh and aah at, but we do.  Every time we drive up at night we make sure to remark, "why look at this charming little cottage.  How lovely."  It's fun.

Our little cottage was made even more lovely by our additions last weekend.  First, we bought a little tree.  My family rarely did the whole live Christmas tree thing so getting a live tree is a big deal to me.  But we figured this was a special occasion.  It's a smaller one, just 5 feet tall, and nice and skinny so it doesn't take up too much space in our tiny living room.  We decorated it with all the ornaments from both our childhoods.  It's kind of perfect.

The other thing I did was make a holiday bouquet to hang on the door.  Shawn kind of wanted a wreath but we didn't really want to pay for anything else (other than the tree) that was going to die.  So I got the idea that maybe I would make something festive.

First I started with a pile of branches carefully selected from around my house.  Some pine, juniper, 2 kinds of fir, some holly complete with berries, and cedar.  I also found a pine cone along the interurban trail behind my house for an accent.

Way more that I needed.

Then I arranged them on the floor in a nice array.  I'm no florist, so I did the best I could.

I had a lot left over.

Then I banded them tightly with a rubber band including the pine cone.

The stems will all be different lengths but they can be cut after they're banded.

Next I made a festive bow out of some ribbon and tied that around the top to conceal the rubber band.

Thicker ribbon would have made a prettier bow, but it's all I had.

That's it.  Hang it on the door and all your guests will be greeted with a nice, fresh-smelling piece of festive fun.  I really like the word festive.  Can you tell?

There's nothing better than sitting in front of the fire, surrounded by the smell of a live Christmas tree, watching some great BBC programming.  It really helps in getting through the sad, cold, dark, wet Seattle winter.