A Hometown Christmas

I believe that the happiest time of the year for me is the month of December! I love driving around at night through the softly falling snow and looking at all the Christmas lights all over Utah.  I love holiday baking with family and friends, and visiting people you haven't seen in quite some time, to let them know you care about them.  

I love the festive activities such as watching The Christmas Carol and the Nutcracker.  But one of my favorite things is, after all of our Christmas decorations is put up, is to curl up on the couch next to the fire place, with the shimmer of the Christmas tree lights, and watch Christmas movies with my Mom.   

My Mothers house is one of the most beautiful homes at Christmas, from the exterior to the interior.  I always grew up with gorgeous Christmas trees, mantels that are both elegant and fun, and nativities from all over the world.  My father travels a lot for work, and when any of us go to some other country we try to find her a new nativity.  Its a fun tradition, and great to see every year.  So here are some pictures of my Mothers house, this is the first house that I decorated this year, and sadly will be my last Christmas tree post since its pretty much Christmas. Next year ill post some more!

The Candy Tree is one of my favorite trees in our house.  With bright colorful ball light on a frosted tree, lots of candy ornaments and sparkly sprays.  This year, we made ribbon sprays using different colorful ribbons and wire to secure them. Each girl in our family also has a candy themed tree to put up in her home.  Though mine is stored away in the basement until I have a home.

This is the tree with the lights on, at night its just magical!

The room carries out the candy theme with a garland over the armoire with felt candies and snowball garland adorning it with a Analee santa doll and his bowl of cookie dough.

I love how the mantel turned out, with sugar plum fairies holding different candies on glittery snowflakes and candy draped all long it.  Its lit up just like the tree with bright colored ball lights.

One of the nativities around the house.

Candy wreath on the wall in the same room as the tree.

Santas and angels on the hallway table.

The picture of Santa is one my older brother drew for my Mother a few years ago.  I remember him working on it late the night before and producing it the next morning. He rarely does art work anymore, so I love having this out every year. 

This is the railing on the stairs. It has a glittery silver garland.

The living room and the dining room off of it.  We went with a Winter Wonderland theme, with crystal icicles hanging from the chandelier, mercury glass around the room, and sparkly pillows and throws.

This is my Mothers Fontanini nativity, she also gave my sister and I both one to collect.  We would receive a piece each year for Christmas,something we both treasure dearly!

This is the horns on my Mothers fireplace mantel and the hanging stars above, i am so in love with them.  The Mercury glass is on the piano with a silver vase full of wintery branches with glass.

Ornaments on the tree in white gold, gold, white, and glass.

This is my tree from my apartment last year, we calmed down the purple since my mother hates purple and brought out more teal.  I love how it turned out, and its just stunning in the front entry way! The whole tree was inspired by a peacock feather which you can find on the top of the tree, and the tail feathers of the birds in the tree.