We normally just put up some garland and white lights outside on the windows and I'll put random little Christmas knick knacks around the house. (Okay, does "knick knacks" make anybody else think of "knick knack patty whack, give the dog a bone" ? I mean, WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? Knick knack patty whack just sounds wrong.) By knick knacks I mean an assortment of nativity scenes, fuzzy snowmen thingies I hang from doorknobs, tin buckets filled with cinnamon sticks, Christmas bath and kitchen towels, Christmas smelly candles, and the like. The only part of the house I really "transform" is the fireplace. I also dress up Blue and Seumas. I consider them part of the Christmas decorations...they don't...but I keep them alive with dry food, water, and petting, so...they can live with it.
My mom found this awesome lime green aluminum Christmas tree for me a few years ago. I absolutely adore it. I wish I had one for every room in the house. I love lime green as I'm sure you can tell from the pictures below. We have our childhood ornaments and some of our own we've hoarded throughout the years, but we decorate our tree with travel ornaments we've collected from our trips since we've been married. If we can find a good ornament on vacation, we'll do that. But more often than not, we'll use a keychain. Because sometimes, those dadburn ornaments are expensive. (i.e. $47 for an ornament in the South Pacific vs. $13 for a keychain) And a lot of times, the keychains have a wider variety of styles and whatnot. I'm like...it can hang from a tree and it's prettier (and cheaper) than the dumb ornament, so get the keychain. And if we've visited the same place more than once, I'll get another keychain and date them so we'll remember the years we've visited. We like our travel tree. I found our stockings at a Christmas expo about four years ago. They. Creep. Me. Out. But I love them. They remind me of little munchkin feet and I have this nightmare of the toes curling and uncurling and ringing the bells and oh gosh, please don't let that happen. Blue and Seumas' stockings are in the middle, although they don't seem to care about them. Ungrateful moochers. David sets up his little train around the tree and presents...which Blue is thrilled about. When I come home, at least two, if not all, of the train cars are thrown off the tracks as if mercilessly dealt a fuzzy Soft Paws encapsulated blow by an evil, soulless cat. That poor train. She hates it so much. I think that's one reason I love that David sets it up each year. Sometimes I'll let it run for hours while Blue paces around the living room, devising a plan to overthrow the Kingdom of the Christmas Tree...guarded by the Train of All Things Happy.
As you can tell, they both love to dress up for Christmas.
This is Seumas waiting in his elf outfit for David to come home. Santa's little helper.
This is what his ears do when you say "Who's at the door? Who's at the door?"
Cutie patootie star from World Market. I heart that place.
Our extra creepy stockings. Seumas' stocking has tucked itself behind Blue's somehow.
Our extra creepy stockings. Seumas' stocking has tucked itself behind Blue's somehow. 
Blue and the Train of All Things Happy. Do you see that evil in her eyes? She only wishes malice and hurt towards the Train.
