Christmas at the O'Connells 2011

This is our first Christmas in our new house and it was also the first year we decorated the outside of our house. I think Tom did a great job. :) I love this time of year and I love our new neighborhood. We have a lot of decorated houses to enjoy right outside our windows.

Another exciting thing about our new house is we have 2 Christmas trees, one in the dining room and one in the living room. We are planning on a third next year in out basement that will be Olivia's tree. Our two current trees are themed and very "grown-up". The basement tree will have colored lights and kid ornaments. I'm so excited even though that is a year away, haha.

This is our buffet in the dining room. I usually have more to the little village, but some was misplaced during our move and I haven't taken the time to locate them.

Yes, you see that right. We moved our thermostat, patched the wall, but we haven't painted it yet.

Our basement has a fireplace, but we haven't done anything to it since we moved in in February. Its a finished basement, but it's empty at the moment. Next years the stockings will be down there, but for this year, they are hung on a wall in the family room.

Our dining room tree is a red and silver tree that we've had for a few years. It's a little more "formal" than our family tree. Basically, it's just for show.

And this is our family tree. It's got more of a rustic Christmas theme with brown, gold, and red ornaments. I love this tree and I love every single ornament on it. Since it would be insane to show you every ornament, I picked three of my favorites.

This gold sparkly one catches the lights so perfectly in the dark and it makes me smile.

These are my DIY ornaments. I made about 12 of them when my mom and stepdad visited in October to meet Olivia. We got red and white striped fabric and tea stained it. I got whiffle balls from the dollar store and some jute twine. Then we ripped the fabric into strips and wrapped them and hit glued them to the balls. We used to the jute to hang them. I love the way it turned out.

This is our family ornament this year that I got from etsy. It's my absolute favorite. The seller did a wonderful job on it. I know I will cherish it for years to come.

And here are my two loves enjoying the Christmas tree. Olivia loves the lights. She's on,y going to be 3 months, but I'm already enjoying the season more because of her. I know each year will become even more fun than the last. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!