Sunday, December 13, 2009

Smockity's Christmas Tour

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*Be sure to check out my Tour of Christmas Crafts. You'll find chocolate cherry mice, gingerbread houses, and my nifty Christmas tree skirt there.


Christmas Tour of Homes with The Nester


If you are here for the first time, welcome to my home! The old timers already know me, but allow me to introduce myself.

I am a homeschooling mom of seven and a half who believes in allowing children to be self reliant. This has created a "Meh... It'll do" attitude in me, and may I just say that the more children you have the more your "Meh..." attitude will bloom.

I allow the children to do the Christmas decorating mostly themselves and I love to see the pride they take in their work! I must admit this takes quite a bit of turning a blind eye to their, shall we say, creative design.

*None of the following photos were staged. All were taken as is.


Here we have the front door wreath. It welcomes visitors with a "Children live here!" message.




This is Delbert. The children take turns hiding him in various places for the others to find each morning. Legend has it that he returns to the North Pole each night while everyone is sleeping to report to Santa all the deeds of good and naughty children.



Here we have a decoration hand made and placed by one of the children. We like to keep things simple around here.



Our tree and stockings all hung by the chimney with care.  Each child has a different needlepoint stocking and special stocking holder of their own. They love to unpack these and hang them each Christmas. Let's just imagine the angel at the top is leaning because she is watching over the dear little ones, shall we?




A closer look at the tree reveals some interesting spacing issues.  This is where the restraint on my part comes in.



The obligatory styrofoam and felt ornament.



More bunching.




And this is what happens when the Mom o' Many is still working on the Christmas tree skirt in mid December.

Thanks for visiting! I hope you enjoyed the tour and will come back soon.

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37 comments:

Carly said...

Lovely! I really appreciate the touches from small hands throughout your home - both the decorating and the messes. :o)

Thanks for sharing!

Kari said...

Very nice - it's not about perfection! It's about special memories for your family, and it looks like you will have plenty of those. :)

Heather said...

I'm sure these Christmases will make wonderful memories for your children. It's nice to see a mom who treasures the imperfections instead of trying to hide them.

Decor To Adore said...

Your home is just beautiful. May many wonderful Christmas memories be made within its walls.

Our home is having an old fashioned handmade Christmas this year. I hope you will stop by.

FishMama said...

Love your running commentary!

Shelby said...

Ohhhh....I really enjoyed your Christmas tour! Your commentary was fabulous and made me laugh.

I am a new(ish) homeschooling mom of (only) two so I am looking forward to adding you to my blogroll. I love having some seasoned HS'ing moms to peek in on! Hope that is alright!?!

Unknown said...

What fun! Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Debra Howard said...

What sweet Christmas decorations. Enjoyed it.
Debbie

Annie said...

I love it. Everything looks so pretty.

Have a wonderful week.

Hope you can visit my blog.

http://santiagotwingirls.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-decorations-tour-2009.html

Sue said...

Oh! how sweet, just wonderful memories, thank you for sharing.
Sue

Carmen @ Life with Sprinkles on Top said...

Yep, it does take restraint to just let the kids do it themselves. But they love it so! You are making wonderful memories for your kids. You could always just bunch some pretty fabric around the bottom of the tree. ;)

Laryssa Herbert said...

What great memories you children will have... Mom let us do it ourselves!

Thanks for showing us around.
Merry Christmas!

Unknown said...

You're such a good Mom for letting the kids decorate! My boys did the bottom part of the tree and I was proud of myself for letting them do that! HA!

Thanks for the tour and Merry Christmas!

Angie Holden said...

First of all -- I love Delbert!! And this looks like my house at Christmas!! I say -- let the kids do the decorating!! My kids LOVE it!! And I think your house looks PERFECT!

Marianne said...

I bet you and your kids are creating lovely Christmas memories!

Marie said...

I have ornament spacing issues myself! Thanks for sharing your home on the tour!
Marie @ Lemondrop ViNtAge

sweetjeanette said...

ROFL!!!! How sweet! Stopping by from Nester's Tour party...


Christmas Goodies Recipe Exchange

Ruth said...

I love it all. It is so sweet and filled with love from their little hearts.

Ruth

Viki said...

I love that you let your children do the decorating.

Anonymous said...

You are totally setting Santa up. He can't get into the house without knocking that tree over. Good for you for letting them do it their way. I love the hidden elf!

Ashli said...

I love Delbert, I totally forgot to take a pic of our elf,
Elfis Pretzel.

LouLou said...

I love it. Christmas is about grubby hands, fingerprints, and bunched ornaments....Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

The pictures of the bunched up ornaments bring back warm memories of my tree growing up. Of course, the kids did the decorating every year. Thanks for sharing.

Ashley @ pure and lovely said...

precious! love your post.

Unknown said...

Thank you for the non-perfectness :)

Caseybumpinalong said...

I love the Delbert idea! I'm going to have to look for a Delbert for our house.

Unknown said...

Nice! :) The kiddos will always remember decorating for Christmas! I did something like this with the kids this year as well...handed them the decorations and had them go put them up...I did do some with them also!! It was so fun and so much more relaxing then stressing about perfect decorating! :)

LOL! The arrows pointing to the various things made me chuckle! :P

Irene said...

Be happy and merry this Christmas and always. I love your lovely, real life displays.

Jorgelina said...

What sweet Christmas decorations.
Merry Christmas!

Holly said...

I love it, Connie. And I'm so glad that I'm not the only one. Our tree looks....laden. Not necessarily properly and beautifully decorated, but laden like yours - with broken but beloved ornaments and too many glumped onto one branch. And you know....THEY think it is beautiful! So it stays. :) Thanks for being real, my friend. It encourages me to do the same. Much love...

The Starr Family said...

I absolutely LOVE your decorations! Allowing kids creativity to prevail results in beauty!

Love your blog!
Merry Christmas!

Lene said...

I love it! I think it's beautiful. I hated decorating for Christmas because it had to be "perfect". We are working hard to make it a joyful family time and let the kids be proud of it.
We received an "Elf on a Shelf" for a gift this fall. It has been quite fun to hide him every night.

Ashley said...

The commentary on the ornament spacing definitely made me laugh!
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a lived in/loved in home. =)

Anonymous said...

I love it! My kids tree is similar with the bunching! I am stopping in from Nester's Place. To see my tour click on the 'Christmas 2009' Tag on in the left sidebar!

Unknown said...

I'm having a terrific time visiting everyone's home.
All the decorations are just beautiful! Thank you for the tour!

Totallyscrappy said...

Thanks for having me over and making me feel so welcome! I love the tree with its bunched ornaments and bare spots. Lots of room for love...
Come on over when you get a chance.

Anonymous said...

It's nice to see that the kids are so involved - that's part of what makes Christmas special. LOVE Delbert! :-)

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