Deep in the Heart of Tejas: Hello again! Time for Christmas!

Sorry I have been MIA. I have been on vacation with my wonderful family. My awesome sister arranged for us to rent out three houses at a ranch/bed and breakfast in the Texas Hill Country. It was SO AMAZING! We ate, played cards, star gazed, rode horses, enjoyed nature, and spent quality time together. What more could you ask for??

Once we got back to reality, it was time to decorate for Christmas! It turns out that I have way more Christmas stuff than I can display in this house. Honey- time to move :)

Here is our Christmas tree.

I am a clearance shopper. I bought this tree last year at the Hallmark store for 20 bucks! It was a display tree but the lights were not working right. It had colored lights and I wanted white anyways. I thought taking them off would be a breeze. Ha! Three hours and a ruined manicure later, I was done. This is a quality tree :)

I always loathed artificial trees and thought it took the fun out of the Christmas tree. No hunting for the perfect tree and the amazing smell. But as I have gotten older, opinions have changed. Our plan is to one day have a real tree that is our fun, crazy, family tree. We will also have an artificial tree that is the "pretty" tree.

I found this candelabra at my favorite consignment shop in the town I work in for THREE BUCKS! Woohoo! I thought it would make a perfect advent wreath. I already had the candles and swung by Hobby Lobby to get the candle wreaths. I LOVE it!

I added a poinsettia swag to our wrought iron piece. They have these at Hobby Lobby for 50 bucks. I absolutely love these cable knit stockings that I found at Big Lots a few years ago. The holders are from Hobby Lobby as well.

I found this Jim Shore piece for TWO DOLLARS at Goodwill. Her hands have broken off so I am looking for a small garland for her to hold.

My sweet hubby gave me this piece from Jim Shore last year. It is so special to me. We are making an effort to leave out Santa and focus on the real reason for the season. The mercury glass finials are from the Hallmark store at 80% off. They are so beautiful in person!

You can see the Texas themed pieces that my mom gives us :) The tree looks SO SO SO SO pretty with the lights on. We strung two sets of white lights. Then we added a strand of lights that I found at Hobby Lobby. They do all sorts of patterns but I just wanted them because they twinkle. It is so pretty!!!

I LOVE ornaments that have clips! They are so cute and you can put them exactly where you want them. I love cardinals and nature-y pieces.

I found this candle holder at a thrift shop in the town I work in. It was two bucks! I put some candle wreaths under it and I love it! Oh I got the candle wreaths at Gardenridge for like 20 cents :)

Here is the nativity that my hubby gave me a few years ago. He said it reminded him of me with all of the swirls.

About 10 years ago, I bought a set of these for my mother. I have looked for them every Christmas season since. I randomly found them at Dollar Tree. I literally shrieked when I found them!!!! I got the last 4 they had.

I ran out of room so I hung my Jim Shore stockings from the hutch. I got these at 80% off as well. I was SHOCKED that they were on clearance. I love Jim Shore and have several pieces.

I got these stocking holders from Pier 1 on clearance last year. They were originally 20 and I paid 2 bucks for them!

I love that they hold an ornament as well. They were an ugly gold so I painted them, antiqued them, and sealed them. They look like glistening snow in person!

I found this at the consignment store in the town I work for 4 bucks. It came with a really cute fall garland. I added one of my candle wreaths from Gardenridge.

I got the little mercury glass pails at Holiday House in Little Rock. I re used the containters from Dollar Tree that I put candy corn in for fall and put in peppermint sticks. I also put another Gardenridge candle wreath on my favorite candle. It is from Gardenridge and is huge and is 12.99. They smell amazing!

I wrap all of the presents that go to my inlaws house in the same wrapping. I have previously done a winter theme and used blue and silver wrapping paper. I wrapped the packages in white ribbon and attached a snowflake ornament as the name tag. They were SO cute and everyone could easily tell what packages were from us. This year I wanted to use twine and I found this gorgeous poinsettia paper at Dollar General. I LOVE the way they look. It makes me think of "brown paper packages tied up with string" :)

We both absolutely love our angel. We got her at Lowes a few years ago. Random huh?! I need to change out the ribbon. I am thinking about getting some long ribbon that will start at her and run all the way down the tree.