Our Indiana Christmas Decorations!!

Yes! Believe it or not...all those stockings belong to our immediate family. Eight kids, three in-law kids, two grandkids and mine and Roger's...for a total of fifteen stockings hung on our mantle. Lord willing, there will be AT LEAST two more for the little babies due to be born in 2010! We always fill stocking for the "dating" people in our grown but not gone kids' lives, too but they aren't hung on the mantle yet.

These are my "Old World" Santas. I keep them on the top of my hutch in the family room with greenery and lights and such. The bunny is just a strange little thing that I add to them. I have REALLY come under the conviction of the Lord lately that I am putting too much emphasis on the Santa aspect of Christmas so I'm going to start cutting back and adding Christ oriented things to our decorations from now on. I read a blog from the Maxwell family and they have inspired me to be more meaningful in our Christmas decor. However, my hubby and I have discussed it and he said that he thinks it's ok for us to keep some of our Santa's but just maybe cut back on the ones we don't really care that much for. These are some I will certainly be keeping. The one in the middle I just bought from Goodwill last week and the bunny was purchased at Goodwill as well. The Santa on the left has been in our decorations since before I got ROGER, so I will keep him, as well! (AND Roger....) The Santa on the right was a gift from my "not so crazy about Santa husband"...but since I really like old world Santas, Roger bought him for me anyway! We just really want our focus to be on Christ!!

This is the "real" Christmas tree we cut down as a family. Notice my doggie, Precious, in the corner? Yeah, her eyes don't really glow. She's a sweetie, part shepherd and collie, I think. She's getting old...about 11 or 12, I think and we really really love her. We got her from a neighbor who was going to take her to the Humane Society and I had already fallen in love with her so we adopted her!!!!

This is the new tree that my husband won from Circle Center Mall in downtown Indianapolis. It was the Nordstrum tree and came with gift certificates!! WOOHOO! It has all these odd looking wooden bird all over it. We like it because it is unusual. It just was delivered on Monday. (Our woodwork trim isn't done yet...hmmmm...it's been two years......oh well.....) It is in the corner of our dining room.

This is our tree in my favorite room, the living room. It's kind of hard to see but most of it is decorated in white. I received Christmas keys from my secret pal from church last week and they are hung with red ribbons...I'm planning to change them. There are three keys on the tree. The first is the Shepherd's key and is supposed to represent the lowliness of Christ's birth (you hang it low on the tree), the middle key is the Magi key and placed high on the tree because they followed the start to find Jesus. The third is the Christ key and is to be hung in the center because Christ was hung in the center...between you and me. I have some crocheted ornaments to put on this tree yet and I'm planning to spend time with the younger kids and make some more whitish ornaments for this tree.

Thanks for looking our our Christmas trees! Merry CHRISTmas!!!