Seasonal Simplicity Christmas Home Tour
Hello, hello, friends! I am so excited to be sharing our Christmas home tour today!
C’mon in! Boy, do I have a story for you! 😉
Entry
Now, you may notice that my post went up a bit late today. I’m so sorry about that, but I promise that I have a good excuse. In fact, instead of talking about the decor in the photos I’m about to show you (because it’s fairly self-explanatory), I thought I’d tell you the story of why this post went up late… I think it will be much more entertaining. 😉
Sunroom
My Christmas decorating actually got off to a late start overall this year. I decided to order a new tree since our last one was made for the shorter ceilings in our old house and was looking pretty dinky in our current house. My new taller tree arrived, and I excitedly put it together. Much to my dismay, there was an entire ring around the middle where the lights would not work, no matter what I did.
Sigh.
So I called the company, and they told me that I could keep the tree with the broken lights, and they would send me a replacement tree. Great! The second tree arrived, and I again set it up excitedly…and again, there was a section of lights that would not light up. I tried everything I could think of. I even tried combining pieces of the two trees to make one tree with all working lights, but to no avail.
I called again, and the company agreed to give me a full refund but still said I could keep both of the trees. So I gave one away and since I’m cheap, I just put a spare strand of lights on the other one, blending it in with the lights that were already on the tree, and I had myself a free Christmas tree. Woohoo!
Messing with all of these trees had put me a few weeks behind on my decorating, but I still had plenty of time before today’s tour, so I took my time decorating the rest of the house. Then things got busy. I had deadlines to meet and trips to go on, and before I knew it, I had made it to yesterday morning.
I don’t normally wait until the day before a post goes live to take photos, but time had gotten away from me. I wasn’t worried, though! I still had the whole day, and the only thing I had to do before I snapped my photos was help Donnie hang some curtains in our sunroom that I had been dying to hang for a few weeks.
I got out all of the supplies for him, and he started working away. But as he took a closer look at the curtain rods I had purchased, he realized that they were going to be too short for where we wanted to hang them. You see, I had measured the windows and even made sure to add some extra inches for a buffer, but what I had forgotten to take into account is that there will eventually be big, chunky, beautiful trim around these windows, and we wanted the curtains to be able to hang wide so that they didn’t cover the future trim work.
Sigh.
Because Donnie is a gem, he offered to run to the store and buy the correctly sized curtain rods. I checked and double checked online to make sure our store had them in stock, and was relieved to see that they did. Yay!
A little while later, though, Donnie called me from the store to let me know that even though the website said that they had plenty of our curtain rods in stock, they were actually one short. He was going to have to go to a second store location to pick up the other rod. (Such a good husband!)
Dining Room
At this point I was getting a little nervous because this was taking way more time than I had thought it would, but I still thought I would have enough time to take my photos, edit them, and write the post after we had installed the curtains. It might be a late night, but I could totally pull it off!
Donnie finally returned home with all of the curtain rods we needed and began installing them. The method he had to use to install this particular type of rod was a little clunkier than we were used to, but I was just relieved to have rods that were the correct length, so I didn’t worry about it too much.
Once the first rod was up, I inserted the first curtain panel onto the end, twisted on the finial, and stepped back to admire it… and promptly realized that I had purchased the wrong length of curtains… and not just by a little bit. They were 12-18″ too long.
Sigh.
Now I had to make a choice. I could hem the curtains. This would take me a long while because there were 8 curtain panels, and I’m not the best at that sort of thing. Also with the luck I was having that day, I figured I would probably end up screwing them up. The other choice was to go back to the store where I purchased the curtains (which is 35-40 minutes away) and exchange them for the correct length.
(At this point we already had a bunch of holes in the wall from putting up the curtain rods, so just nixing the curtains altogether wasn’t really an option. Of course.) This was also the point in the day where I had resigned myself to the fact that this tour was going to be published late. I was running out of light, so my hopes of taking any daylight pictures were dashed. #boggerfail
Donnie (who, if you haven’t realized it yet, is the hero in this story) graciously volunteered to be the one to run to the store to exchange the curtains. This act was extra gracious because I had thrown away the receipt (If you are keeping track of my mistakes at this point, we are approximately at number eleventy billion.), and he was going to have to convince them to take the long curtains back without it. Eek.
Since he is pretty convincing, he managed to make the exchange without a problem, and headed back home. He arrived, and we finally got the curtains up… they were even the correct length! Yes!
We had had to move the Christmas tree out of the way to get the corner curtains hung, so Donnie helped me move it back into position, and then, in his 827th heroic act of the day, he took the boys to go pick up some dinner while I attempted to put the rest of the sunroom back together.
Nighttime
Right after he left with the boys, I noticed that the tree was sitting a little crooked, so I reached underneath it to try to adjust the base. As I was making my adjustments, the base folded up so that it was no longer an X shape, but a straight line, and my entire [decorated] tree fell over on its side, several glass bulbs smashing into pieces as it hit the floor.
Sigh.
***We now pause the pretty home tour pictures for a moment to bring you… real life.***
***And now, back to the tour! 🙂 ***
If I hadn’t been so frustrated about the long string of unfortunate events that had led to this point, I would have burst out laughing. I officially felt like Alexander with my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. But I persevered! I managed to get the tree back upright, clean up the mess from the broken ornaments, and with some fluffing and straightening, the tree returned to its original glory (for the most part).
My curtains were up. My house was decorated. And I was even able to grab some pretty night shots of our Christmas lights before heading to bed. Yippee!
I woke up the next morning, took my daylight photos, and now here we are… albeit a bit late, but after everything I had to go through to get to this point, the fact that this post is even up at all is a win in my book!
And let’s be honest… if curtain problems and my tree falling over is the worst thing that happens to me this week, I’m doing pretty well. Plus now I have quite the story to tell, which I’ll be able to laugh at… eventually. 😉
Merry Christmas, sweet friends! I hope that you and your loved ones have a happy and blessed holiday season!
You can visit our other Christmas home tours in these posts:
2018 Christmas Home Tour- Part 1
2018 Christmas Home Tour- Part 2
2015 Christmas Home Tour (Townhouse)- Part 1
2015 Christmas Home Tour (Townhouse)- Part 2
2015 Christmas Nights Tour (Townhouse)
Sources
This list contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.
Entry
Rug- HomeGoods
Sunroom
Cushions re-covered by amazing friend Kristi and her talented mama!
Dining Room
“In Christ Alone” Canvases- Made in the same way as described in this tutorial.
Pencil Tree- Hobby Lobby
Terrarium (similar)
If you’ve made it this far, I’m seriously impressed. That was LONG! Thanks so much for sticking with me! Have a wonderful day!
This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.
Those nighttime pictures are GORGEOUS. 🙂
Sarah
You are the sweetest, Sarah! Thank you! Hope you have a wonderful day!
~Abby =)
What a beautiful tree and home!!! Have a Blessed Christmas!!
Aw, thank you, Beth! I hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas! <3
~Abby =)
I really like the nighttime photos too. Your tree (and home) are beautiful!
Aw, thanks so much, Jenni! The nighttime ones are some of my favs, too! 🙂 Hope you’re having an awesome week!
~Abby =)
Such a pretty tree, Abby! So sorry you had the section of lights that weren’t working. That happened on a new tree I bought, too. And then to have your other tree fall over! Ugh. Regardless, your decorating is truly beautiful!
It was quite the day! 🙂 Thanks so much for your sweet words, Jennifer! Hope you have a great weekend! <3
~Abby =)
Oh girl!! It never rains but it pours. I’ve had a day like that myself. Well done for picking your tree (and yourself) back up and persevering! I always appreciate glimpsing the real life behind the perfect pictures. It makes the beautiful parts even more inspiring. Hope your week got better! xo
Doesn’t it though?!? What a crazy day! It has definitely improved, thank goodness. Haha! Have a great weekend, sweet friend! <3
~Abby =)
As we say in the south- bless your heart! What a crazy story, but the end result looks amazing!! I hope you can enjoy that tree and those pretty curtains this Christmas season!!
It was certainly something! Makes me enjoy them even more, I think! 🙂 Have a great weekend, Sarah!
~Abby =)
I think this was your funniest post ever! I can feel your pain though. What a great hubby you have! I hope he was laughing too? True that they are all first world problems and all sorted now, thank goodness!
In the moment, I’m not so sure but we are both laughing now! 🙂 haha Thanks for stopping by, Rachael! Have a great weekend! <3
~Abby =)
Never a dull moment! Love hearing all the nuances that go on behind the scenes, it’s so real and happens all the time. There’s no snapping the fingers and presto it’s all magically decorated, it’s quite a challenge and your results are amazing! So gorgeous.
A challenge for sure! 🙂 Lol! Oh, what a day! Thanks so much for your kind words, Jaime! Happy Friday! <3
~Abby =)
Whew! Your patience is amazing – and hubby is a great sport. Your house is gorgeous and the tree is very pretty even after the tumble it took. The night pictures are really pretty – I love the ambiance of the Christmas lighting when all other lights are off.
There will always be days where we wonder how we do it all…but we always do. I look back on my college years (7 years of part time) with a full time job, a 3rd shift husband and two children who were actively engaged in school activities and Boy Scouts and wonder how I did it. (I keep reminding myself that I was about 15 years younger). 🙂
It really is amazing what we can figure out a way to manage, isn’t it? Sounds like you REALLY had your hands full… wow! You go girl! 🙂 Hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season! <3
~Abby =)
Hahaaaa- you could be related to me. We put our tree up & one of the strands was out- also in the middle. That means new Chrismas tree next year because I just went with it. Decorated you can’t tell. Now for the serious stuff- HOW did you do your ribbon garland????? I have tried so many dif ways over the years, I can never get them to look that nice. And where did you get the stockings?? I wanted some similar that I could paint on. Thank you for sharing your tree adventures. I haven’t knocked mine over yet, but I haven’t finished decorating it either. LOL
Hi, Robin! For the ribbon, I used this video tutorial from Inspired Charm: https://inspiredbycharm.com/2017/11/christmas-tree-ribbon-tips.html. It was SO helpful! I got the stockings from Ballard Designs. I’m not sure if they still have the exact ones in stock. Hope this helps! Have a great weekend! <3
~Abby =)
Thank you for taking your time to answer. My cat really trashed the tree last night, they love the garland. So it is a great time to re-do it. I am off to see a video & look at Ballard Designs. 😀
Abby!! It’s absolutely gorgeous! I love how light and bright and airy it is!! Such a fiasco…. but it looks absolutely amazing now, friend! So glad you could be on this hop with us!
Thanks for being so patient with me! You’re the best! 🙂 Have a great weekend, sweet friend! <3
~Abby =)
I enjoyed your post. By chance which tree was defective? And where did you buy it? I have to get a tree fast…thank you.
Hi, Debra! The tree was made by National Tree Co. and I ordered it through Wayfair. Good luck! 🙂
~Abby =)
Oh my goodness, this story!! I can’t.
I can relate all too well. I love that you incorporated the fallen tree 🙂
Besides all that, your home looks amazing! I love your front entry. Where did you get that thin table in your entryway? I need to find a similar one for my entry.
-Marly
Thanks so much, Marly! It is from Soft Surroundings! It’s linked at the bottom of my post if you need help finding it. It was certainly quite the day but I’m happy with how it turned out! 😉 Hope you have a wonderful weekend! <3
~Abby =)
Oh, totally missed that! Thanks for pointing it out. Hope you have a wonderful weekend too!
I love you home decor bloggers because you create what I can only dream of. I see your pictures and I stand in awe. Then my mommy brain kicks in and I think of a 1,000 ways my three under five would destroy each exhibit and how long each one would last. Haha. Maybe one day I’ll be able to create what you lovely ladies do each day 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
It definitely gets much easier as they get older… that’s for sure! There is still hope! 🙂 Have a wonderful holiday season, Micah!
~Abby =)
Never never never let that guy go! He’s one in a million.
He really is the best! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by, Cindy! <3
~Abby =)
Oh I needed those little giggles this morning! I’m so glad I’m not the only discombobulated one this season! Everything looks beautiful Abby, even with all the blunders ??
I’m finally giggling about it, too! 🙂 Lol! It was certainly quite a day! I hope you have a wonderful holiday season, Danielle! <3
~Abby =)
Oh my goodness – I love this story… Only because I’ve been there before. Your home and vignettes all look so lovely and the curtains are perfect. You would never know all the headaches it caused. LOL. Have a wonderful holiday. Kristy
Lol! It was certainly something! 🙂 Laughing now… then not so much! Haha! Hope you had a great weekend, Kristy! <3
~Abby =)
pssst … #bloggerfail
Also, Merry Christmas!
It really was quite the adventure! Lol! Merry Christmas to you too, Leslie! <3
~Abby =)
Well, that was quite a day! But it was so worth it. Wishing you, Donny and the C’s a blessed, Merry Christmas in your new home! It’s beautiful and the photos are gorgeous!
You are too sweet, Karen! Thank you! It was quite the adventure! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! <3
~Abby =)
Hi Abby, the night time pictures are awesome with the lighting. Are these diffused bulbs, please share the link to these lights as well
Hi, Anitha! They are just standard light bulbs– nothing fancy! 🙂 I hope you have a wonderful holiday!
~Abby =)
Thank you for the reply! Merry Christmas
Thanks for the laugh! It looks so beautiful!
Aw, thanks so much, Amanda! I’m laughing now, too! 🙂 Hope you have a great week!
~Abby =)
Everything looks just gorgeous! I would have never known the crazy time that you had. I have had plenty of those decorating and DIY problems myself! Thanks for the laugh today! I love how it all turned out! Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Thanks so much, sweet friend! It was quite the day! 🙂 Hope you all have a fabulous Christmas!!
~Abby =)
Oh my goodness – I’m so sorry you had all those issues, but it looks SO gorgeous now!
Aw, thanks so much, Sara! It was quite the ordeal but it’s funny to look back at now! Lol! Hope you’re having a great week! <3
~Abby =)
I’m finally getting around to everyone on the tour and WOW, Abby…your perseverance is to be commended, and Donnie too, LOL! It was worth it though, everything is so beautiful.
Thank you so much, Sonya! It was a crazy day for sure, but it all worked out in the end!! 🙂 Hope you’re having a wonderful week!
~Abby =)
You and your husband are real holiday troopers. Kudos on your tenacity and eventual success in making your home merry and bright. It’s holiday magic you deserve. Merry Christmas, Ardith
Thank you so much for your sweet words, Ardith! I hope you have a wonderful holiday!
~Abby =)