Christmas with the Fraziers

It is time to de-Christmas our home and I am sitting her trying to motivate myself to get started.  As much as I love to decorate for the holidays, I dread cleaning and packing all of it away until the next year.  My only motivation this year is the thought of locating my daughter's James Avery ring that lasted about 5 hours on Christmas day and there has been no sighting of it since. 

Our family of snowmen that I pray over every year before we put them out in hopes that no one decides they love them more than me (hee hee).  The two in the front center were made to represent Emma & Gavin.

Welcome to our home that is filled with laughter, love, friends and family throughout the holiday season.   Each year I blog our home at the holidays so my sweet babies will be able to look back one day and reflect on the way we celebrated Jesus' birthday (it also helps me remember where everything goes).

One of my very favorite parts of Christmas are the Christmas cards and seeing all the families change year after year.  I hang all of our cards on 2 topiary Christmas trees and garland in our formal dining room.   Our mantle is loaded with lots of greens and reds with cutest little polka dot stockings ever.

Christmas is scattered everywhere in our house, with little whimsical trees, ornaments, Santas, Mark Roberts Fairies and so much more.

I have had this little snowman forever and everyone that comes over ask if I will leave him to them one day, he is as jolly as they come.

Our advent calendar we use daily and reflect on all we have to be thankful for while receiving a little goody to start the day.  The kiddos got candy and books on certain days along with a dollar or two here or there.

This nativity scene was given to me by my husband the year my Daddy passed away, so it holds a very special place in my heart.  I can not wait to pass this down to Emma one day.  My sweet MIL gave us the metal train that sits at the base of our fireplace.  She gave it to us before we rode the Polar Express and had a plate engraved that reads, "The Frazier's Polar Express 2011". 

Gavin's room is decorated with a sports tree and his little safari friends even got their own Santa hats to celebrate this year.  There were a couple times I would hear him laughing in his room and I would go in there to find him with the giraffes hat on his little head.

Wreaths on the kiddos doors and the inside sign reads, "Dear Santa, leave presents take my Brother/Sister!"  Of course it is just for cuteness, because anyone that knows them understands they would be lost without the other.

The turquoise/orange penguin tree is in E&G's bathroom and matches perfectly.  Emma's room tree is pink and funky.  It now has all sorts of ornaments on it from dogs, princess and ones she made at school.

Our gold/brown tree was from my pre-kid days, of course we had to add some color as the kiddos arrived.  The other tree is in our foyer and is my fairy tree that I love, love and love some more!

I had a florist make me lots of bows and rework a wreath for me this year.  In the middle of the day one day they text and said they made a wreath that had my name on it for my kitchen. Can we say SUCKER, it was hanging in my kitchen by dark.

These little stars hung over the windows across the back of our house and added the perfect little sparkle for the festivities.

Poinsettias could be found everywhere and I so wish they lasted all year long.  I do not have a green thumb, so I was lucky they lasted through Christmas day.

More stars and Merry Christmas signs to welcome our guest and help them feel right at home during their visit.

Any decorations we opted not to use in the house, we moved outside to the playhouse and back porch.

Everyone needs a little Christmas greenery and an angel to watch over them the whole season through.

My favorite tree in the house is our family ornament tree.  This tree chokes me up year after year when I unpack and look at all the ornaments along with the years of memories each represents.  This year we added quite a few that we had purchased at Disney/Bahamas along with the series we collect from Hallmark year after year.  Emma & Gavin get ornaments from family members every year that we will treasure forever.

Every year I struggle with packing my children's artwork away, so this year we decided to string all the Christmas projects up in our playroom from corner to corner.  They loved seeing their work displayed and pointing it out to family members this Christmas.

This is on the back of our front door and can be seen by our guest as they leave.  There is so much more that fills our house during the holiday season and even though it is a ton of work to display it each year, I would have it no other way for the sake of my children.  I want them to celebrate life in a big way and I feel like this is just one of the little things I can do to make their holiday memories merry and bright. 

Emma & Gavin, you made Christmas 2011 the best yet for us as a family.  You guys were so much fun and your excitement carried us through this holiday season with no regrets.  Making memories as the Frazier Four gets better and better year after year.