It's starting to look like Gusmas!

This last weekend we spent a night digging out the xmas decs and putting up just a few things.  We have an artificial tree and I was worried it was going to look dwarfed in our family room that is 2 stories tall....however, it looks just fine.  Don't get me wrong, I could get a bigger one, but considering how expensive they are this will do just fine for a while!  As usual, it was fun hanging the ornaments and reminiscing about so many memories with each of them and telling stories.

I went shopping on Black Friday with my main goal to get some things for the mantle.  It still could use some work, but I'm hoping to get some cheap stuff after xmas that I can then add next year.  The candles and vases were all items I had leftover from the wedding, so I just spent about $5 at Michaels to get the sticks/berries (which I didn't do a very good job of photographing).  And then I bought fresh garland to lay up there...however, it just made a giant mess and I can't even smell the fresh pine/fir....so kind of a bummer.

I really wanted some coordinating stockings to hang and searched many stores before finding these simple ones at Target.  They also had initial pins, so I picked up those for just $3/piece.

And here's the look all together-- I think it looks much better in person than how it photographed here:

That's really about it for decorations this year though, but at least feels festive to me while sitting in the family room.  We really need to hit the sales after xmas to pick up some more stuff for next year!