Decking the halls

Well, I don't have any boughs of holly, but I do finally have some of my Christmas decorations put up. (It's about time!) After work today I was on a mission to make our apartment more festive, so I turned on the "yule log" on TV and started pulling boxes out of our storage closet.

Now I have entirely too many decorations to put all of them out at the same time. And even if I could have them all out, I wouldn't have done it this year since Christmas is only six days away. But I hung the jingle bell wreath on the door, got out some of my favorite ornaments for our tree, arranged various candles and nick-knacks around the living and dining rooms and even hung our stockings. (Since we don't have a fireplace, and therefore no mantel, I attached two of the removable 3M hooks to the front edge of our TV stand and hung the stockings there. I will say it was a little odd as I was watching the yule log, because the stockings were under the fire instead of over it.) We even have a little tribute to Charlie Brown on one of our end tables, complete with a replica of his beloved scraggly tree.

It's definitely not fancy or classy. But it is bright and cheery and homey, and that's what I love about Christmas.

Now to get all those presents wrapped ...