Today Ike is pumped to show you our home all decked out for the holidays.

Actually I think he's playing guard dog here. He's heard about some old dude sneaking into houses. I told him there would be no dog bones under the tree if he caught Santa. He just looked at me like "Nate brings me my bones. Duh."

We've actually had the house decorated since the weekend before Thanksgiving. We just hadn't gotten around to taking photos of it. We've been too busy shopping, wrapping, and enjoying the holidays to bust out the camera. Until now. Bring on 1700 photos of our Christmas tree.

Our living room updates (read about them here and here) made for more colorful holiday decorating this year.

For our 12 foot tree, we decided to stick with the traditional red and green but threw some black and white ornaments in there to make it seem a little more hip and young. (We're rebelling against getting old with our Christmas tree. That totally makes us young, right?)

Our built-ins were extra fun to have this year. Not only can I add fun random vintage finds but I can also store the stuff I'm not using in the cabinets below.

We added some fresh Frasier Fir garland to the barn beam mantel along with some reindeer I picked up at HomeGoods. I also sewed some new stockings. Because a sane person sews new stockings every year. (Old tutorial here. Just curl the toe!)

As for the shelves, I left the books and just worked in some random holiday tchotckes.

I found this sweet little deer while thrifting with my family Thanksgiving weekend. (I'm secretly jealous of her lashes.)

This little area is my favorite. The Elf is my mom's from her childhood. (AKA, he's old.) I think he's much cuter than that current red thing floating around. I purchased the Santa for $1 at a flea market this Fall and just picked up Pinocchio for 80 cents this past weekend.

Smiling's my favorite.

I randomly added some bottle brush trees here and there. The snow globe is one of Nate's favorites from his childhood. (AKA, it's old.) I originally had a smaller poinsettia here but I killed it. I'm usually good with plants but that little guy got sick around the same time I did. One of us didn't make it. RIP, little poinsettia. Better you than me.

Here's looking from the office into the living room/eating area/kitchen. Check out my marquee in action! (Someday we'll have a coffee table and end table. Photoshop those in your head, mkay?)