Things have been a little slow around here on the DIY front.  Nate's been working super long hours.  Ike and I aren't really handy.  We have been dreaming up a lot of stuff though.  That counts, right?

We did manage to complete this end table for the living room.  That we started before the holidays.  Let's not rush things.

I've been sort of over the internet lately.  I went from a major addiction to not touching my laptop for a week. But what does one do if they aren't obsessively checking all things interwebs?  They play Trivia Crack and read books.  Lots of crack.  Lots of books.  The summary of the past few weeks of my life.

I know a lot of you are readers (of the books) so I thought I'd share my latest reads in case you're looking for your next book to devour.

Happy Monday!  I hope you all had a lovely weekend.  Ours was on the boring side.  Nate has started his long tax season hours and I've been on a cleaning/organizing binge.  I'll spare you most of that.  (Here's our shamefully messy closet and here it is after I throw crap away. Ta-da!)  Ike was busy getting into trouble.  He managed to get into the pantry and rip open an entire bag of flour while I was working out.  That was fun.  We've lived here for 6 years and he has never once touched anything in our pantry.  I guess the cold Winter days are getting to him.  Luckily, the weather cooperated and we were able to get him outside yesterday.

It's time to talk about 2014 even though it was so like 2 weeks ago.  Why can't I let go?  Because I have to see how we did on our 2014 house goals.  That's why.  Gosh.  Strangely I am having zero trouble writing the date as 2015.  Maybe because 2014 was kind of boring and I'm thinking 2015 might be a little more exciting.  Maybe that's just wishful thinking.  Boring isn't all bad.  It's better than super lame or horrible.  I digress.

So how'd we do?

I'm back!!!  Did you miss me?  Better yet.  Did you miss this guy?

I had planned on taking some time off from the blog during the holidays. I then debated returning because the amount of free time I had was magical.  But the blog world sucked me back in.  You can decide if that's good or bad.  Especially after this extremely long post.

It's that time of year again.  The time of year where you have to spend time with your family. The time of year where coffee and alcohol are your two best friends. 

I kid. I kid. Nate and I love both of our families dearly. 

Beings our holiday sangria was so popular around this time last year, I've decided to share another holiday favorite today.  This one is called Poinsettia Punch.  Fancy, huh?

Thanks to everyone that joined Monday's Dare to Deck the Halls. Katja, Kim, Rachel and I are all sharing our favorites today. 

I'm loving this Fa La La La La wall art from Create Bake Celebrate.  Makes me want to try out that double sided adhesive paper and glitter all of the things!

In the latest Decor and the Dog news, you can see our house from space.

There isn't much better than coming home to a house full of lights after a long day in the pharmacy.  All I want to do during the holidays is soak up every minute of it.  Unfortunately, my day job is also the busiest this time of year.  (Stop getting sick, people!)  I think this may be the reason Nate and I go slightly overboard with this whole holiday thing (we did just as much pre-blog).  It's good for us to suck every ounce out of the holidays while we can.

Let's continue the holiday home tour in the kitchen.  (Catch our living room tour here!)

I try to keep things simple in here because our kitchen gets a work out this time of year.  Well, usually.  I haven't had a chance to bake yet.  Hopefully next week!  (Or maybe New Year's cookies?)

I always have a poinsettia in our kitchen. Where it sheds it's leaves all over my counters.  Memories.

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.