christmas open house 2014 ~ downstairs

A beautiful day for a great open house. We had about 190 guests. A few drove quite a ways to be here and we thank them for that gift. It was wonderful to see you!

We thank everyone who had a hand in getting ready for this big day. My sister Genny, my daughter Sarah, sons and daughters-in-law, our granddaughter, our dear friend Laurie who dropped by Saturday to help clean…lots of helping hands!

After two and a half inches of rain on Friday, we were glad to see Sunday’s weather. Sunny during the afternoon. A high in the low 40s. Very nice. I am sure it encouraged attendance. DH and I both totally forgot about taking pictures. We were so busy greeting guests. If anyone has pictures from the open house, I would be grateful to have them. My new friend Dana gave me permission to use the pictures she took. Thanks, Dana!

Ready for company! I wish you could see it at night. There’s a tree in almost every window.

our house

The main attraction in the living room is the Family Tree. I love tinsel on a Christmas tree! I wish a picture could show you how beautiful it is at night, with the lights on and the tree rotating.

living room Christmas tree

The nativity in the living room is backed by a Christmas tree.

living room nativity

In the dining room, you will find the cookie table with punch. Coffee is set up on the buffet in the same room. By the way, the window looking into the kitchen may seem odd placing, but the kitchen used to be a back porch, added to the house in the early 1920s, more than fifty years after the house was built.

cookie table

One of the frames on the table is a list of gluten free goodies. The other is a guide to truffle flavors.

gluten free / truffles

The dining room has the Snow Tree and also a smaller decorated tree on top the cupboard, which you can see in the picture of the cookie table. Our younger daughter put the snowflakes on the windows. She planned to do the top half, too, but was sick for several days and not able to finish the tops of the windows. She’s feeling better, so maybe this week!

snow tree in the dining room

The “library” serves as our family room. The tree in the bay is the Nativity Tree. All the ornaments are nativity related. This is an older picture, but the tree is pretty much the same each year. Just more ornaments. 🙂

Nativity tree

I made the ribbon for the Nativiy Tree years ago. It contains the Scripture from Luke 2:1-20.

Luke 2:1-20 ribbon

The Three Kings Tree is also in the library.

Wisemen tree

Snow White was totally enamored with her six week old second cousin. She petted him, followed him around, and declared him “SOOO-OH Cu-UTE!” to anyone who would listen. She said he was the first baby she ever got to touch. He seemed to make quite an impression! His mama was sweet about sharing her little one.

second cousins

From the library, you can enter the “music” room. So called because it is the room where our piano resides. This room had three trees this year. One large and two smaller. The large tree is the Bubble Light Tree. Along with light strings and bubble lights, it is decorated with mouth-blown figural glass ornaments, vintage Christmas postcards from DH’s side of the family, and fifty candles in candle clips. Never lit, of course!

bubble light tree

The small tree on the table in the music room is new this year. It is decorated with vintage bead garlands and dark green ornaments. Two battery operated LED light strings brighten the tree.

music room trees

The other tree in the music room is a small tree decorated with vintage ornaments given to me by my mother-in-law. The pictures on the piano are Christmas pictures of our children when they were much younger. The shelves over the piano hold my collection of Christmas china. I like to collect one place setting each of different patterns rather than a set of one particular pattern.

music room

From the music room, we can walk down the hall of the addition. Our children’s baby pictures hang here. I wrap them during the holidays as gifts. Which they are!

baby pictures wrapped as gifts

Across from the baby pictures, on the counter, a deer hides in a basket.

deer

And the aluminum tree nearby displays part of my collection of vintage ornaments.

aluminum tree in addition hall

This little tree in the laundry room holds more vintage ornaments.

laundry room tree

A thrifted nativity sits on the laundry room counter.

laundry room nativity

The blue and silver tree in the downstairs guest room…

blue and silver tree

Another aluminum tree sits in the corner of the guest room.

guest bedroom

In the guest room, I display some vintage Putz houses that my son and his wife gave me for Christmas a few years ago.

vintage Putz houses

This room is also where the Putz Tree is. A white tree with light blue beads and ornaments. And, of course, my Putz houses.

Putz tree

We’ll head back down the hall, through the music room, and into the kitchen. The kitchen tree is on top the fridge and decorated with candy and cookie ornaments, blue beads, and blue and white lights.

cookies and candy tree on top the fridge

The six windows in the kitchen are hung with evergreen garland. My snowflake ornament collection is displayed on the garland.

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During the open house, the chalkboard declared there were only eighteen days until Christmas!

IMG_7813

I love this little beaded garland that hangs over the chalkboard. I found it online quite a few years ago.

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I am going to close out this open house tour of the downstairs with pictures of our amaryllis. I had hoped they would bloom for the party, but one opened a few days later and the other one has not yet opened. They were bought at the same place, planted at the same time, and treated exactly the same as they sat in the sun on the kitchen counter. But one is way short and one way tall! Go figure!

amaryllis

amaryllis

This post took a long time to write. I was too tired the day after the party to compose it. The next two days I was happily occupied in the craft room with my daughter-in-law as we crafted mid century Putz houses for her. A long post on that soon! And there were pictures I didn’t include. I hope to post some of those as I post more Christmas tree stories. I will work on a tour of the upstairs tomorrow. 🙂

~~Rhonda

2 Comments

  1. Vickie
    Posted December 13, 2014 at 6:16 pm | Permalink

    I’ve been reading your blog for several years now (since before the twins) and every year I’m amazed at the time and effort you put into your open house. Your home looks lovely and I’m sure it brings a lot of joy to others.

  2. Posted December 13, 2014 at 9:31 pm | Permalink

    Thank you, Vickie, for your comment. I’m always happy to hear from those who read the blog. The twins are seven, so you’ve been with me for quite a while! I hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas! ~~Rhonda

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