Once we were all gathered in the living room, it was time to hear the account of the first Christmas, from Luke 2:1-20.

Buttercup found a safe place under the tree where she could watch the grands run without being run over!

The staircase was FULL of stockings, and stocking-stuffers overflowed onto the steps.

Someone wanted to investigate…

They found yummy chocolate in their stockings!

Lots of presents!

After stockings and before presents, we stopped for a quick picture of our three daughters and three granddaughters.

…daughter, grand, daughter, grand, grand, daughter…

Converse tennies! Just what she wanted!

In a People House…her grandpa knows this story by heart, after years of reading it to our own children.

She loves her Fedora.

Fun, fun, fun!

She had more fun with the tangerines than any of the toys she received.

And, of course, the boxes were a big hit.

Even with the cats.

A wonderful morning! Later in the day, DS#2 and his wife came and we had more presents that evening.

My daughter-in-law felted this beautiful little mouse for me, and he is holding his own little Putz house! How cute is that?!

~~Rhonda

Personally, I think the deer are a bit large for this display. My daughter calls them “deerzillas.”

Anyway, I have been collecting pictures and information about Putz houses for some time. This year, I decided it was time to make my own when I found the Little Glitter Houses web site and Big Indoor Trains with patterns and instructions for making the houses. I also found my way to a blog called Pink Trees with patterns from an old crafting magazine called “Pack-O-Fun.”

I had a great time making the houses and churches. Here is my finished display.

And here are some closer shots of the buildings. I used the “Bay Window House” pattern for the pink house.

The little yellow house was made with the “Vintage-style Stone Cottage” pattern. The blue house to the left is made from the same pattern, though I enlarged and reversed the pattern for the blue house.

The house on the right, with the blue roof, was the second one I made. I used this “Little Charmer” pattern.

This yellow house was a store bought house that I repainted and glittered, and then I added the trees. I added the silver beads and the glitter to the larger bottle brush tree.

I made this house, using glitter glue to outline the door and windows. I added the wreath, which I made from a small piece of "evergreen" pipe cleaner. I also made the snowman. This house has a pipe cleaner hedge around it, but it’s hard to see in this photo. I used the pattern titled "Green House" at this site for this house, though I had to remake the pattern as it is incorrectly drawn in the article.

The little yellow house was made with the pattern titled "Yellow House" on the same site.

I repainted and glittered this manufactured church to match the houses I made myself.

The fence around this repainted manufactured house was made by cutting thin cardboard with scrapbooking scissors.

I love the door and windows on this manufactured church. I think this one was all white before I reworked it.

I made the bases and fences for these repainted manufactured Putz houses.

Another repainted store bought house. I like my colors a lot better than the original.

The church and the small house were made from patterns at the Pink Trees site. The house is the pattern titled “Brown House.”

I had a few houses that ended up too large for the display, so I put them on the Christmas tree in the guest room, including this Cottage Beach House.

The patterns I found online at Little Glitter Houses, Big Indoor Trains, and Pink Trees were extremely helpful! My thanks to those sites and their authors for their inspiration!

I moved from making the above houses to making glitter house ornaments from Christmas cards. They turned out beautifully! And they were faster to make as they have fewer details and embellishments.

Overall, I am very happy with the way the little glitter houses came out. And they were a lot of fun to make!

Click this link to see my tutorial for making a little glitter / putz house.

~~Rhonda

The guest room used to look like this:

We bought this house in 1994 and renovated it before moving into the house in 1996. The wallpaper, carpet, and colors were chosen then. So it was overdue for a makeover.

We painted in blues and white, with some cream and yellow accents.

To the right of the bed is a lowboy dresser that used to be in the scrapbook room. Several pieces of furniture played musical chairs during the past few months.

On the top of the little dresser is an Advent box and a rosemary tree. The Advent box came from Target in 2008. They had several styles and colors. This one seemed just right for the guest room.

To the right is the bookcase that came from DH’s family.

On top the bookcase are lighted buildings that are replicas of the county courthouse and the historic jail house in my home town. The jail is now a county museum. The book “Tale of Three Trees” stands in front of three fir trees in silver flower pots.

And in front of the bookcase is the Christmas tree. The tree is placed there so it can be seen down the hall as you look into the addition from the music room (formerly the office, before the desk wandered off to the library…now the “music room” because the piano lives there).

Turning to the right and facing the north wall, we see the north window, a small table, a vintage chair and a corner cabinet I found on Craig’s List.

I still need to put the doors back on the bottom section, but the cabinet fits perfectly in this corner. The cabinet was stained. I sanded and painted it for the guest room. The white glass lightning rod balls on the bottom shelf are from my husband’s family farm and the blue one is from the house my paternal grandparents lived in.

My friend Laurie made the drapes. Aren’t they beautiful? It was her idea to hang them over the door, as well, which preserves the look of the lovely beveled glass but also provides privacy for the guest room when the drapes are pulled over the door.

To the right of the door is another vintage chair, painted blue. and then the armoire, which you can see in the first picture of this post used to be stained, but is now painted white with a blue interior.

The dried hydrangeas on top the armoire are from our garden.

Next is the comfy chair and the aluminum Christmas tree. The tree sparkles and shimmers in the sunlight coming through the south window.

On the other side of the window is a nightstand that had been in the attic. Works well here.

That brings us back to the bed. DH made the head board from a door his parents had acquired from their church years ago.

The guest room is so peaceful that sometimes I go in there for quiet time. Especially in the mornings when the sun is shining through the window. ~~Rhonda

With 65 guests, we packed them in. They were sitting in the front hall and living room…

and in the dining room…

and up the staircase…

The music was beautiful. Left to right: Nathan Clark George, Ross Sermons, and Mark Stofell.

You can listen to some of the music we heard on Nathan’s web site. A few of my favorites are “Remember O Thou Man,” “O Little One Sweet,” and “What If I Were in the Garden.”

And after the concert, yummy goodies. We served sausage balls, spicy cranberry meatballs, bacon wrapped dates, a veggie tray with beau monde dip, three cheese spread [I left out the chicken and mixed everything together except the tomatoes and parsley which I sprinkled on top] with crackers, fresh red grapes, a tray of cheese and meat picks with pickles and olives, Chex Mix, and four kinds of homemade truffles. We had hot spiced punch, cold punch and hot coffee. With temps below freezing, it was a good evening for something hot to drink. I prepared all the food, except the veggie tray, the day before. Worked out great! The meatballs were kept warm in a crock pot and the sausage balls and bacon wrapped dates were kept in covered dishes in a warm oven during the concert, so they were ready to go when it was time for refreshments. Very easy menu.

After the concert, there was an opportunity to meet Nathan, purchase CDs, and even get an autograph if you were so inclined.

A lot of our guests stayed for an hour and a half after the concert, visiting and enjoying the goodies, as well as savoring the Christmas atmosphere.

There were three babies at the concert. So sweet! Christmas and babies…two of my favorite things.

Thank you, Nathan, Mark and Ross for another wonderful evening of Christmas music! We so enjoyed it!

Today I’m relaxing. I think I’ll finish Christmas shopping (via the recliner and amazon.com) and maybe I’ll take a nap this afternoon. Sounds good! ~~Rhonda

Living room

A gaggle of great guys in the living room.

And time to catch up with friends.

Dining room, with the table pushed against the south wall.

Library / family room, with "It’s a Wonderful Life" on the TV. The stained glass windows were made by our dear friend Gary.

Used to be the “office,” now it’s sort of called the music room, for want of a better name. It’s where the piano lives.

Addition hall, looking toward the guest room.

Guest room, with a few extra chairs for chatty guests.

Upstairs hall…these are the last walls in the house that need to be repainted. Those dull vanilla walls don’t jibe will with all the color in the rest of the house.

Speaking of color…DD#3′s room…

My crafting/scrapbooking room

DD#1′s room

Looking from our bedroom door toward DD#2′s room.

DD#2′s room

The "glass" tree in our bedroom. All the ornaments are made of glass. The tree has more than 250 prisms and crystal bead chains from old chandeliers.

That’s a quick overview of the decorating, though we missed the kitchen. I need to take more pictures for a detailed tour. And I still wish we’d taken more pictures of the guests!

This morning we woke to a very light dusting of snow, but it didn’t last long. I had a long quiet day which was very nice after being so rushed the past week. Tomorrow will be a bit busier as I begin to get ready for the house concert Thursday night. So I’m off to bed.

~~Rhonda

Buttercup slept near the tinsel.

Julie decorated the box grand in the living room.

I replaced the lights on this little tree. All better!

We decorated the front porch.

And Buttercup slept on ornament storage boxes.

I made chocolate creams.

I wrapped my babies’ pictures.

Buttercup slept on the couch.

I received a package in the mail! The ornaments from the Christmas Notebook’s ornament exchange. This is just one of them.

My sister and friends from church cleaned my house! Thank you, thank you!

Buttercup slept on the vent.

I started a new house project.

I made sugarplums.

And DD had her hair cut.

And Zak slept with her.

~~Rhonda ::going back to work!::

The Christmas tree in the guest room has a silver and blue theme, with a lean toward a vintage feel. The tree has white LED lights that have a bluish cast. The tree rotates. So much prettier in person, but you get the idea. By the way, this is the tree I spray painted last year. Worked great!!

You can see more Christmas decorating ideas at The Inspired Room. Scroll down that page for links to other sites where homes are being readied for the holidays.

~~Rhonda ::busy decorating the living room tree today::

But, though DDIL did a lovely job on the window, filling around the deer with fluff and snow, I had to redo it. Buttercup the cat stole all the fluff, over a course of a week, and took it to DD’s bedroom door during the night as a gift. I added evergreen branches and am hoping she will leave them alone. So far, so good. I would still like to get a candle in this scene. Maybe something tall behind the deer, or some battery operated tea lights around them? I think it needs the height, though. Hmmm…maybe I could hang a large snowflake from the window sash to give it some “tall” interest…

~~Rhonda ::pondering additions to the window sill decorations::