Christmas Home Tour

Please forgive this break from the regular subject matter of Chloe and Pearl. This past Saturday, December 15th, our home was invited to participate in a Christmas Home Tour fundraiser for the local Women's Club. There were four homes on the tour, two older homes, including ours, and two new homes. Saturday morning was our girl's dance performance (no good pictures), so we left our home in the hands of the hostesses and we watched our daughter's perform (or freeze, in the case of Chloe). Pearl did a very good job following all of the steps and moves. I think she was the best dancer in her group. Chloe usually does so well in her class, where we watch her on a monitor, but she became frightened on stage and just froze, poor thing. We encouraged her and two nights later at the pre-school Christmas program, she was once again scared, but she did manage to sing along for a couple of songs. Pearl was a little wound-up and over-animated, but she did just fine. The little girl who was supposed to be Mary, also had a melt-down and cried on stage until she was escorted off.

After the dance program, we returned to town and toured the other homes on the Christmas tour. They were all so nice and fancy. I felt a little humbled at my decorating taste, but our home is definitely the most unusual, so I knew that alone was worth something. The photos above are of our home. I will probably post a couple more later, especially the girl's bathroom with the tropical fish ornaments hanging from a pine bough. While this is the most amazing piece, it just doesn't look its best in a photograph.

We decorated the dining room in red and gold with a Chinese theme. Chris brought ornaments from China that we used on the Christmas tree and I found some Chinese candles with the character for "Peace" that I used for a table centerpiece. Then, I just added some Chinese place settings (with chopsticks and dragon placemats) and some red lanterns, and we were all set! Perhaps, I can leave this up through Chinese New Year, except for the Christmas tree.

Now our home is clean and decorated and we can just relax and enjoy it through the holiday season. What a nice feeling!