Welcome, internets!
I’m oh-so-glad that you’re here for this year’s Christmas Tour of Homes. I hope you have big fun clicking around, seeing everyone’s decorations, finding some great recipes, and pretty much being glued to the computer until your eyes cross and your family is begging you for food.
Which is totally the spirit of the season, now isn’t it?
And seriously, I figured out last year that this deal seems to work best if you only look at 20 or 25 houses at a time, take a computer break, and then come back for another round. It’s a marathon, people, not a sprint, so don’t overexert yourself. And for heaven’s sake, drink plenty of water. You have to stay hydrated or your mouse hand will cramp up and all your interweb training will go totally to waste. So tour carefully. Pace yourself.
One more thing: I think it would be ever-so-wonderful if you would make a point to leave a comment at every blog you visit. Don’t feel like there’s pressure to tell your life story or elaborate on the time that YOU MADE PEPPERMINT MOCHAS FOR A CHRISTMAS PARTY, TOO! Even if you keep your comment short and sweet – saying something as simple as “lovely” – you can still make a blogger’s day.
Just looking out for the interpeep posse, y’all.
So. Am I supposed to show you some pictures or something?
THAT’S A GREAT IDEA!
Here’s what you would see if you walked in our house, after you looked down to see the four pairs of shoes that you stumbled over trying to get in the front door.
I think it’s a real touch of Christmas klass.
However, on the table next to the Xbox stuff, there’s a star-shaped serving bowl that I picked up on clearance at Target last year, and I just love it – it is one of my favorite things.
Our tree is tucked in a corner next to the fireplace, and it looks pretty much identical to last year. Probably because Mama decorated it for the second year in a row.
Our fireplace doesn’t have a mantle, so last year I decided that I’d decorate the bar in our living room instead (yes, I said “bar in our living room” – welcome to home construction circa 1974), and I did same thing this year. Since I normally blog from the bar, I’ve had to relocate the BooMama, Inc. International Headquarters until Christmas is over, but that is perfectly fine because, well, sometimes decorating requires sacrifices, my friends.
I actually have two new additions to the little display on the bar this year:
Unless that combination arrives in the form of old shoes. In which case I am not at all tempted to make any sort of purchase.
Hey! Would you like to see my dining room?
OKAY!
This first picture of the dining room cracks me up, mainly because it seems to indicate that we have some sort of disco theme going on. Which might not be completely out of the question, what with that BAR in our LIVING ROOM and all.
Our nativity scene is on a table in the corner of our dining room, and the little man loves to move around all the pieces.
Either that or we’re dealing with a guard cow and a guard donkey.
Not to mention a completely apathetic lamb.
I’ve mentioned before that I love (LURVE) to decorate my dining room table with china and crystal at Christmastime. And I really like to mix and match, using bits and pieces of whatever happens to strike my fancy. This year I used some charger plates that Sister and I found at Old Time Pottery for a whopping one dollar each, and then I used dinner plates from my wedding china, topped off with smaller plates from my holiday china.
I like to pick up the smaller plates before we eat Christmas dinner, set them aside and then use them for dessert – that way everybody can get an assortment of their favorite treats. No little dessert plates for us. No ma’am.
Finally (yes! the end is near! mercifully near!), last year I put a Christmas tree in our little boy’s playroom (the tree was free after a Home Depot rebate), and I used that tree to display all our Christmas cards. By the time Christmas day gets here the tree will be chock-full-o-cards, and it is absolutely a tradition that I will continue for the rest of my life. So fun.
It takes so little, really.
Merry Christmas, everybody! Happy Touring!
Please make sure to link to your SPECIFIC POST for the Tour of Homes – not just your general URL. Thanks!
Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.
Oops, didn’t post the link:
http://multi-taskingmommy.blogspot.com
Sorry about that!
Your home is beautiful – so inviting! Merry Christmas. I have had such fun doing this home tour. Thanks for letting us all be a part of it.
Beverly aka Mississippigirl
For the first time EVER, I thought it would be fun to make a feather tree. Old I Am. :)
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Christmas Card Tree idea! Brilliant, I say, brilliant.
Merry Christmas (I hope to post pics at my blog but I fear I wrapped up the camera because it has been missing for days)!
I love the retro sparky dealies on your bar! I just might have to experiment with the craft paper and glitter glue to see if I can make something like them…and the card tree is a wonderful idea!
Oh Boo Mama…it’s a Southern Living Christmas dream! Looks very inviting! Although I am sure you do NOT want all the internets at your home for Christmas! Ha-ha! Thanks for sharing your beautiful home. Due to unfortunate circumstances I cannot participate myself, but will be checking out everyone else’s homes. Merry Christmas!
Yay! I love this idea, I already had a little virtual open house post for my friends, but I’m so excited to link to it here, and to see everyone else’s posts! I TOO HAVE AND ENJOY FEATHER TREES, I am officially OLD.
I enjoyed my visit, very beautiful, I love the card tree!!!
Beautiful! I love your dining room table! What a great idea! Sure beats keeping the “good china” in the cabinet where not one sees it. ever. Thanks for hosting.
So fun, Boomama! I love the cards on the Christmas tree, and I love that your son is wearing a Colorado Rockies shirt!!!
Merry Christmas!
The Christmas card tree idea is inspired, and steal-worthy I think. thanks!!
This is my first tour, and I really enjoyed your decorations and your guided tour. Your tree is lovely. I LOVE your Christmas dining set. We grew up with that exact pattern, and Mom always has to use it to this day.
Love my leaning tree!!!!!
I loved the idea of your cards on the Christmas tree. I may be stealing that one next year.
Thank you for doing this Boomama.
Merry Christmas, Joanne
Beautiful, beautiful! And “retro and sparkly”? You are speaking my language there, girlie…
Thank you for hosting this!
OK – my first time doing a fun link – I’m excited to see all the fun homes.Yours was absolutely beautiful!
Oh! And I screwed up! Of course I did!! In my excitement I linked to my blog in general…the second link is correct…any way to remove the first one??? Like you don’t have anything better to do than clean up my messes?
so fun AND the ONLY tour of homes where my home will be featured for sure!
Here’s your comment. Your house is great and I love your writing! :)
This will be a fun way to spend spare moments for the next week! Love your home — I especially love the Christmas card display. And those windows in the living room behind the sofa are lovely.
Woo hoo! I think this Mr. Linky thing worked! It’s my first tour of homes, and I must say, everyone’s decorations look great! I can’t wait to see more!
LUV IT! I think my favorite part is the feather trees- I LUV the color!
Your house is just lovely. My four year old and I enjoyed the pictures. You are lucky he is leaving it alone. My 4 year old leaves things alone but the 2 year old.. terrible twos.
I love your Christmas tree fill with cards what a great idea.marina
First off thanks so much for doing this. I love this time of year!
I wanted to say how much I just adore the wreaths in the windows. I love it! Your house is decorated so beautiful. Thanks so much for letting us be a part.
Looking forward to touring! Thanks for hosting!
What a wonderful idea with the Christmas card tree! I’ll have to do that somehow next year. :)
Everything looks lovely.
Wonderful tour!
Thanks for sharing your beautiful home with all of us! And I love your china idea!
It’s just lovely! The china is gorgeous and yes you are brave. Merry Christmas and thanks for hosting.
I messed up Mr. Linky, so you’ll have two links from me and only the second one will work. Sorry, I’ve only had one cup of coffee so far :)
The Christmas Card Tree is a fab idea! Thanks for hosting and Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Wow! Your home is beautiful and absolutely puts me in the Christmas mood! You have a marvelous idea to do a tour of homes. Thank you so much!
~Jen
This is so fun! Merry Christmas!
Enjoyed the tour!
Love it, SO beautiful! Some of this reminds me of my own decorating. My house is open for touring :-)
Gorgeous! Do you want to come decorate my apartment?
lovely.
;)
I am stealing lots of your ideas!
Thanks for all the laughs!
Merry Christmas!
I love your peacock tree.
Merry Christmas to you. Thank you for sharing
The setting of the dining room table cracks me up. Mostly because we use our table every day and I would be hard-pressed to fit in all that fine china around the spilled milk and Cheerios. But it’s lovely and I envy you your lovely china. I was over at Leigh’s yesterday and amidst all the boxes, there was her dining room table all set with the Christmas dishes. Is this a Mississippi thing? I am both amused and envious, all at once. What elegant and glamorous lives you must lead! :-)
(had to edit this before hitting submit because I had CAPITALIZED China. Like you had an entire country set on your table and it. was. fine.)
Your home is lovely! Thank you for hosting this fun event. I love your Christmas dishes. Would you mind sharing the pattern??
Merry Christmas!!
WOW what wonderful decorations.
Thank you for inviting us to tour your home and Thank you very much for hosting this tour.
Oops, i messsed up the first time – i submitted the wrong url on my first limk under Pedaling – i re-did it with the right one directing viewers directly to my home tour, under pedaling fast, sorry, hopefully it won’t cause too much confusion!
We have the same China! I love my Friendly Village :)
What a lovely home you have Sophie…and your tree with Christmas cards is a really good idea.
Blessings on your home, friend!!
I really love the idea of the “tour of homes”. I’m going to participate.
I love the feather trees too. When I first saw they a couple of years ago, I thought…”Hmm…I bet I could make those!” And then I thought better of it. I imagine I would come out of a project like that looking tarred and feathered.
And I also love the idea of using Christmas Cards as ornaments! I am going to try that one day.
“lovely”!! :)
this is my first time seeing all the christmas bloggity tours of everyone’s homes- what fun!
um, that card tree thing? so completely AWESOME.
I love those little dealies from the estate sale! Great find indeed.
I know you’re busy but my first link, #182 did not work for one reason or another so if you want to delete it, that’s cool with me.
This is fun, thanks!
My first Boo Mama Tour!! I just love your decorations. I did not post everything I wanted to, but had some problems with my post and actually lost one that I had done and had to do over – urrrr. But hope to post more later this week. Thank you so much for hosting this; this is fun!!
Robin
This is so fun. I’m just getting mine up. Your home is gorgeous! When can I come by? Just kidding! Thanks for putting this on again. You have such great southern hospitality!
Thanks for hosting, Boomama! I love the Christmas disco ball!
Dear BooMama :
I am so glad that you guilted me into making a comment. I just left a long confession on Big Mama’s site, and I cannot live with the title of interpeeper for one more minute. But its just that I feel TOTALLY INADEQUATE with not having a blog myself. But I get it, you girls want to know where us readers come from. So here I am, Jen P., from Palatine, IL, 30 minutes NW of the Windy City. I find so much pleasure in reading your blog and you are just a treasure. I look forward to it every day. I am making your asparagus casserole for Christmas dinner and I am very excited. And the cream cheese, I had already read your site after my lunch hour or I would have driven right over to WalMart and picked up about 6 boxes – do you know that I have put cream cheese in the freezer and used it in a recipe later and it works just fine. So I would have stocked up especially with high cream cheese season (AKA Christmas Season)in the future. OK I know you said to make this SHORT didn’t you. So my bloggy tour of homes comment is that I love the wreaths at the windows, so simply elegant and pretty. Your home is beautiful. I have three young boys and I cannot imagine setting a table that fine and being able to breath in and out. Even with one child nearby – I would be leery….perhaps that explains why my dining room still has no furniture and is often still the “play room” even though we finished our basement 2 years ago and all the junk is down there now. Also explains why when I told my oldest son the other day to set something in the DINING ROOM that he looked at me like I had said, “Go put that on Jupiter and come right back!” God Bless you for all that you say and do on this Blog. I will try to send comments more regularly and think I can promise they won’t be this long. -JMP
This is so fun! Love the feather trees and your big tree is gorgeous!
Love the wreathes in the windows, Love the feather trees, Love the star bowl, and LOVE LOVE LOVE the card tree! I will be stealing that idea in the future!
Wow. You decorate beutifully. Love the wreaths on the windows.
I have been walking around my home in circles trying to figure out how to display our gazillion Christmas cards… now I know! Next year, I’ll either do the same thing, or a slight variation of the same thing. Great idea, and gorgeous house!
You have so many wonderful ideas. Thank you for sharing your creative genius~including the tour of homes~ with us! Your home is beautiful.
Really cool idea! Enjoying the tours!
Wow, I love the card tree idea – FABULOUS!!
Beautiful!! I just love the idea of the Christmas tree in the playroom to display cards! GREAT idea! Merry Christmas!
Jennifer :-)
This is a great blog! I love your humor. And your home too! I will have to visit more often.
Blessings,
Melissa
Great pictures, your house looks beautiful. I love the card tree idea!!!
Thank you for hosting it again this year :)
Love all your decorations and just love the christmas card tree!
Have a wonderful Christmas.
Sandra
I have that china too! I inherited it from my grandmother, along with all her Fostoria glass which my husband hates because it looks like, well, the FAKE Fostoria that you can buy for $1 at Walmart. But I’ll stop now.
Lovely!
Thank you, thank you. this is way more fun than any TV show or magazine and I can tour in my PJs. Your home looks festive and I enjoyed how you wrote your tour too.
Lovely! I can’t believe you have breakables set out with a 4 year old!!
Gorgeous decorations. Thanks for sharing! Merry Christmas to you & yours!
Jennifer :-)
Look at how nicely the young man is smiling at the camera..I’m quite envious on your hgtv like decorating!Thanks for hosting again this year.Merry Christmas.
everything looks great!
Hey, that looks like Friendly Village. I have a similar pattern (Shakespear’s Sonnets), and I’m appreciating the inspiration provided here. Although I will NOT be leaving it out indefinitely because #1, our dining table is our ONLY table, and #2, I have five young ‘uns under 8. ‘Nuff said. Beautiful. You have great taste!
I think I have that same set of Disco balls! *S* Somehow I hear “Stayin’ alive” every time I see them, and I’m really too young to remember the BeeGees. *S* But My kids love them, so they decorate their own trees with quite a few. *S*
YEA! I’m so glad today is the tour of homes. I’ve been waiting! Your house looks lovely, as usual. My faves are the wreats in the window, the card tree, and your table set with China. I love your Christmas china…so pretty!
Your house is very festive! I love the tour. I’ll be viewing all week. Merry Cristmas!
Your house looks so festive! Enjoy the holidays!
Ok, so I came back to 1) actually READ your ENTIRE housetour post, and I giggled all the way through, and 2) thank you for hosting this. You come up with the marviest of ideas :).
Your card tree is among the most novel ideas I’ve seen; it makes ME happy and they aren’t even my cards OR tree!
And all your retro stuff? LURVE IT, sweets! Those little trees? The star (sadly empty) dish? The decorated bar/mantel? You know how to pull a rabbit out of a hat, I tell ya!
Good reminder this is a marathon…I’m blown away w/the number of peeps playing!
This is a wonderful idea! And I love the playroom Christmas tree.
Hey, Sophie, thanks for hosting this big event! And for stopping by…thank you very much. Your house looks beautiful & I hope ya’ll have a very Merry Christmas!
Hugs,
Rhoda
Your christmas decorations are unbelievable.. georgous!!! i love them… This is so much fun.. Merry Christmas!
Thanks for doing this. It’s so much fun to go on a tour in my jammies!
Loved everything about your house, but especially the Nativity scene. The animals look a little bored to me.
Merry Christmas Sophie! Thank you for hosting this Christams tour. I had a lot of fun doing it.
I love your house and decorations. When we eventually move into a bigger home, I think I am going to do the card tree thing. That is a great idea.
Gorgeous home Boomama! Now get something sweet into that star shaped bowl asap!!
Love, love, love the Christmas card tree. I’ll be stealing that idea next year. I’m already planning to buy myself a tree during the after Christmas sales.
Hoping to join the tour after I get some pictures taken of my own holiday decorations.
Yay! This is so fun! If I didn’t alreay have 4 trees up in my house, I would SO do the card-tree. What a great idea!
I can’t wait to get home and create my post to link to your tour of homes, BooMama! :0 )
So many beautiful houses and decorations. Very inspiring!
Merry Christmas! LOVIN IT!
For some reason, my link was deleted. I posted it last night, I think I was 27th. Am I the only one that had this problem?
This has been awesome fun, thanks for hosting!
Jill :)
I came home from my errand running to check out the Christmas Home Tour. And as I suspected it did not disappoint!!! Love your wreaths on living room windows!
You have such a beautiful house. I really love the china.
Your home looks beautiful! I love your bar/mantle!
*****So sorry to list myself twice! Thanks so much to Hootin Anni for letting me know that my original link is not working. I didn’t realize this till just a few minutes ago and haven’t a clue how to fix it other than listing again! #29 does not work! A working link to my blog is at #228 Thanks!*****
I just love the tree with the christmas cards on it!
Thanks for hosting….
I totally forgot to steal your Christmas card tree from last year… it is just too precious. Your entire home is beautiful, and especially so at Christmastime! Merry Christmas to all of you!
By the way, that should read “I totally forgot to steal your Christmas card tree IDEA from last year.” -Not the actual tree, just so you know!
whew!! It was a job just getting down here to comment.
I loved your tour of home and the commentary was a trip in itself. As always, I love reading your posts. Now I’m off to visit someone else.
Thanks for hosting this! Great idea and love to get ideas and see everyone’s decorations!
This is my first year to be a part of this!! I look forward to spending hours looking through all the homes! Your home is beautiful!
Beautiful. I love the little dish and totally agree about putting something in it, it looks so great.
I have been waiting for you to set the post up as I live in New Zealand and I posted my tour on Dec 17 as requested, but ofcourse we are several several hours ahead of you so taken time for me to wake up and join in the fun, even if today is Dec 18. Anyway, Merry Christmas and thank you for giving us something to do for the next week!
I like your star dish…mine don’t have anything in them either because I like to see the design! I love your Christmas card tree idea!! I’m going to try that when we have a house big enough for two trees. Thanks:)
I love the Christmas card idea! Wonderful!
Sweet blessings!
Renee
Your home is gorgeous! Thanks for the wonderful idea for my Christmas cards.
This is so much fun! I love to see how others have decorated for Christmas! Come by my blog to see our decorations.