The Decking of the Halls Begins

Christmas 2017 blue and white living room | 11 Magnolia Lane

I mentioned this on Facebook the other day, but I started putting my Christmas tree up on November 1st this year. My neighbors, who have no idea that I’m a blogger, think I’m a lunatic. They might have a point!

I do have an excuse; we’re so excited to be working with Balsam Hill again this holiday as part of their 12 Bloggers of Christmas series (see my summer housewalk with them here), and I’m up on Thanksgiving Day.

Since my daughter has five Nutcracker performances next week, my husband is flying in to see us–and of course I want to spend lots of time with him–and my son has several college and scholarship applications due on the first of December (and, oh yeah, Thanksgiving is happening), I decided that the only way to survive this month was to start early and do a little bit every day.

The bonus is that my house is already looking and feeling very festive, so today I thought I’d kick things off a bit early and show you the decorations in the kids’ bathroom/powder room.

I used to be a die-hard no-Christmas-decorations-until-after-Thanksgiving person, but I have learned in the last few years that you just have to do what works best for your family, and I actually enjoy Thanksgiving more with so many pretty decorations around me. Bottom line, it’s decorating, not the meaning of life, so who really cares?

It’s entirely possible that I won’t even bother taking everything down after New Years; that will really give me a head start on next year! 🙂

The Epsom salts are decorative, but totally functional. My daughter does an Epsom salt ice bath most nights after ballet. They’re in the studio a lot this time of year (almost 30 hours a week) and she’s doing everything she can to stay healthy. I admire her dedication, even as I cram frozen pizza into my mouth while she eats salmon and steamed broccoli!

Since our downstairs bathroom is our powder room for guests and the kids’ shared bathroom, I do ask them to keep it tidy. For a small house, it’s a pretty big bathroom, with lots of storage.

I’ll share our Christmas tree with you on the 23rd , but in the meantime, be sure to enjoy the other bloggers as they share their Balsam Hill trees daily!