Decorating for Christmas - The Dining Room

I have to say, I'm having more fun decorating this year and I think it is because I cleaned out all of my Christmas stuff back in July but totally forgot that I did it so when I unpacked stuff, I had so much less stuff and had room to add more and because I did it all once but left room to add little touches over the next few weeks. 

 This is one of my "new" fun things.  I decided to make the tree in the dining room "mine".  I picked up some pink, purple and silver ornaments and other decor to decorate it.  I do think that next year I will find pink and purple lights - I haven't found any yet - and add those.  I'm not usually a pink/purple girl but the dining room is a deep purple so I thought it would look nice :-)

 On my marble table sits two houses.  The gingerbread house is from Halmark and I don't care how many times I pack it away, the boys find it and bring it back upstairs so this tends to reside in our house year round.  It plays music and has flashing lights which makes it a huge hit.  I also have a Clayworks House which I love!

 The silver reindeer - I got them for a steal from Home Interiors; figured they would be junky but when I got them (years ago) they were beautiful and very "sturdy".  I've never found anything else like these two.

 The archway holds the adult stockings and I'm also using it to display the kids Bible Advent pictures. 

 This is Josh's creation - a very cool snowman.  There is more to this story but I'll save it for another post.  I will say that he looked at the previously blank wall and then looked at me and said, "Wow, mom, you built this plain wall just for me to decorate." 

 Last year the boys made these cute little trees :-)  I love having crafts that they made on display.

 Another craft from several years ago - Reindeer using hands and feet :-)

 What would Christmas decor be without bows ?  (Except . .. I think I need pink instead of red . . .or maybe purple . . .)

Finally the Table . . .just a simple $2.50 plastic tablecloth made beautiful by a red glass bowl filled with tealights.  Such a simple statement.