My family is coming for Christmas. Since Handsome and I rarely have company, I go into a tailspin of rapid decorating whenever a

confirmation of company occurs.

I pull frames off walls and move things around 12 times. First, it goes here. Then, here. I ask Handsome three times more than he would like what he thinks of each placement. If I’m lucky, he glances up and makes a generous ruling of “looks good.” If not, it is back to moving stuff.

It is as if I believe I only have this occasion to try and make the house look beautiful because the other 360 days of the year, it is just not a priority. As long as it is relatively clean and reasonably tidy, I don’t maintain a decorating frenzy. But now people are actually going to walk through our door! That changes everything!

Because this is an extra special visit for Christmas, I can’t just change the pictures on the walls. Oh, no. I want our home to turn into a holiday heaven of green, red, and gold with sparkles! Festive, comfy, and full of warmth and fun. That shouldn’t be too hard, right?

With an almost non-existent budget for decor (presents first!), it means I must DIY almost everything. Not too bad for me since I’ve been handling a glue gun, floral wire, and wrapping paper since I was seven. But it does take a lot of time and creativity to try and make everything look good.

Not to mention, DIY is messy. Everything must be dragged out – paper cutter, glue, hot glue, rubber cement, tape, bigger tape, different tape, contact strips, scissors, wire cutters, pliers, ribbons, pinecones (oh, so many pinecones), bells, wrapping paper, mistletoe…a very long list.

My office floor, counters, shelves, desk – every flat surface – is covered in Christmas decor and supplies.

Then, there is the creative challenge of our tiny house. No room for six stockings over our fireplace. I must get creative! I hope Santa understands and doesn’t refuse to deliver to the wall of stockings in the dining room. Yep, I couldn’t even fit them in the living room; not enough wall space. So there they hang above the table in the dining room, stretching across the entire wall. Because I couldn’t get small stockings. That would be entirely too

sensible.

For five days, I was a whirlwind, a frenzied decorating diva. Martha Stewart, Joanna Gaines, and Grace Bonney combined as I clipped, trimmed, wrapped, and created.

For five days, I was a whirlwind, a frenzied decorating diva. Martha Stewart, Joanna Gaines, and Grace Bonney combined as I clipped, trimmed, wrapped, and created decor for the holidays.

While my methods probably are a bit mad, the results were quite good. Sure, I put plates on the walls and made an entire frame gallery devoted to Elf movie quotes, but I managed to make our house downright festive. Handsome even declared it a “wonderland.” Ha! Victory is mine!

Now, as long as the chalkboard in the bathroom doesn’t get wet, the wax candle nutcrackers on top of the fireplace don’t melt, and the silhouette of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer on a red velvet background doesn’t scare the baby, it should be a very merry Christmas.

Wish me luck!