Christmas Home Tour 2015 - Part Two.

I couldn't get this post by today 11.00 AM (at the latest) to save my life. My computer was acting up and my editing program was so slow. It took me hours to edit these photos. Then, after my mom got off from work we went to do some Christmas shopping (mostly for Vivian). But as promised, here is part two of my Christmas Home Tour. And today I will be sharing these areas: formal dining room, kitchen and the hallway of the first floor. Our first level has an open floor plan so everything sort of flows.

First, let's look at the Formal Dining Room area. When you enter our house, this is on your left, in the middle is the hallway and on the right is a small family room which we closed off by putting French doors.  On the left side of the China cabinet (on your right) is a green 4.5" faux Christmas Tree. 

The green covers for the chairs are what we normally dress the chairs with. But they look Christmasy. I wanted to add a faux red poinsettia in the middle of each of the bow ties of the chairs' covers (on the back) but they weren't staying on quite right. - oh well, next year. As you guys have noticed from this post and part one of the Christmas Tour, I love putting cloth embroidered or crocheted big mats in the middle of our tables, under the table center-pieces. This is a tradition that runs in my family and that I personally love. I have taken this one from my mom and as a matter of fact some of these beautiful hand-made table pieces are from my mom, like this one here on top of the formal dining room table which is white and embroidered with purple floral motifs. The beautiful boat Christmas floral piece has evergreen and gold branches, leaves and balls. It has room for a candle holder in the middle and this year we added a new Santa Klaus candle holder. I also placed a little Mr. Klaus and a little Christmas Bear Santa off the side of the floral arrangement and I added the red glass ball ornament to bring a little bit more red to the center-piece. On each side we have a large snow globe. The white-ish one was a gift from my Great-Aunt and the one shaped like a Christmas Tree I have purchased myself. Both are from Bronners. They both play a couple of different Christmas carols. I collect snow globes and I have several mini ones (some Christmasy and some from Disney) placed inside the mirrored China cabinet.

This gorgeous arrangement is on the right side of the China cabinet or your left. The green leafy flowers and the white flower crown are decorated with some pearlized apples and pears in the middle and a few pearl and beaded ornaments (a sphere, a fancy snowflake, a candy cane and an air balloon) around the fruit ornaments.

Here are a few of my mini snowglobes. The bigger one features Tirana - my other home (in Albania). I also placed two mini Santa Klauses inside the China cabinet. Besides snow globes, I also collect Santa Klauses. I own several Santa Klauses and I probably want to add a few more. I actually gave a few to my brother this year to decorate his new house for his first Christmas there.

And here is the small (green) tree with a hodge podge of ornaments and colors. Vivian and I decorated this tree together. Like I mentioned I collect Santa Klauses. I also collect Santa ornaments. I have a lot of Santa ornaments and this tree has many of my glass Santa ornaments, different balls in different colors, patterns and glitter, a few stars, a few candy canes, 2 big green metallic stars, red candy ornaments, some snowmen, red apples and red pears, clear lights too, a red+gold ribbon bow and a rainbow lit star on top. We added a few gift boxes on the bottom of the tree and my green+white Santa skirt is perfect for the size of this tree and it goes so well with all the Santa ornaments I hung.

Moving on to the kitchen: this is the Coffee+Tea Bar. Next year there will be a fancy and rich in chocolate Hot Cocoa Bar but I didn't get around to it this time. This coffee prep area got a little festive with all my collection of Christmas mugs, a red sugar jar and of course different Christmas towels.

This little area next to the stove holds a few of our wine and liquor bottles and I usually keep a big bowl of seasonal fruit here (apples, mandarins and oranges currently). Of course a festive tin box of cookies is part of it now. It is filled with delicious Danish cookies. They are soft and not very sweet butter cookies and they only sell them this time of the year. They are our favorites. The box is already three quarters over and I plan on buying another one, soon. These pretty tins will make great storage and decor for future Christmases though.

On each side of the kitchen cabinets we got some Christmas pieces hanging. The skating elf doll we purchased this year for Vivian as one of her Christmas souvenirs from Bronner's. It is so rich and adorable in her cute Winter outfit. There is also a little circle "Home for Christmas" art piece. The burgundy and gold velvet beaded pillows read "Noel" and "Joy". They are from Macy's. I also like to hang our Christmas family cards from the previous year, with magnets on the fridge. I do that to remind myself and be thankful for another year we lived fully and the great year we are leaving behind.

This festive area is parallel with our sink. Here we have a little porcelain piece which is two kids who are reading a Christmas book. An adorable velvet+feather mini red stocking by Victoria's Secret is hanging on it. That little snowman mug actually has a candle inside. The clear Christmas Tree jar is decorated with mini red ornaments splattered with gold. It would look adorable with some red+green Hershey kisses inside it though. And the silver silky box with feather on the edges says "Heaven on Earth" and it is also from Victoria's Secret.

This mini desk at the end of the kitchen got updated with a red wicker basket filled with red, gold and green sparkly apple ornaments in three different sizes. Next to it is a big red Christmas mug with a Christmas candle inside. And this ends the decor of the kitchen.

This is the hallway area. Behind the stairs, is a sneak peek of our living room which I shared in part one of the Christmas Home Tour. In the front of the stairs I have a wreath hanging on one side and a snowman hanging on the other side (in the front). Off the side by those evergreen trees we also hung Vivian's Snowman Stocking (which today got filled with lots of goodies, too). Next year I will have a custom-made stocking for her but I didn't get around to it this year. I also hung a beautiful sparkly red starfish ornament by the stand of one of the pots carrying one of the evergreen flowers. And that wreath is a simple green+white paper wreath. It felt kind of plain so I added the gorgeous red velvet poinsettia with the gold bells and right away the wreath felt prettier and more festive! If we are still at this house next year I want to decorate the stairs with evergreen Christmas tree branches and some ribbon. And overall I want to do something entirely different for the decor. I want it to look rustic and classic, next year.

Last but not least, the narrow hallway off the side of the stairs has this little wood table that has a faux green tree in it. I added a red velvet bow, 3 red velvet poinsettia flowers and I hung a white snowman on the tree just to make it a little Christmasy.

Here are a couple last photos and these show you the area that connects the hallway with the living room. There will also be a final part of this home tour where I will show you the bedrooms, the restrooms and of course the front porch. They each got a tiny bit of Christmas decor in them, too. If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading. Hope you enjoyed part two of this tour.

P.S. Linking today with Alice, Brooke, Carrie with Jill, Grace, Katherine, 

Kristen, Lauren, Leeanne, Lindsey, Linda, Liz, Madeline, Monica, Nicole, Rachel, 

Rebecca, Sarah, Sharon, Tameka, Tiffany, Victoria, Vicky and Zaz.