Christmas Kitchen

Still doesn’t seem right to post about decorating. I still can’t get Sandy Hook Elementary out of my mind and heart, but I thought maybe we all could use a little distraction, as hard and brief as it is. I have to thank you all for your beautiful comments on Monday’s post. Hearing that my words really helped some of you was such a gift during this sad time.

I’d been meaning to share my kitchen with you for a while and the flu hit this mama HARD, then hearing about the school shootings hit my heart HARD. So here we go, a little overdue…

Not overly Christmas-y, but touches here and there. Since I now have a red and blue kitchen, I just went with that color scheme. Plus, it’s open to my dining room, which also had a lot of red and blue, so they tied well together. Oh, and please don’t look too hard, or you’ll see the crap above the fridge, and the fingerprints all over the stainless appliances;). And I really should have taken these photos in the morning, not after dinner was cleaned up, leaving a good bit of dishes missing from the shelves…oops.

The Dollar Tree came in very handy (of course!) with some adorable little tea towels…

…and I pulled out some Santa’s I had in storage…

Love that he has an apron, perfect for a kitchen Santa;)

I picked up this wreath at Target this year and secured it on my window with one of those Command hooks.

(If you’re on Facebook, you might recognize my cute little aqua Christmas dish soap;) I was far too excited about that one!)

I added our Christmas dishes to our open shelves. We got this set from my parents when we moved in here and had our red kitchen.

The set has since been discontinued, and there have already been a couple casualties, so I think we’ll be on the lookout for a new pattern in the near future:)

Mom picked up this huge cookie jar for us when she was outlet shopping last summer…

I think it’s so fun.

And of course, my very favorite decoration of all…our Christmas cards of our family and friends.

Every year, I hang them up the same way. I secure white yarn with a pushpin, and attach the cards with clothespins. Works great, holds a ton, and we can all look at those adorable faces all day long. What a reminder of how blessed we are. I think this and the tree are the items I’m most sad to see go.

And of course, I love a picture on my countertop – I added my cuties in there – our Christmas card this year: