I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! This was my first holiday staying in California, and I’ll admit, it was definitely different. Being away from family on the east coast was a struggle, but George and I made the very best of it and filled our apartment with lots of holiday cheer. We decided to go wine tasting in Paso Robles for a couple of days (that will be in another post!), but we made sure we had a festive home to return to on Christmas Eve. Here are a few photos of some of my favorite holiday decorations:

I raided the discount holiday bin at Amoeba to find these vinyl gems!

Our nativity scene, given to me by Dad:


George and I are both big fans of Peanuts:


Ah, the beloved chalkboard wall!


Okay, I’ll admit it – I insisted we could fit a big tree in our apartment. George kept holding up perfectly reasonable 5-6 footers, but nooo – I needed a 7+ foot tree. Fast forward an hour after our tree excursion, and I could be seen doing quite a bit of trimming to fit “Doug” into this little spot (yes, because he’s a Douglas Fir…).  Please note how the tree is shaped around our TV stand…classy! Needless to say, this will be George’s “I told you so!” moment for the next year. But doesn’t Doug look awesome?!

To close out, here is my absolute favorite childhood ornament – a heart I picked out on our family Christmas trip to Germany, circa 1993: