all I want for Christmas

I'm in a Christmas funk.

Because we have this lame little tree that our kitten keeps knocking over. Because there is no one else to make the cookies, buy the presents, wrap them, fill out the cards and earn the money except us. Because I don't get to spend it with my family. Because I keep eating cookies and keep feeling guilty and fat. Because we keep our apartment at temperatures so chilly that I don't take showers so that I can avoid the horror of leaving my hot shower.

Merry, merry.

So I've determined that we should skip Christmas/the month of December and go here.

"We'll have a fresh Christmas tree waiting for you, and supply you with a basket of ornaments; you'll wake up to bountiful country breakfasts and end the days with delectable dinners; there'll be time for skating, sledding and skiing, or just cozying up to the wood stove! There will be all the tastes, and scents of the season, together with family and friends, twinkling lights and overstuffed stockings."

And by family and friends, they mean Shea and I.

The package includes:
Three nights in a Vermont country inn on 570 acres
Full breakfast and afternoon snacks (hot cider, cabot cheese and cookies)
A Christmas tree to decorate and a stuffed stocking
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners

And we could go to Christmas Eve church here and ponder what Christmas is really about.

No presents. No cooking or baking. No small talk. No "Christmas Story" marathon. No driving white knuckled on icy roads.

It'd be the best Christmas ever.

Ideal Spaces: Family Room/Game Room

We have a lot of board games, and we don't even have any kids yet therefore our family room is going to have to be built around game storage. We want a place where we can relax, have fun and create a sanctuary for our family time.

This ideal family room will be located in a large, finished basement with built-in, cube shelves for games.

First, we'd start with this couch, which does require us to forbid pets from the family room. But, after the morning we just  had with Mac, it's clear a family sancutary is also a sanctuary from pets.

Then we'll add these accent pillows to above couch.

Which go very nicely with my K-State purple chair. (Luckily this ideal room has another sectioned off area that can display husband-required Minnesota Twins gear that unfortunately clashes with my color scheme.)

Add coffee table with storage for card games, barrel of monkeys and travel games.

And then this has to be in the corner. This is suddenly becoming MY sanctuary room. Again, see "ideal."

And since it's a game room, here is my wall decor:

The last picture can double as storage. See ingenious idea at Infarrantly Creative blog. I would probably use classic games for my walls but I love how Cranium looks on hers. And how fabulous to get rid of those flimsy game boxes that get crushed after one clumsy victory dance.

Ideal Spaces: Living Room

My ideal decorating style won't really be realized until we have cash, square footage and the time to research how to fulfill our expensive tastes with reasonable furniture budget. Or if we stopped buying milk, I could have the couch I want in 14 years. However, by then I'd be too hunched over from osteoporosis to even sit on the once-desired couch.

The first thing I actually can add (with the help of some antique shops, flea markets and Hobby Lobby sales) is this display for our wedding pictures. Except with one red frame in the middle for our favorite.

or, on a smaller scale, it could look like this:

And then when the cash and square footage come,

I will add this couch.

and then either this chair or this chair.

And then a table like this.

 

And on our coffee table will sit this book. Because it's awesome.