This is how I Christmas!

This week in This is how we Christmas, it is the decorations edition!
For great Christmas decorating ideas visit Lisa and the other bloggers that actually decorate for Christmas.

I have two problems with this edition .
1. I am not a decorator. Not at all. I love decorations, I just can't seem to use them very well.
2. I don't have a camera that works!

But, I will write about my decorations. Maybe in my writing of them you will see something more beautiful than if I had a camera. Maybe.

Nativity
Jesus is the reason for the season. I know that and everyone in my family knows that. Because our house is the parsonage, and my kids are at church every time the doors are open, I tend to take for granted that my children know all there is to know about Christmas. I figure they know all about Christ's birth and the joy that surrounds it. Isn't that awful? I'm taking a different approach this year. This year they will be hearing all the stories of Christ's birth from the gospels and they will be memorizing scripture to recite on Christmas Eve. I'm pretty sure I'm more excited than they are.
Anyway! The nativity. This is the first year for the one we have on our side table in the living room. Last year we didn't have one at all, because the year before some hyper-active teenage boys were playing guitar hero, got excited, slammed into the couch, which in turn, knocked over the sofa table that held the nativity scene. Breaking everyone and decapitating the animals and a wise guy. This nativity is on a table by itself. It isn't so special that the kids can't move the characters around. There is a special nativity set that is in my family that my Great-Grandmother made. I don't know who will get that when it comes to handing it down to my generation. But I WANT IT!

Tree
We are a "real Christmas tree" family. We used to have an artificial tree but the fluffing every year made me ugly, so I decided that the cost of a real tree every year was worth it if I didn't have to fluff a fake tree.
This year after the kids had decorated the tree (I'm not much help, I pretty much let them decorate it by themselves) it fell. over. I was not happy! We lost a couple of ornaments. And since the branches are so weak ornaments keep falling off the tree. By Christmas day we will probably only have lights on it! But not as many as Lisa!!

Snowmen and Santas
I love them both. I have all my Santas in my kitchen and my snowmen in my foyer. Doesn't that sound lofty? A foyer.
There aren't any that are real special, but I like they way they look and so I put them out.

Mantel
We have a mantel. You would think that we would have a fireplace too, but we don't. Well, we have the hole for the fireplace but no chimney and no gas logs. Oh the stories I could tell. Anyway! Then mantel is decorated quite nicely I must say. I got the idea from my sister who in her pregnancy decided to not decorate very much for Christmas. Please go here and see how she "didn't" decorate very much! I have greenery laying on the mantel with red and silver balls all over it. Beautiful, simply gorgeous!

How do you decorate for Christmas?
Did I mention that I won last weeks edition? I'll show you what I got when I get it!!!