Before it's Packed Away: My Favorite Christmas Balls

I had every intention of writing a blog post during December, giving a virtual tour of the pretty decorations in our house. I was going to show you my favorite things, new and old. Handmade, antique or from Target.

And as I was boxing up Christmas stuff this morning. I realized I kinda forgot.

I do love all of our Christmas pretties but by the time New Year's comes, I am MORE than happy to whip out the boxes and clean the place up. It may sound strange but putting away Christmas stuff and re-setting the house is one of my favorite things. A sign of a refreshed house ready to face the new year.

I thought it was a good chance to show off a couple of my favorite things, before they get boxed up. One of them is my beaded ball ornaments. When we first moved into our house and didn't have much decor stuff and only a tiny apartment tree, Mamaw gave me a load of some old ornaments she had collected from garage sales and antique stores.

Those ornaments really are my favorite because they are mostly old and glass and really cool. And there's one with Elvis's face, which is in my top five of favorites. They used to live only on the top half of the tree but now that the kids are a little older and can handle breakable ornaments pretty well. They even hung most of them up this year. Finally!

But these come apart really easily even in adult hands, so I keep them in a glass trifle bowl.

I actually keep these out all year round and frequently get asked if I made them. They are simply a bunch of push pins and beads stuck in soft ball ornaments, and no two are alike. But no...I'm definitely not that patient. I have no idea who made them, which make it kind of extra cool.

I know who made all of my Santas. Mamaw! We get a new one every year, hand made from molded plaster or some other crafty method. Here is the 2012 Santa.

And here's my whole collection from year's past. One of my favorites is from the year we got our first dog, Hayden.

While I put the Christmas things away, I got out some of our new pretties that were Christmas additions. Like these oil and vinegar wiener dogs from Mike and Jess. I seriously love these guys.

And my two bird on a wire ceramic vases from Mom are gracing the mantel where my harvest bough used to hang. Ready for a new season!