decking the {dining room} halls

shop my overalls here, my color is sold out but they have tons of other darling colors! , and my top is here

First of all, can I just point out when they say "the camera adds ten pounds" that it truly looks like it added ten pounds to myself here?! Ooooor like 20? HA. It's freaking me out how pregnant I'm beginning to look, especially in *perfectly angled* photographs like these. I guess I need to stop being in denial about that spaghetti squash sized kid that's cookin' in my belly. He's real! He's there! I should prrrrobably start looking at strollers and cribs?! I'm almost six months now, it still doesn't feel real!

ANYWHO!

Another day, another tablescape ;)

This time, Christmas edition! This year, my family will all be separated at in-laws & other families homes, so we are having our traditional Christmas a week early. Some of these traditions include our Christmas Eve mexican enchilada dinner following a nativity play & home video watching - Christmas morning, we have a breakfast feast consisting of soufflé, cheese grits {my absolute favorite, i'm pretty sure my mom only makes these for me haha!}, cinnamon rolls and other breakfast goodies and of course gift opening gathered in my parent's cozy living room - Christmas night, as if our bellies hadn't had enough, we have a huge steak dinner {i'm the only one who doesn't devour steak as i rarely ever eat meat.. so more mashed potato sides for me!} - and we top the evening off with baking my mom's famous sugar cookie recipe that's delicious and amazing for decorating! Ironically enough, the boy's decorated cookies get very creative and more thought out than the girls' ;)

That's just to name a few.. traditions are so important and huge in my big southern family, so I will love passing things like this down with my own family. 

{I re-read over this paragraph and laughed at myself on how serious I take myself on things like this. THE DINNER TABLE IS IMPORTANT, Y'ALL. SO... LONG HAIR DON'T CARE lol} On to the table... I wanted to go the extremely minimalistic/simple route.. think: fresh greens, clear whites, lots of lit candles, raw wood. And even though my mom style would probably choose something a little different, she was totally on board. Making tablescapes with her is the best because she kind of just gives me the reigns and is my little sidekick, even though we are decorating her table.. I'm thinking it's half because she trusts my judgement and half because she's exhausted from doing it all by herself for the first 20 years of my life, hah! Her home is kind of like a Hobby Lobby and Magnolia factory all in one, so I just go into her storage room and point at the things I like and then we just mesh it together! These tiny little ceramic candle holder houses were my favorite part and of course they are from the Magnolia section in Target. Go grab one, or like eighteen of them now!! Fresh flowers are a religious must for us, of course. And we used the sliced tree stumps my lumberjack dad cut down last Christmas for the chargers. The darling 12 days of Christmas plates are my absolute favorite - am I the only one who's a huge sucker for things like this?! Mom's had these gold dipped forks and knives that were passed down to her forever ago, so of course we only use them for special occasions! And we couldn't leave out sprinkling little bottle brush trees, twinkling lights, and little garlands everywhere, of course. If this were in my own home, I'm sure it would've been pieced together a little differently, but I think we were pleased with the turnout ;)

Merry Christmas, y'all! I hope you have loved ones you can gather around during this lovely Holiday Season, it's truly the most wonderful time of all.

xo celo