Christmas At Le Beau Paon. Part 2

Better late than never; here are the last of the photos I took of the Christmas decorations.
This holiday was extremely busy for some reason, for me. In addition to several birthday parties, we also had a wedding to attend yesterday (yes, the 23rd).

And with all my holiday baking, shopping, work, decorating......well, time really got away from me this year!
I had a new decorating project that I was going to do for the parlour this year, but I never got the time to actually put it up. I guess I'll have to save it until next year!

The fireplace mantel in the front entry hall has been decorated with fresh greenery again this year.

On top of the piano..........

There was also a lot of cookie baking going on this year at my house!

In addition to some of my "usual" cookies, I tried a couple of new recipes this year. One of them were Linzer Cookies. I bought a special cookie cutter for these, which also came with a recipe for the dough.

This is the cutter; it's made by Wilton. I found these to be sort of fun to make and no more time-consuming than say, sugar cookie cut-outs. I used raspberry jam in the center, which is my favorite kind of jam.

They turned out quite delicious!

Of course, I always like to make Spritz cookies too. We have been making these every Christmas since I was a child.

These cookies were a new recipe I tried last year, which I found in a Taste of Home magazine.

They quickly became Erik's favorite cookie, so I made them again this year. They are called Triple Chocolate Peppermint Treats. The dough has baking cocoa, semi-sweet chocolate chips and 60% cacao dark chocolate chips in it, thus the "triple chocolate". The frosting has white chocolate chips and cream cheese in it!

I always have to make sugar cookie cut-outs as well. They are my favorites!

These were also a new recipe I tried this year; Chocolate Peppermint Kisses. They are essentially made from egg white and sugar, flavored with miniature chocolate chips ad crushed peppermint candies. Very light and tasty!

My complete cookie baking list this year:

Pecan Fingers

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Sugar Cookie cut-outs

Spritz

Chocolate Peppermint Kisses

Triple Chocolate Peppermint Treats

Linzer Cookies

Santa's Sugar Cookies

I also made two kinds of fudge:

Fantasy Fudge

Peanut Butterscotch Fudge

and a "party mix", called White Chocolate Party Mix.(pictured below)

Thanks for stopping by! And since it's Christmas Eve today, have a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas at Le Beau Paon Victorien!

I did manage to get my Christmas decorations up finally, including my tree. I'm really late getting going this year---I've just been too busy it seems!

I managed to snap a few pictures when it was daylight; it gets dark now at about 4:15pm, so by the time I get home from work I don't have the kind of light I want for good pictures.

When I purchased fresh greenery for the outside decorations, I also bought a bundle of pine boughs for $2.00. I like to put the fresh pine boughs on top of some of the pictures throughout the house; like this one in the dining room. A little faux holly and a plaid ribbon makes it festive, and it smells lovely.

Last year I had to dress up my ugly chandelier for Christmas....but this year, our lovely antique parlor lamp needs no such accoutrements!

The sideboard gets Christmas-y too. ( I just need some red candles now).

Dining room centerpiece.

Last winter I found two of these white deer (a buck and a doe) for $3 each at Goodwill. They are small pots; probably someone got them from a florist shop with a fresh flower arrangement in them as a gift. They were a little dirty, but after I scrubbed them up, I added some pretty wintery florals and ribbon.

Here's the buck. I put them in the living room on top of the media cabinet in front of the TV.

They compliment my white and silver Nutcracker.

Holiday toss pillows add festive cheer!

Not much change to the decor for the parlour mantle..........

Martha gets a little Christmas cheer for her portrait too.

And at last, the big tree.

You may notice that my tree skirt is a little askew. That is courtesy of Olive. She insists on the tree skirt being in disarray no matter how many times I fix it. Five minutes later she appears and messes it all up. All attempts I made to photograph the tree with the skirt nice and neat was futile.

I added some extra greenery, bling and ribbon to the top of the tree this year just to make it more fancy!

And of course, some cabinet cards from my collection get added to the tree as always.

I bought two of these pink beaded chandelier ornaments last year after Christmas. Since they are new, I had to show them off.

I also put a string of lights on the parlour mantle to back light everything. I have a new decorating project for this mirror but I haven't put it up yet. As soon as I do, I promise to post pictures!

Here's another picture of this year's theme tree, with the lighted garland on the banister. When I took these photos I didn't have the decor in the front entry finished yet, so I don't have photos yet, but I will post them this week as well.

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas 2011 Outdoor Display

I still haven't gotten the big Victorian tree up yet ( probably this weekend!), but I did take advantage of the somewhat warm temperatures this last weekend to put together my Christmas outdoor display.

When I say "warm", I mean 40 degrees....which is warm for December in Wisconsin!
Last year we had snow already at this time and the weather was very cold and windy when I did my outdoor display. It really was not pleasant!

This year I used fresh garland again, although I didn't make it quite as extravagant as last year, since we aren't having a Christmas party this year.

Click HERE to see last year's display.

The only real big difference between this year and last year's is the addition of two lighted fake little trees that I put in the big urns on either side of the doorway. I didn't have those urns last year (I bought them in March last year.)  It has been fun to find ways to incorporate them into my decor now that summer is over and all the flowers are gone!

You can see them a little better in this picture.

I found the set of two 3 foot tall trees, with lights, at Target. Each tree fits into a little red pot which is weighted so that you can place them outdoors and the wind won't knock them over. I actually "planted" the trees in my urns, which are still full of dirt. I dug a hole in the dirt and stuck the pots into the hole and covered them up so they'd be steady if it gets windy. The set of two trees, pre-lit, with the pots, was only $24. It worked out perfectly for my display.

My Christmas wreath, which I made for the house the first Christmas we lived here, is still looking pretty good. My cardinals are starting to look a little faded however. I might try to pick up some new cardinals during the after-Christmas sales and replace them for next year. They are just wired onto the wreath and can be easily removed.

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Theme Tree 2011: Peacocks!

At last Christmas decorations are starting to appear at Le Beau Paon!

I've really been slacking getting things set up for Christmas. So many people I know have their outdoor lights and their trees up..........many blogs that I follow have had Christmas decor featured in their posts since before Thanksgiving.

I never decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving is over and technically it is only December 2nd, so I guess I'm not as much of a slacker as I thought!

As some readers probably remember, I put up two Christmas trees every year. This small tree that we put up in the front entry hall by the staircase is my "theme tree". Every year I plan a different theme. This year, I did a blue and green peacock tree. To see last year's theme tree, click HERE.

Here it is with lights on, although it's hard to see them..........

Ooooooohhhh...............

Typically I have white lights that go on this tree, but I decided that a peacock tree should have colored lights. I always have fun planning out what my tree for the next year should be. I purchase all the ornaments and decorations for the next year's tree during all the after-Christmas sales. This way I can load up without spending a lot of money. If I hit the sales in January, I can usually find everything at 70% off and I can get more than enough decorations and ornaments for my theme tree for about $20 or $25.

This weekend I hope to get the outdoor decorations set up and also have Erik help me drag the big tree for the parlour down from the attic!

Thanks for stopping by!

I'll be joining Feathered Nest Friday with French Country Cottage

and

Show and Tell Friday with My Romantic Home