A "quick" tour of our nation's Christmas Capitol (My house!)

(You can click on most of the photos to see them in a larger format.)

I recently watched a special on HGTV about how the White House is decorated for Christmas. As I watched the massive amount of volunteers, professional florists, gardeners and decoraters go about the massive undertaking I had really one thought, "I could do that."

As you enter our gracious home for the Holidays, you are greeted by seasonal artwork of snow laden trees and the entry arch theme for this year, puppies!
The dog's stockings are hung with great care and the floating shelf is adorned with the larger dog decor.
The double arches that lead you into either the dining or living room are festooned (don't you love that word) with over 100 ornaments featuring Dalmatians or black and white Cocker Spaniels.
Looking the living room, you can glimpse the snow village on the right, the silver bar tree in the background center, and the archway between the living room and dining room to the left.

No detail is left unattended.

The mantle is swagged with a greenery garland wrapped in pine cones and ornaments. The 10 foot tree shimmers in red and white.

The red & white theme is continued throughout the ten foot tree.

The fireplace mantle features the country/handcrafted theme with teddy bears nestled among birch logs.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to get photos in our house that don't have a dog in them?

Lyle's parents put together the best version of our snow village that I have ever seen. They built a hill and even got the train to run around the outside of the village (you can just barely see the train in the background)

Looking back into the living room from the dinning room through the snow crystal theme archway.

In the dining room our view of the Parisian streets is surrounded by a garland of nutcrackers and toys with white poinsettias filling the garden boxes below.

Lyle raises his glass (Snowball of course) to salute our crew and staff of elves who made all this possible. And by crew and staff I mean me. Almost all by myself. Please send help. Clearly I have an illness. But such a delightful one to see!