The Real Chez DDD Christmas Edition

Well, it’s the week before Christmas and the holidays are in full force. I honestly can’t believe Christmas is on SATURDAY!!! Eeek! From crazy work deadlines, finishing up projects for the year, holiday shopping, wrapping, school events, Christmas parties, baking, lots and lots of baking and what am I missing? This time of year is so insanely busy, but it’s also the absolute best. It’s my favorite and it goes by way too fast every year.

Over the past few weeks I’ve shown you several different Christmas tours of various areas of our home, like our outdoor living space, our family room and kitchen. While all these tours are fun and pretty, it’s not necessarily how our house looks every single second of the day. We are a family of five, plus a dog, who lives in this same house and let’s just say it appears to be a little more ‘lived-in’ on a normal day. This fall I shared “The Real ChezDDD” and I’ve joined the same group of bloggers to give you a Keepin’ It Real Home Tour Christmas Edition. 

I will start off by saying, I really do love a clean house. I wish it could be absolutely perfect all day, with clean counters and everything in it’s place. But that’s not realistic and I would be missing out on a lot of memories if I tried to keep it that way all the time.

(Almost) every night, I like to clean my kitchen and clear the counters. It makes me feel a sense of normalcy for a second and a breath of fresh hair. But during the day, that’s another story. Here is what my kitchen looks like right after our morning of chaos of getting breakfast, the kids dressed, and off to the bus stop. I return to blankets on all my stools because apparently my kids’ don’t share my obsession with metal chairs and stools and they think they are freezing so they like to put blankets on them.

Oh and did you notice one of my wreaths fell down? Yes, I have since fixed that one. :)

Did I mention we’ve been doing a lot of baking? I have to say, holiday baking is one of my favorite things to do with the kids. I LOVE it. So we have a beautiful town of gingerbread houses on our counter along with plates of cookies. My 3 year old and I make something new every day, which means our counters have been overflowing with goodies.

And we all have one, right? A junk counter? This is our space where all the ‘stuff’ gets piled. Like the bazillion schools projects and papers that come home, Christmas cards that need to go out and mail. I dream of the day that this space is completely organized and cleared off!

Welcome to our lived-in family room. While I make lunches and wrangle the kids to get clothes on them, this becomes the big playroom. My mom got our kids a Fisher Price Nativity Set , it is their absolute favorite Christmas toy and they play with it every day. But it also ends up scattered throughout the downstairs by the time the morning is over. On another note, if you are looking for a cute kid’s gift this Christmas, I really recommend it!

At least the other side of the living room seems to stay in one piece most of the time :)

And nothing has changed since our fall home tour, there are still Amazon packages living in our front entry way… and kid’s coats on the bench.

I’ve actually never showed you all our master bathroom before. I have had it on my to-do list or a very long time. Anyway, when we moved in I told myself I would never let the kids use our luxury bathtub, that it was going to be my little paradise. Yeah that lasted a month. But at the end of the day, I don’t mind it at all.

 

I’m surprised to see the couch all put together but there is a huge elephant lurking in the corner. Yup, that is my never ending pile of laundry. How many of you actually fold a load of laundry the second you take it out? That would be dreamland. I typically spend one morning a week folding, putting everything away and then in 12-24 hours it starts all over again.

And that my friends is that status of my house the week before Christmas. I’m going to be signing off for a little bit over the next few weeks to maybe tackle some of these messes and probably make even more. I’m really looking forward to just spending time as a family and making new memories and messes together.

I’ve teamed up with a few other bloggers to give you a glimpse into every day life in our homes, with kids! Head on over. 

Chelsea from Two Twenty One

Jenna from Rain on a Tin Roof

Chelsea from Making Home Base

Charlotte from Ciburbanity

Taryn from Design, Dining, & Diapers

Katie from Bower Power