Before we moved from the big house to the small house over the summer, I cleaned out and sorted and purged for weeks. We ended up only bringing over to the farm about 1/3 of the stuff we'd had before. As all of this was happening in June, though, and I already had a storage spot here at the farm picked out (the loft of the kids' playhouse), I got a little lazy about the Christmas stuff. I just couldn't bring myself to dig through all those tubs in mid-June. So, we moved ALL of it over here. It wasn't until Friday that we pulled it all out and had some decisions to make.

I was skeptical that we'd be able to get a tree put up in the house at all, but . . . it fit nicely behind the sofa. Sure, it makes it a little difficult to get to the coffee pot up on the ledge and my 5-gallon drums of coconut oil, palm oil, and laundry detergent that I have stashed behind the sofa, but it's just for a month, and those tiny festive lights will make all the acrobatics involved in brewing coffee and reaching soap ingredients well worth it!

The only other Christmas stuff that made its way into the house can be seen here: a little nativity nestled inside a gourd (thanks, Mamaw!), our Willow Tree nativity (thanks, Mom!), and our handmade stockings (hanging from Command hooks -- those things are genius!)

Of course, we also had to fashion a good 'ole Christmas Countdown Chain. If you do not understand why this is imperative, you've clearly never lived with a 5-year-old during the Christmas season.

The barn is looking festive, too. And, the kids' playhouse is currently home to the Christmas tree I used to put up in my classroom each year and plenty of other garish holiday accoutrements.

As for all the other stuff still in tubs . . . who needs it?! Living small is pretty nice.