Ugly Sweaters and Christmas Decorations

Our house is fully decorated and we hosted our first annual Lucas Ugly Sweater Christmas party with our friends this weekend.

Our first real Christmas tree! We went to Piney tree farms this year with our friends bright and early to find the perfect tree.

I strung strands of pearls on the mantel, picked up those poinsettias at Home Depot on Black Friday for 99 cents each and the stockings are from Pottery Barn. The ribbon I used to adorn our gifts is the same ribbon used on our pew markers at our wedding ceremony - so it's a little reminder.

I took trimmings from the tree and stuck them in vases on our media console and throughout the house, I placed the votive candles we used at our wedding. I love the gold rim and sparkle! Tiny red bows were spread on door knobs and candles for extra cheer.

My cousin Carly is amazing and came over to help me clean, cook and decorate for the party. She also did an awesome job wrapping the back of our front door and decorating it with coffee filter snowflakes to make a backdrop for our "photo booth".

I collected and made props for people to use, set them in a basket in our entry way and left our iPad with a photo booth app for people to have fun taking photos.

I also decorated garland from Michael's for our staircase. I hang all of our Christmas cards from it!

Our wine bar finally arrived just in time. Our friend Elena picked us up those adorable red and green paper straws and the "Merry" cocktail napkins. I'm obsessed with cocktail napkins.

I made table signs for the food and drinks using Christmas cards we received in the past as a background and printed labels which I glued in place. It was actually really fun reading through all of our old Christmas cards - I keep every card Chris and I have ever gotten from friends and family. Organizing them is on my to-do list!

Finishing our basement is definitely on our future to-do list, but having it unfinished worked out great! Chris set up ping pong, beer pong/flip cup and darts for everyone to hang out downstairs and I didn't have to worry about anything spilling - which is an automatic win in my book!

We had such a great time with our friends this year - I can't wait to carry on our new tradition with old and new friends next year!