Just hear those sleigh bells ring-aling!!!!

It's that time! Have you been good? Or did you decide to save Santa a trip and be naughty this year?

I decided to decorate slowly this year and really think of the decor for Christmas instead of throwing all the decorations up hastily in an effort to get it done and still have some time to myself.  So, to me I'm enjoying the decor just a little bit more!  Also, this year Mr. Pal and I agreed that we wanted a theme.  I love when we're on the same page! Usually we just use all the decorations we have, which we've accumulated on our own and also as hand-me-downs.

Although we agreed that we should do a theme, we never discussed what it should be. So, as I opened all our decorations, I started to pull out the "nice" stuff, instead of the kitchy, cutesy stuff.  I started just putting stuff up on the mantle and the entry table to see how I liked it.

Pretty soon, I had my theme: red & white! I was so excited that I pulled whatever I could that had red or white on it in our Christmas boxes. That wasn't that hard, since red & white are Christmas colors. I had such a great time decorating and really thinking about how I wanted the mantle to look and making the house festive, but sophisticated, but still comfortable to live in. So, without further ado, I bring you "Christmas with the Pal's!"  Here's my mantle with the stockings hung with care!

Oh, look how decided to stay for Christmas! That's right, our Thankful tree who made it's first appearance at Thanksgiving!  I love when I can carry a decor item through to the next season.  For Christmas, I just added some snowflakes to it's branches.  I got the snowflakes for a buck at the dollar store.  I love the dollar store!

Here's my lantern that was birthday present from Mr. Pal that he got at Pottery Barn. :)  I just added some red & silver Christmas balls to continue with my theme.  I'll let you in on a secret.  I didn't have enough of the red & silver balls to make it look full, so I just lined the bottom of the lantern with wine corks to add some height.  Just don't tell anyone! haha Actually from this angle, you can just make out the wine corks on the bottom!

Here's the entryway table.  I usually try to keep this not too cluttered. Mr. Pal & I have a habit of tossing our keys on top of the table sometimes, along with our phones and receipts, and all that good stuff.

Do you see another Thanksgiving leftover?  That's right, The red charger holding the pine cones.  The chargers fit perfectly with my red & white theme this year.  And, I got to use another one on the dining room table.  I also have my "Cookies for Santa" plate out.  Ok, so one cutesy thing got to stay this year. But I gotta bribe Santa somehow and I heard cookies do the trick!

Here are some other around the house Christmas decor pictures. Just simple and festive.  I know there's a few more colors than just red & white, but somethings are too nice to not display!

I think what really tickled me pink (get it, red & white make pink! haha) was that after decorating, I had to go food shopping and saw all the magazines are showing that red & white is big this year for the holidays! Finally a decor trend I'm following!  I'm off to make my list for Santa! :)