Deck the Halls

It's been about 2-3 months since I moved into my new apartment.

And I haven't shown you all pictures of it yet.

Fail.

However - since I just cleaned this weekend for the youth group Christmas party and it's all decorated, I figured this would be an awesome time to show it off to you all!

Enjoy the picture dump.

Welcome! My mom made this sign forever ago and I think it's super cute. 

The hallway

Living room! 

What home is complete without a very large bookshelf? And I'm particularly proud of
how I decorated the side table for Christmas.

Dinning room. I really love the window. It's supposed to be for plants, but since I have a black thumb I put other decorations in it.
The blinds cover sliding doors that lead to a small back porch.

My tree! This Christmas tree is the one I grew up with and my mom gave it to me when I
moved out. It's probably about as old as I am, but it's holding up REALLY well.

Why yes, that is a VHS player on my old school TV. 

The kitchen. It's a bit small, but since I don't really cook it works well for me. It's too bad you
can't smell it because I just made cookies and it smells like Christmas.

Yup. There are cookies in that adorable cookie jar.

Bathroom. Again, pretty small but it works just fine. On top of the medicine cabinet are souvenirs I got in Hawaii
when I was in high school. I love that I was able to do a beachy theme in here. 

My room! It kind of accidentally became a black and white and pink and teal theme, but I love it. 

Another wall in my room. The shadow box has items from my trip to NYC, and don't you love the birds holding the photos?
 I got it at Target.

I'm LOVING my new apartment. I was really nervous about downsizing and living on my own, but this place is perfect for Bandit and me. Some pluses:

• There is a surprising amount of storage. There are three closets in the hallway, an outdoors closet, and the bedroom closest is a decent size too. 
• My water bill is included in my rent and with the apartment being small I'm not using as much electricity - so I'm not only saving on rent, but also utilities.
• Cleaning goes A LOT faster now!
• There is a whole lot more room in here than I thought there would be.
• I have a ton of wall space, which means I can put up a lot of decorations. 
• It just "feels" like me. When my sister helped me move she said that she could picture me living here much more than she did in the other apartment, and I agree! I don't need a whole lot and the other apartment, while I loved it, I felt greedy for having so much space that I didn't need. This is MUCH better and I feel so much more at home.

How have you all decorated for Christmas?