Christmas Kitchen

So tell me how was your Thanksgiving? We had just the four of us this year, and it was so stress free. I didn’t have to cook or bake for a large crowd and it was delightful. I didn’t wake up the night before wondering if everything was just perfect, or if I had enough room in the oven for everything. Every now and again I need a holiday like that.

I’d planned on putting up the tree the following day but hubby wanted to shop on Black Friday and also on Saturday so I’m hoping to get that done today. So far the DINING ROOM is decorated, the bathroom (I’ll show you that soon), and the Kitchen. 

Every Christmas kitchen needs a hot cocoa bar, right? Mine is a mini version with peppermint sticks, micro mini marshmallows, party straws, and low calorie hot chocolate mix. I treat myself every afternoon with a cup, it helps hold me over until dinner is ready. And an added bonus is I’m a chocolate lover so it doesn’t hurt my feeling one bit to indulge in a cup. 

I really didn’t do a lot in the kitchen this year, but it’s just enough to make it feel like Christmas. I found this fun snowflake rug to use in front of the sink this year. I wasn’t long enough so I used carpet tape and put two together to look like a runner. With no carpet in the house the dog thinks the rugs are her spot to stretch out on. 

If you missed an earlier post you can see here how to make the ornaments I have tied to the bar stools. I gave our cypress trees a little trim and used it for greenery I have added to the ornaments.

I had the cypress trees planted in my whiskey barrels at one time and when I move them to the front porch I pitched the trees in the weeds. I never really liked them, anyway. Well come next spring those darn things were still alive so I figured they were meant to be. I hauled them back onto the porch and replanted them in new containers. Now I’m glad I did, I use clippings from them in my decor all the time. 

I made my own mine boxwood wreaths from boxwood garland this year. I picked up two 6ft sections and did my whole kitchen. I counted how many cupboard I wanted to decorate and divided it by the number of feet I had to work with, cut the garland into equal sections, and hot glued the ends together to form circles.

Here’s a little trick for saving on gingham ribbon, loop it around the wreath just enough so your able to hot glue the end to the other side rather than looping it completely to the top again. Wide ribbon can get costly and by doing it this way you get twice as much mileage out of one roll.

I should have opened my cupboard to show you how I have it secured, but all I did was use painters tape to hold it in place, it’s easy to remove and won’t leave a nasty, sticky residue to clean off. 

I always have our dogs food, treats, and medication in the middle of our island. It reminds me to feed here at specific times, and give her meds to her on a schedule. So to give them a little Christmas pizzazz I added ribbon to the container lids.

I swear anything can become festive with a little gingham ribbon added. I also made the artificial pine wreath on the pantry door easy this year, I added a big premade buffalo check bow and called it good. 

I still needed my kitchen to be a functional space. I couldn’t have vignettes everywhere taking up my workspace and you know how I am about clutter, I like countertops with a minimal amount of things on them. I’m lucky and my pantry has a shelf and electrical outlets with all the countertop appliances on it. I go into the pantry to use the devices too, it makes things look neater in the kitchen to me.  

I’m still enjoying our barstools stained. I’m not sure why I ever painted them, but I’m glad I came to my senses and had them stripped. It’s much easier to decorate around too. I still want to do something with the foot rest, and I think I know what and you’ll have to stay tuned on that, but it requires me taking the legs off and I’m not sure I’m up to all that work. Maybe someday I’ll get ambitious and tackle it. 

I’m off to see if I can make that artificial tree I purchased look like how I have planned. I’m excited to see the red back in our living room, here I thought I was done with red but I’m enjoying using it this year for Christmas. 

MORE CHRISTMAS POSTS YOU MAY WANT TO SEE

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