backtracking

So here we are on Christmas Eve. I wanted to show you my husband's parents' house, which is close to where we live. We went to dinner with them (and their friends and their friends' families) for Christmas Eve, then came back to their house for dessert. It was a lovely way to end the night.

This is their house, all decked out for Christmas. Look closely and you'll notice that they have a train track erected around the tree in front. This is just for Christmas. My father in-law loves trains. He has passed that love down to a few of his grandchildren, including my sons. The Christmas train ("Santa's Fe") runs along on the track when the decorations go up. Although it was a freezing night, my sons chose to stay out here and watch the train for as long as possible (with their daddy and grandfather.)

Here's a closer view of one train admirer, as well as the track and train.

Admirer #2. Did I mention it was a freezing night? I was too much of a wimp to stay outside for long. My husband snapped all of these pictures.

My father in-law has trains on the inside of his house as well. We didn't take a picture that night, but inside his office in the house he has built train track that runs along the perimeter of the room, suspended from the ceiling. There's even a tunnel that's a part of the scene, too. Some day I'll have to go back and snap that for you. For now, I can show you a shot of the tree that was running (where else?) under the Christmas tree. My boys were in heaven. In fact, we stayed over here until about 11 p.m. The boys are 5 and 3 years old. But as long as the trains were moving, eyes were wide open!

Let's move on from the trains to house decor. This is the dining room. A few years ago my in-laws redecorated their house, almost the entire first floor and a guest bathroom upstairs. I don't have any "before" photos. But you can probably tell that the change was beautifully done.

The area rug in this room that you see above inspired the hand painted border. Just beautiful!

More hand painting was done on the banister in the foyer. If I had my druthers, I would love to have this done on the banister that is in the upstairs of my own home. It is so, so pretty.

The same artist who painted the banner and banister also painted these lovely blooms in the foyer, which travel up the stairway. I know these pictures are nice, but you really should see them in person!

This is a picture of the living room. That's me sitting over there beyond the tree in the family room. Not one of my better poses, but you know, it's not about me. It's about this gorgeous house!

Aah, Christmastime. I told my mother in-law that I was ready to check in for the night. She did a wonderful job with her decorations. This was the first Christmas that she and my father in-law spent here, post decorating project. For the last few years they have traveled down to Charlotte to be with my sister in-law and her family. I think they both enjoyed seeing their "new" home filled with all of their old Christmas treasures. By the way, that's me again in the plaid pants. I am speaking to my son, who is standing in front of my mother in-law (far left) and her friend.

Voila! The kitchen. The most dramatic change here was that everything was gutted and the footprint of the entire room was changed. Picture dark, hanging cabinetry, small preparation space & eating area, and you get the idea. It turned out great.

This view gives you a better idea of how the kitchen now flows into the family room. There used to be a little half wall between the rooms.

That's all the photos I have from our time at my in-law's. Now we are home, and milk & cookies are waiting for Santa. We all opened our Christmas Eve gift, which was new jammies for everyone.

One more shot of the tree. Now that it's down, I miss it.

On Christmas, my husband and I each gave each other ornaments. This was a surprise to both of us. The Chicago marquee is from me to him:

And this beauty is from him to me:

I mentioned that I made pancakes Christmas morning. What I didn't mention was that I tried making them with pancake molds that I had purchased at Williams-Sonoma. I had a really hard time doing this! In my first attempt I was using them wrong, they were upside down on the griddle. The second attempt wasn't much better. By this time my sons were getting very hungry. Then it occurred to me that we still cut up all of their food for them before they begin eating...so the shapes probably would have been lost on them anyway. Oh well, A for effort and all that. If you want a set of pancake molds, let me know and they are yours.

Next post: post Christmas!