Now that it's almost February

I decided to leave the Christmas decorations up until I was ready to start decorating for Valentines Day this year, and I do admit, I liked it. It has made these last few nasty winter weeks more bearable.

We did not put up a Christmas tree this year, which was actually kind've awesome, but I did score a sweet pre-lit flocked tree for next year. Mr. A and I are strictly artificial tree folk. I have personally never had a real tree. Maybe Im blissfully ignorant, but I think I could take it or leave it as far as the real vs. fake tree debate goes. I do know this: once the hubs and I start having little hooligans, its real tree all.the.way. No exceptions. :)

This year, it was nice to just decorate every OTHER surface in our house - and I went quite a bit more vintage than even last years decorations. I used what I already had and the rest, I just DIY'ed things here and there that I already had.

Here are 2013's Christmas decorations:

This year for Christmas Presents, I used brown kraft paper, washi tape, and sharpie'd my own decorations! Each gift felt a lot more personal and fun that way, I thought:

and last, these cute Christmas cupcakes we made for Christmas at Grandma and Grandpas: fudgy chocolate with white chocolate peppermint buttercream.