Merry Christmas from 17 Apart

Here's wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas from all of us here at 17 Apart. Throughout the day we'll be celebrating the holiday with our families and enjoying being in our new home.

While things are still a bit bare bones as we move from one house to the other right in the middle of the holidays, we were able to add a few festive updates to make it feel like Christmas around here.

While cleaning up our back patio, I clipped a few excess branches from a beautiful holly tree we have in our backyard with a little help from my supervisor, Basil.

Mary then took the branches and worked a little holiday magic on the fireplace mantles. We actually have 4 fireplaces in our new house (incredible!) and were able to really dress up the 2 on the lower level.

As one one of our housewarming gifts, Mary's mom gave us these two little Christmas trees made from reclaimed barn wood slats right here in Virginia.

They each stand just over 5 feet tall and make a really simple but endearing update. It looks like the slats were cut in the shape of trees, braced on simple barn wood stands, and strung with a single strand of white lights.

While we're still getting things going over here, we're enjoying the new space and taking time out from our regular activities to celebrate with family and friends. Wishing each of you the best as we bring a close to 2011 over the next week from our family to yours!