Christmas Decor Emergency

I volunteered to host a Christmas Relief Society progressive dinner at my house this past December.  It was a great motivator to finally take care of some of the final remodeling details we never finished before, like the moose-shaped patch where the electrical was updated:

Or the frames around the windows:

Or that wall that used to have a window, before we  added the master bedroom on to the other side:

So I set to work painting and my hubby built a wall unit to hide the blocked window:

I was feeling okay about our progress, until two days before the dinner, when a member of the Relief Society presidency, in an attempt to lower the intimidation factor and get a few more volunteer hosts, gave a little speech about how you didn't need to have a big, nice house to be a host.  We just wanted to enjoy your Christmas decorations.

Christmas decorations?

I hadn't realized that Christmas decor was the key component to hosting this event.  I have lovely Christmas decorations--my mom gifted them to me a few seasons back--but I hadn't decorated yet because we were doing all that paint and carpentry work.  Now, not only did I have to finish the construction, but I also needed  to deck the halls.  This don't-be-intimidated speech really intimidated me. 

All is well that ends well.  We ended up finishing most construction (minus some detail work on the new wall unit) a few hours before the dinner and my kids helped me complete the fastest decorating spree of all time. My parents came over a half hour before the dinner started and we just finished minutes before guests arrived. Phew.