Been busy again

It's been a non-stop week again. You will recall I have been to two school programs - 1 Monday and 1 Tuesday. Then on Wednesday I had a busy day at work and knocked off just in time to get some snack mix put together and grab my gifts to head out to our Secret Sister Reveal. We had some delicious foods thanks to Ms. Janet. She spoils us. 

Then it was time to exchange gifts and reveal our Secret Sister. I had at times felt like it was my Pastor's wife, Ms. Christy. Sure enough it was. I have been so blessed by her kind words and cards and have really appreciated the fun Secret Sister she was. Wednesday, she had me this precious little devotional. I can't wait till January 1st to start using it. 

Each of my gifts from my Secret Sister were such a good fit for me...tea sets, fuzzy socks, lots of goodies. So I figured the person either knew me really well or had been to my house. Ms. Christy fit both of those categories. She had me one final gift in this gorgeous box. 

This exquisite tea set. I fell in love. I have an entire room dedicated to beach theme.

Check out the minute details. It is gorgeous.

I really didn't want to put it in the kids room because I am not in there that much and then I remembered my beach shelf in my office that contains beach items that hold special memories. So I put it front and center with pics of beach trips, the ship my son's family brought me back from the beach, memories of trips past. It is a perfect place for this final thoughtful gift of the 2012 Secret Sister Exchange. 

Yesterday, I finally finished decorating my office for Christmas. I didn't do much. Just a little tree on the craft table. 

I had some Rudolph & Clarice material that I just laid around the tree for a tree skirt. I just love this material.

My little Dollar Tree container for pencils. I need to go through and organize them. They are a shamble. I had just dumped them in from the other pencil holder and forgot to straighten them up.

My Thirty-One work area. Edgar is fascinated by my office and hangs out in there a lot. He's waiting to see how many parties and online catalog parties I book for January. Plus I think he was needing a rest after the cookies and Pyrex escapades this past week. 

Speaking of January. Do you like my new desk calendar? It was $1.00 at Target in there dollar section. I picked up four or five different types of organizing items in there to be used the first of the year. 

I have some unique ornaments that I have received over the years at ornament exchanges. They are a little heavy on the tree but I hated to keep them hidden. So I figured out a temporary way to display them.

I usually use the little wire holder for Christmas cards. It's about 30+ years old. This year I stuffed some leftover poinsettias in it. 

The top of my file cabinet holds my Kleenex box a friend made me a few years back as well as my Dollar Tree baskets for outgoing mail. 

My sister sent me a dishtowel she had made me. I fell in love with it but I had to laugh a little. We are so much alike. She hasn't seen my material I used for the tree skirt above, yet look what she picked out to make dishtowels from....Clarice. Great minds do think alike.