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. 

This day in history...

December 13th, 1956

It was on a Thursday then and it is on a Thursday now. The December birthstone is turquoise or blue topaz. The flower is the Poinsettia and Holly. People born on this day are Sagittarius (if you follow astrology). The US president was Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Searchers with John Wayne and The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston were released in December 1956. Which is funny because my least liked John Wayne movie was The Searchers and my most beloved Charlton Heston movie was The Ten Commandments. Singing the Blues - Guy Mitchell was the #1 song in the United States. Which is neat since I am such a Pollyanna that I rarely "sing" the blues. Why is all this important and what is so great about December 13, 1956? 

It was the day I was born. 

Is it cool to wish yourself a Happy Birthday? I don't care if it is or not. I love my birthdays and celebrate and enjoy each and everyone of them. I had a man tell me one time that "It's always a good day when you wake up on this side of the dirt."

Age is a matter of the mind. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter. You don't quit playing because you grow old. You grow old because you quit playing. 

My daughter tells me all the time that I'm younger than everybody else my age and I think that is true. I love life and I try to cram every minute of it full of joy and laughter. In my mind, I still feel 18 like I was in this picture. 

Now if I could just figure out a way to get my 18 year old body back I would be so happy.

So if I want to tell myself Happy Birthday, so be it.

 Happy birthday to me.

Mamaw is missing

"Good morning. This is Edgar. I am a little worried about Mamaw. She is always at her computer writing her blog when I get up. But I don't see her anywhere. Hmm. I have an idea."

"I'll write her blog today. She will be so happy that I am helping out and staying out of trouble."

"Well, I grabbed her camera and started hunting around the house to find something to blog about. What's this? A package? A present? Is it for me????"

"I climbed in to check and pulled all the paper out and I couldn't find anything. She must have ordered me a Christmas gift and is hiding it till she can wrap it. Let's keep exploring." 

"Hmm. In the kitchen there looks like something on top of the silverware box. I need to climb up and see what it is. She won't care." 

"Shiny. White interior. Looks pretty neat. Let's check it out."

"Yes! She bought me my very own bathtub! Bring on the bubbles!"

"Wait a minute. It can't be a bathtub because I don't see any plumbing. It's got a pretty look outside." 

"Oh my gosh it is a vintage piece of Pyrex in her Colonial Mist pattern. She has been looking everywhere for the set of Cinderella bowls. I overheard her on the phone telling her sister that a lady on Facebook traded her a spring daisy bowl for this Cinderella bowl. Piece one of the four piece set has arrived. I bet she is out looking at thrift stores for some of the other three pieces. This bowl is gorgeous. I know she must be so excited."

"I hope she doesn't find out I was going to use it as a bathtub."

"EDGAR!!! Get off my computer. What are you doing?" Oh, I see. You were trying to help with my blog. Well, I do appreciate it but keep your stinky little feet out of my new bowl in the future. If you had not been so impatient you would know why I didn't write my blog last night. I went to Alexis's Christmas program. On the way, I drove by the King's to see their light display. Here is just a small shot. I'll show some of the other pictures later."

There's Alexis heading to the bleachers at her program. 

There is her grade singing one of their songs. 

She had on the prettiest dress and looked so adorable I just had to get a picture. I may be prejudiced, but she was the cutest girl there. 

I'm sorry that Edgar was running rampant, but I am glad he shared my new Pyrex bowl. I am so excited. I had a set of the Cinderella bowls in this pattern years ago and we sold them at a yard sale way back before collecting Pyrex was popular and I've regretted it ever since. I am trying to accumulate the whole set and was very pleased that my first bowl was a trade so it didn't cost me anything. I love the Pyrex 4 Trade group on Facebook. 

My busy, hectic life

These past few days have been filled with activity. At the rate I'm going I won't just need the week after Christmas off...I'm going to need the MONTH after Christmas off.

It started out Friday with my normal day where hubby and I go to the grocery store and do a little Christmas shopping. It feels good to know that I'm getting a few things here and there. But one day next week I am going to take the whole day off by myself and shop until I have everybody done on my list. Friday night was the Knoxville Christmas parade and I went with my daughter because Shelby was in the parade. 

Saturday we went back to Knoxville to visit Mast General Store. I saw these neat oil lamps. I really need to get a new oil lamp based on how many times the power went out last winter. This looks so vintage. 

It was a beautiful day so we decided to take a walk over to Market Square. They have a Farmer's Market on Saturdays and it was a gorgeous day to stroll through the square.

I stopped at one booth and bought Hubby a cinnamon sugar donut to take home. It smelled so good I ended up eating it and had to go back and get some more to take home.  

After I came home, I baked four dozen cookies to take to our Sunday School Christmas program for the grandparents the next day. I baked Snickerdoodles and Gingerbread. 

My daughter had a "date" with her hubby for her birthday so Shelby stayed with me and Caleb stayed at his other grandma's house. After her bath, Shelby tripped and fell and hit her head on the porcelain part of the commode. She got a pump knot and a little bruise. I hate when they get hurt under my watch. She had to have an ice pack and a blankie. This was the blankie I won in May 2011 from Ms. Becky at Rise Above Your Limit.

Sunday morning was our little grandparents program at Sunday School. We got this awesome Christmas card from our grandchildren.  

And a box of snack mix that they decorated for us.

We got a bag full of goodies. 

 And I got an awesome gift bag from my Secret Sister. We find out on Wednesday who our Secret Sister is. I can't wait to give mine a HUGE hug. 

My gift bag also had this precious teddy bear in it. You know how I love teddy bears. He will be going on the trunk at the end of my bed with my others. 

Our choir Christmas program for church went very well. Then after church I went to the Thirty-One spring premier. It was awesome, fabulous, fantastic, mind blowing, oh my gosh words cannot convey how neat it was. We left with our new spring catalogs and I drooled over it all night. 

We also received one of the new products as a thank you for attending. The front cover theme is getting organized which is appropriate since it launches in January. New starts for new projects. So I am thinking I might just paint my office and use some of these new products to finally get it organized like I have been planning on doing for a year now. Stay tuned to see what transpires. This was our amenity for the Spring premier. I love this color and it goes well with the new taupe/grays they are using.

I also finished all my Christmas cards for church this weekend. Then I forgot to take them. But I can take them Wednesday. 

I went to my grandson Garret's Christmas program at school yesterday. It was so cute. I never tire of seeing the Grinch or watching Grandma get run over by the reindeer. 

Edgar swears I just plumb wore him out. He swears that he is so exhausted that he can't move another step so he just dropped down on the carpet and laid there. 

But I know it wasn't the busy weekend --- he was comatose from sugar overload! While I was gone Sunday to my Thirty One Premier, he was at home sneaking into the leftover cookies from Sunday School. I came home to find this. The proof is in the picture.