Now that Christmas is over...

My friend Michele surprised me with this gift. I put it on the breakfast bar with my Christmas cactus and Callie the cat thinks this is where she's to lay.

This is my favorite gift of all!LOL If you would have told me I would have been excited over a tool kit I would have told you - you are crazy. My dad got this for me and I have used it like crazy this week. I called him once and said, "Guess what I'm doing?" and when I told him I was using the tool box he just laughed and laughed. I have had a hammer and a screwdriver since April when I moved in - so I really could have used the tools!
This is my bedroom with it's new paint. Yes since Wednesday, I have been painting this room. My parents and my brother gave me gift cards to Lowe's and they were spent in paint. I found the bedding at Walmart the day after Christmas and bought if for $68. It's a quilted coverlet oversized with the bedskirt and the shams. I just love this. I had blue in the room but I just didn't like it - it wasn't me. These are warm colors and so much more like me. The wall behind the bed - that color will be painted in my bathroom when I get a couple of walls patched up.
This is the wall between my kitchen and living room. The bar is attached to it. It's just been sitting there waiting for me to do something with it. I've had the shelf but hadn't hung it yet. There was a telephone jack in the wall that I had taken down but was needing to repair the hole. I found the stars at Walmart the day after Christmas and knew they would be perfect for that wall - and they were 50% off. So two for the price of one. Yes, poor mister fish is back in the tank. We had the Jesse tree here and so the betta had been moved into Erynn's bathroom in a little tank until after Christmas. He's staying at the bottom of the tank - I hope he's ok - we will probably be shopping for a new fish soon.

Christmas was a great this year. Different but great. It rained here in Ar and we all hoped that it would get cold enough to turn to snow but it didn't. No white stuff here in Central AR. Christmas eve my family came over and we exchanged gifts and snacked and played a few card games. Christmas morning Erynn and I opened gifts and she got me a lovely orange bowl for the living room and a beautiful book that I will cherish always. She hooked up her playstation 2 and played until we went to my mom's at noon. We ate lunch there and then we went to visit a couple of my mom's six sisters. It was different but a good day.

Erynn and I had planned on being up at 5 am and hitting the stores the day after Christmas. Erynn wanted lights for outside. The alarm went off and she asked if we could just go later and we slept in. We went later and got some white lights and have decided that if it stays still next year it will have lights on it!

Hope everyone else has had a great holiday and a great week. I have the week off until the 3rd of January and I'm telling you the days are going too fast. I've been counting how many I have left each day - not enough time off.