This is how my newly uncluttered desk and office look now. What I’m not showing you are all the stacks of trash as they piled up in the kitchen and waited to go down to the recycle bin. Then you could really appreciate my accomplishment. (They’re all gone now!) It may still look a little messy by many people’s standards, but now I can find things and most everything I might need is pretty much at arm’s reach now. A good way, my momma would say, to begin a new year!

Now I want to show you my favorite Christmas present from my friend in Pittsburgh, Marylou, and the tote it will replace, which Hubby brought me from India when he last visited in 2005, right beside it. It’s not easy to see how frayed and worn out the handles are getting on the old one, but take my word, it’s looking a little tired and worn out. The new one is definitely much classier, don’t you agree? And it has all kinds of neat little compartments inside where I can tuck and easily get at things. Thanks, ML!

Other gifts of note: a gift certificate to a nice restaurant downtown, one that makes the best flan I’ve ever tasted–including my own–and it should cover appetizers as well as  a glass of wine maybe. Of course it’ll take us hours to eat that much food now. Plus the gift Hubby and I gave each other, which is a membership in a health facility complete with sauna, swimming pool, a jacuzzi and an ice rink. We’re looking forward to lots of leisure time there between classes. 

Meanwhile, hope the new year has a lot of good things in store for you, and that you’ll stop by Wintersong often in 2008 to say hello.