(some of) What I Got For Christmas, and what I want next year (or sooner)

From my wonderful MIL, who believed me this year when I said I wanted chocolate for Christmas:

In case you can't tell, that's a 35 ounce bag. That's almost three pounds of chocolate! I dumped them out into a half-gallon canning jar, and it's really pretty. Even though the level is somewhat diminished by now. But I've had help eating them. Really.


From LovelyDaughter:



This even better than the Dove Chocolate, if you can believe it. But, of course, I'm not abandoning the Dove...


From MB3:
And, boy, are they rich. I can taste the cream.



From MandoNut, who did indeed come to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us:
Seriously. He bought us a futon! What kind of crazy houseguest would buy us an expensive piece of furniture? I guess there's a reason we call him a nut.

It is going to be so very useful, and is much more comfortable to sit on than our vintage, avocado green, five-piece sectional. And when one of the kids wants to sleep by the stove because they're sick or cold, they don't have to sleep on the floor. (Believe me, NO ONE slept on the sectional. Very uncomfortable.) In spite of that, I'm still grateful for the sectional, because we were able to pack up pieces of it to make room for the futon.

And now, on Monday, I get to go pick out the cover for the futon. It may be one of the following:

1) a color similar to the sectional.
2) a pattern that will pick up on our new decorating scheme, assuming the colors on my computer monitor are accurate.
Or maybe something different. We'll see.

And I'm so inspired, I might buy a new sofa or loveseat, and scrap the sectional altogether. That poor couch has served many people for many years. It was handed down to us from Hubby's grandparents. I think they bought it in the sixties or seventies, whenever streamlined, contemporary furniture was in. I have looked in the past for a replacement for it, because I figure its days will come to an ignoble end sometime, but most of what I found was too big and overbearing for our tiny little square of room.

(Yes, I know we have a big L-shaped multi-room. But what with the hall into the bedrooms and the front door and the fireplace, we actually have a pretty small corner in which to put a conversation nook. The furniture can't be too big, or all we'll get is one recliner for six people, and that just doesn't sound fun.)

But-- I've been looking again, and it looks like contemporary-style furniture with a fairly compact footprint is back in, and I have found some choices.



This: (very similar in style to our sectional)
Or this: (I could get two of these, because of their size, and retain a little bit of sectional versatility)


Or maybe even this:

Cool.