Christmas Gift to Myself

Ever since my husband voiced his intentions to rid our front hallway of the ancient furnishings there (can be seen in this old blog post when it inspired a poem), I've had my eye out for a storage bench to replace the ancient dresser. I love that I can store the hats and gloves in the lower drawer and all the school supplies in the second and special recognition pages (and all those lovely grade school journals they wrote that I will never be able to part with) in the top drawer of that old dresser, so I'm worried I will actually miss it (though not the appearance of it). I've already bought baskets to move the hats and gloves to the shelves in the garage, but would love to still have ready access to their school supplies right there by the front door (they are forever begging for a pencil just before they leave for school). Although I've scoured the various options available on-line, I also have kept my ear to the ground on Craigslist, checking the listings every other day. So far, no luck.

Instead, it led me to a listing for a beautiful side table with a lyre motif. I have two marble end tables in my living room that have the same lyre motif, so I was smitten at first glance. The difficulty arose when I noticed the location of the seller - Muncie, Indiana - a full hour and a half away. Still, undaunted, I contacted the seller and asked if she is ever any closer to Indianapolis so that we could cut the drive time down. She agreed to meet me in Greenfield, where her son lives. Even though it was still almost an hour's drive, I was determined. This is the beautiful lyre end table I bought as a Christmas present to myself:

And here is a shot of one of my two marble end tables:

So, how about you? Do you buy presents for yourself? What's the best Christmas gift you've bought for yourself?