On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

Matthew 2:11 (NIV)

I had this Barbie, the first time around (over 30 years ago).
My sister and I both got one for Christmas.  It was hard for us to tell them apart.

I was very tempted to buy this one for my niece earlier in the week when I was shopping.  But, she didn’t want Barbie, she wanted Kelly.

Did you know you could sell that dress (if you still have it) on ebay for about $20.00. Kinda makes me want steal all my Barbie crap back from my niece to pay for 15 yr old soccer stuff.  (not really)

And speaking of Barbie kids or Barbie kid sister…what the heck happened to Skipper? Looks like Stacie is the new cool little sister…whatever.

I loved Barbie when I was a kid, but I am getting a bit old for all this name changing business.

One more thing…since when did it become so flippin’ hard to FIND a Barbie? There were more collector editions (like the one above) in the toy departments than dolls kids are actually supposed to play with.

So, what was your favorite toy as a kid?
Were you a Barbie girl?

Finally!

I have been talking about my purse saga on twitter for weeks!  The purse came but it was shipped to my mom, who was in Florida and the USPS forwarded it to her…IN FLORIDA.

She got home last night and I got my purse while we were still at the airport.  She unzipped her bag right there in the parking lot and handed it over.

I have to say it is the perfect purse!  check it out!
(I know its a bad picture. sorry)

I can fit everything I need in this bad boy with room for more.  AND, it is made of hemp-organic and green and all that “nature mama” hippie crap I LOVE!

Did I mention that Rawganique has the best customer service ever?  They do.  I will be ordering more.

(This was the first Christmas that my family decided to scale back and that is part of what this post is about, but it is also about my popaw.  This was the first Christmas with out him.  People always say that the first holiday after a death is the hardest, but it gets easier over time.       God, I hope so.)

"Arvis of the Popaws"

That is my Popaw.  When I was a kid I dubbed him “Arvis of the Popaws” like he was The King of England.  In my book, he was the the coolest popaw of them all.  He would go to a farm auction and take orders.  Asking my sister and I what we wanted.  We would say “baby chicks” or a horse or “Popaw bring us home a baby cow”  and he would.  Two things he never bought us, a baby goat (not sure why) or a baby pig.  Now the pig he said would grow up mean and they are only cute for like a week.

He was right.

Pigs are gross!
But the goat.  Popaw was very much tied to goats to us, not just the kids, but all of us.  You see, he used to sing “Bill Grogan’s Goat” when he was younger it was only after much partaking in the Kentucky state beverage, Bourbon!  Because my popaw’s version was a bit more adult.  About a week before he died, he sang it for us, one last time.  I wish we had video’d it.

But the best, that I had forgotten was when he was in his early 60’s my sister and I were at their house and my little sister said she needed a coat (from the front closet) and he mis-heard her.  He needed a hearing aid badly but kept putting it off.

“What?! You bought a goat???!”
We all laughed for years about it.  Every time anyone mis-heard anything we said “What? You bought a goat.”
It has been a huge family joke.

This year in honor of my popaw, my family bought a goat to send to a family in Africa from Food for the Poor.

When I showed my dad, he said “What, you bought a goat?”
“Yes, I did popaw, yes I did.”

I Believe…

Wow, those words rolling around in my head came upon the Apostles’ Creed.  Which is true, I do believe all of those things-except the Decended to Hell part…oh where was i…
Ah yes…

I Believe….

Oh for petesake and a volkswagon!  Now the old Don Williams tune is chasing the Apostles’ Creed down the street in my brain….I Believe in You.

I Believe that song has stirred up some memories.
I Believe I won’t be sharing them here!

I Believe that there is some truth to that old country tune (and by the way, it is a CLASSIC Country tune)-and somethings I don’t believe. (I am a huge fan of Organic Food and I drive a Honda!)

I Believe we are entering in a very exciting (if uncertain) time in our nation’s history with our first minority president.
I Believe that to many people are living in and breeding fear over the state of affairs in this country.

I Believe in the spirit of Christmas and the wonder of a child when you speak of it (and Santa)
I Believe that Sonic ice is the closest thing to manna (from heaven) that we have today here in America.
I Believe that Sonic ice also has me spoiled rotten.

I could go on with this thread for hours, however…
I Believe I will go play with my Christmas gifts now.

All I can say is when I am 79, I wanna have legs like that.
Dang!

Fitting that this is one of her most famous songs and she died on Christmas day.

I wanted to be her when I was a kid.
She could purr better than most real cats.

Visit my Christmas Wrapping Set on Flickr to see all the presents wrapped. Yes, it is a theme.

to you and yours.

I will be back on the 26th with some crafty posts.

Until then-enjoy this:

I think my favorite thing about Christmas is wrapping presents.

I know, I am odd, but I LOVE it.

Especially since I bought this roll of butcher paper at a yard sale for 5 bucks-I can stamp or paint or doodle all over the paper and make it part of a theme (in the case of Christmas) or specific to the person getting the gift.

I only buy wrapping paper when I am giving a gift to someone who doesn’t know me and my “peculiar-ness” -like for angel tree or secret Santa-wow that craft paper would be a dead give-a-way-so much for secret. heh.

I also created a cool gift card package, but I can’t post that until after my cousins open their gifts-because it would show them exactly what they got!

But, I can start with this:

Cathie Filan has instructions to make a Recycled Card Ornament on her blog.  And I think tons of people have made them in the past in art class or maybe geometry class….

I saw them in Martha Stewart Living last year and went completely insane making them with old Christmas cards and photos that I had never scrapbooked.  (odd not on her site)

Honestly, the photo balls were my favorite because you could do one for each kid or group them by family…I was going to say I wish I had pictures.

And then…I just went and created one and photographed the whole process-so head on over to flickr and check that puppy out!

For this project all you need is the following:

• Christmas Cards or Photos-enough to get 20 circles punched or cut
• Scissors or a circle punch (that is at least 1 1/2″ big (smaller will be really hard to work with)
• Glue (I like Sobo)
• A TON of small binder clips-you can use paper clips in a pinch, but they create a wave in the cards
• 6″ of ribbon
• small scrap of cardstock
• small piece of cardboard
• pen

Between my pictures and Cathie’s DIY..you might have 10 of these popped out by tomorrow!