What is a monkeybox?

When I was a little girl, we had a pet monkey named Amanda. My Dad worked in the produce business, so each night he brought home that days culls in a big box - spotty cucumbers, pithy apples, limp celery, moldy oranges and the like. We called it a monkeybox. It was really just trash, but my Mom would take each piece of fruit and trim it, pare it and cut it up to make a beautiful fruit platter for Amanda. Even though it was deemed trash by one, it still had life left in it and was good for the purpose we needed it. That's how I live my life - thrifting, yard saling, looking for another's trash to be my treasure.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

A Ham? You Shouldn't Have!

Our Front Door
I finished Christmas Shopping today. Yee-ha. I am normaly done in September, but with all the circumstances we have had around here, my shopping went untouched. Well, I had done a bit here and there through the year, but not as much as normal. I belong to several boards were deals are posted every day. A new one to me this year is Fishing For Deals. On their forums people list great deals that are often pulled or sold out ratherly quickly. I am addicted to it this year checking it five or six times a day. I ordered something that was $39.99 for $11.00 shipped to my door. And, now that it has arrived, it was a deal at the original price let alone the $11.99 price. Oh, how I love seeing the UPS man bring me goodies and I didn't have to venture out into traffic and crowds and foul cranky people (okay, that's me) to get it. Yesterday there was a code listed for $30.00 off a $30.00 purchase at Kodak and I was able to order a 250 piece puzzle of my family for the Bean and only paid $3.00 shipping. It shipped today so that is one more fine present in transit. Helloooo Mr. UPS man.
Some of my Christmas-y junk

Today we went to Target and I tried to lose DH and The Bean so I could do my shopping. I finally sent them down the street to EB Games so I could have some alone time. I piddled around and picked up the last of my gifts for everyone. I got DH a fancy weatherband AM/FM/TV radio thingy for his arm so he can listen to the Razorback games that "I am buying season tickets for again this year". At the price of those tickets, I shouldn't even be buying him a gift to boot. While I shopped, I calmly suggested that perhaps they might want to do a little shopping for, oh, you know, someone. But, buying a gift for me is a touchy subject with The Husband.

Cast iron birch trees on the porch.

(They don't show up as well as I would like).

On our first Christmas together we lived in a little house and he worked at a grocery store down the highway. There was only one store that sold things that might interest me in between the two locations. And, siting outside that store there was a row of wooden porch rockers. I commented on the rockers one day as we passed by and that I'd like to have one someday. One night DH announced that he had bought my Christmas gift, "On the way home". And, I said, "Oh goody! A rocking chair!" And, I was just kidding because that is the only place "on the way home" that I could think of and it just sort of popped out. My whole family can look at a 12" x 12" square box and tell you there is a George Foreman Grill in it or a beach ball or a pack of gum. We just know what's in there. My dad is particularly good at this feat. But, this just popped out of my mouth and I couldn't see it or anything. He could have just said, "No!" or "Ha ha" or something to cover it up. He had bought me a rocking chair and he had hid it in the garage and he was not happy about the fact that I guessed it. Not happy would be a real gross understatement. Christmas Eve that chair got hurled into the living room like a sack of dog-doo and he threw himself in his chair with his arms across his chest and just sulked all night. And since then, every birthday, Mother's Day and Christmas, my gifts do not appear until one and a half seconds until I am supposed to open them. I am not allowed to touch them either. I do know that if he handed me a canned ham wrapped in paper, I would play dumb and guess it was a hairbrush. I'm not stupid. I know how he is about this sort of thing. Gift buying isn't so stressful at my house, but gift getting is the pits.

1972 Santa Mouse from my childhood.


Don't you have a naked Santa in your collection?

These are doll making Santas. But, having a naked one is a tradition in my family.
We had torrential rains this week. There is a possibility of 6-10 inches of snow in my area this weekend. We don't do snow in Arkansas.

5 comments:

  1. I swear you get the best deals!! I'm enjoying my magazine deal you scooped up on Amazon--I bought Country Living and Domino both for 10 dollar or 12 dollars--basically got one free!

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  2. Oh no, I just got sucked into the vortex of Fishing for Deals! You are a naughty, nekkie-Santa-owning enabler, Shara! :D (And that's why I love you! LOL)

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  3. Anonymous8:18 PM

    Isn't that mouse a Topogeegio (or however you spell it) Mouse from the Ed Sullivan Show? If not, it looks just like it. Love your nekked Santa's too.

    Libby

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  4. Figuring out what something is before opening it is a skill I developed as a child. I would carefully figure out which one to open before it was time to open presents. We would open presents from my Grandparents on Christmas eve night after dinner and after the dishes were done. The next day I would open my relatives presents when they would show up to visit, after everyone came and were settled.

    Anyway one Christmas when my Aunt was talking about presents and kids figuring out what they got, I told her I am good at figuring out what the presents are.

    She said oh really smarty and she handed me one of my presents. I was about 19 or 20. Anyway my eyes lit up and said oh thank you this is something I've always wanted! She said what is it? And I told her it was a trivia game that I wanted for a couple of years. She said oh you figured it out? How did you figure it out?!? It came in a tin container and I felt it through the wrapping and also the shapes underneath it. She handed me a couple others, a couple harder ones and I think out of three I got 1 right.

    The rest of the day she was telling people how good I was at figuring it out, it was like I was a prodigy at figuring out what presents are before they are opened. I mean who cares your going to open it soon anyway and then after you do it's over with.

    I can remember how I acted when I was a little kid though, it was like a once a year crack fix, I was obsessed until it was over with, and then I was obsessed with my presents until school started up again.

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  5. Hello there!! I followed blogger links to your blog from someone who posted on mine, and lo and behold - a Fishing for Deals mention! I am a total FFD ADDICT. How funny. And now I scrolled through your blogroll and realized you're linked to several other blogs I read through occasionally, but somehow I'd never clicked on you before today!

    Just wanted to say hi, and I think you find suuuuuch amazing junky things.

    But what I most envy right now?? Those paper churches you got last year for 49¢!!! I saw a few of those things at Target last year, as little ornaments (Taaaaaaaaaaargeeeeeeeeeet), but don't seem to have been into them until this year. Too little too late! Hope Target has more of that stuff next year.

    These seasonal clearances sure are addictive.

    Good luck with the homeschooling (I'm a public school teacher, but I FULLY support any parent who feels they can better educate their own child) and happy new year!!

    ReplyDelete

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