Bitchy Miss Daisies and a bear

Is anyone else glad that Christmas is finally over?   I know that sounds awful, but I am.  For those of you with dysfunctional families, I suppose you can appreciate and understand why.   I don't see gift giving as a competition.  But, I found out this year, apparently it is.

 There is always one family member that is difficult to shop for.   For the most part, I spend a better part of the year thinking of something for my dad.  My dad grew up poor.  My grandparents were farmers, so Christmas wasn't full of wants.  It was filled more with practical gifts that were needed. Toys were somewhat of a luxury.

Since becoming a self sufficient adult, when shopping for my dad, I try to select gifts that he normally wouldn't buy for himself.    One thing that my dad has always wanted was a Big Al from the Country Bears. I have randomly search Ebay to see what was available.   None of them were all that, so I would pass on auctions.  My husband wasn't convinced that he really wanted one. Ok, so with all this said,  this leads me further into my story.

Over Thanksgiving, myself, husband, kids, mom, dad, and sister all packed up the family trucksters to go to Disney World for a week.    While we were at the Magic Kingdom, my dad announced to the our group, that he wanted to go see the Country Bears and Hall of Presidents.    After that was said, I looked at my husband with the "see!, I told you so" look.  While in line for Pirates, I found 2 auctions that were worth watching.  Later in the week, I won the auction and the bear arrived the Monday after we got back.

 Big Al is in perfect condition. This was made by the California Stuffed Toy Co. which closed in the mid to late 80s.  It has all of its original tags.  The clothing, which is made of felt has some fading, but I mainly think that is due to the age.   I remember this version of the bear being available during the 80s.

I didn't really share with my mom or sister that I got the bear.  I didn't think that it would be a big deal.  It was our gift to him from the kids.  So, Christmas Eve, we go over to my parent's home for dinner and opening presents.  It turned out to be the last gift he opened and his reaction to it was priceless.  My dad almost cried.   I was really touched by his reaction and it was one of the few moments, this whole holiday season, that filled me with some Christmas spirit.

Now to the part of the story where I need to vent.

So, now that Christmas is a week old, all I have heard for the past 7 days is  my mom and sister bitching about how they couldn't top the bear!   Oh excuse me, I didn't know it was m*&^%# %&*%ing competition.  My mom said, "Next year, I will just let you pick out all of his gifts.  I wasted $200 on a new tv for him."  I didn't realize how badly I pissed in their cereal.

It isn't like the tv won't get watched.  My dad lives and breathes sports (football, baseball, nascar, golf,etc).  If it is televised, the man is watching it.    The bear is just sitting on a shelf.

What bothers me the most, is how petty they are being all because I bought something out of the ordinary.  They have internet.  They know how to shop Ebay.  Get over it!  Do you have family like this? How do you deal with them?

Some new changes

I am making some new changes to my blog.  First off, I changed the name.  I never really liked Retro Toy Safari.  It just wasn't me but at the time I couldn't think of anything better.   Since I collect a lot of R2s, I thought the new name was perfect.  

I also have created a tumblr.     This way if I don't get to write an article here, I can do a quick post on Tumblr via my phone.   The tumblr is just going to be random pictures and items from my collection, especially new finds. 

Please continue to visit me here and now on tumblr

The Salacious Crumb tacky Christmas sweater project

From the title, you probably thought WOW! she is knitting a Salacious Crumb sweater.  Sadly no,  I wish I was that crafty.  We spent our Thanksgiving holiday at Disney World.  Thank you Disney for dropping the cash and purchasing the Star Wars franchise.  For my family, it makes life easy now.  We just give all our money to one company skipping the middle man.  The Star Wars merchandise selection there was awesome!

My favorite Star Wars purchase has been Salacious B. Crumb. I love the background aliens.  I couldn't pass up an almost life sized lizard monkey!  I have had so many facebook friends refer to him as creepy, ugly, and frightening.   Have these people never seen Return of the  Jedi?  How are these people my friends?

I didn't really intend to start dressing it up. But the suggestion was made about mouse ears.  I couldn't find any mouse ears small enough for him, so I bought a rhinestone mickey tiara because everybody wants to be a pretty, pretty, princess from time to time.  

Once the tiara was on, plans for a feather boa and tutu soon followed, but have been put on hold by the ugly Christmas sweater project.  It's Christmas and everybody needs at least one tacky Christmas sweater right?  Honestly, I haven't been much in the holiday mood.  But this has been fun and helped me a little.

Well, tacky Christmas sweaters don't come in lizard monkey sizes or even newborn sizes.  So, (thanks to the Goodwill) I found a cheap and ugly sweater that was a 3-6 months. I feel sorry for the kid who had to wear it originally.   With some minor alterations and major embellishings, we have gotten to this point in the sweater project.

I haven't wanted to spend a lot on, so I have just been using ribbon and scraps from around the house.  I am still looking for more beads and a topper for the tree.  I also need a different color ribbon to finish the packages.  

I would love to do like a 12 days of ugly sweaters for next year and have it be some sort of ongoing holiday project.