Tuesday Tell All: Collections

The TTA topic this week is about collections we have kept past or present. I automatically started to think about collections that people I love have. My Grandma Nance collects plates and thimbles from places she's visited. The plates are above the cabinets in the kitchen. The thimbles are in a glass case by the back door. I have purchased thimbles for her from trips I have gone on because I think of her when I see them in gift shops. My mom has a lovely collection of Lladro pieces in the hutch in the living room. My dad has brought home sand from different beaches he has traveled to. Rich's mom has beautiful porcelain dolls in the cabinet upstairs. Rich's dad has a display of golf balls in the den. My brother Rhett has a binder of Pokemon cards (though he has since out grown them and shared a few with my boys). Greg, Brad and Jeff had baseball cards. Rich had baseball, basketball and football cards as a boy. Our sweet neighbor Ken Swenson collects spoons.

When I thought about me, nothing really stood out. I have never stuck to one thing. While I would love to say I am a collector of art, I really just am the recipient of generous Christmas gifts. I did come up with a few things, but I thought it would be fun to start out with the kids....TREY: Yu-Gi-Oh cards. While others loved Pokemon, Trey went straight for the newer version of Japanese collectible cards. It pains me each time we spend $4.00 for a pack, but he loves them, even if they spend 99% of the time in a Ziploc tucked in the closet. Better there than scattered all over the living room!JOSH: Stuffed animals, mainly dogs. When he makes his bed, there are so many friends it's hard to see the bedspread! He doesn't actually sleep with them. He pushed them to the foot of the bed when he climbs in for the night. Wise move!

MATT: About a year ago Matt wanted to start collecting "credit cards" as he calls them. They are gift cards I have "taken the money off" to quote Matt. Every store I went to I tried to pick up one and soon he had a very large collection. When we were at Wal-mart he would pick them out and then I would add $5 dollars to each card. We then would use the cards to pay for our groceries and I would hand them over to Matt as we walked out the door . Tricky huh since they don't just give those things away! He hasn't gotten any new ones for a while, but now tells me he wants them WITH the money still on them. Smart kid. Very smart.
BRYNN: Her favorite collection is her ever growing pile of shoes. She changes her pair every hour, so it really is nice to have options!
KAITLYN: Her beloved stack of blankets. If you can believe it that isn't even all of them! She loves her blankets. She adores them. When I get her out of her crib, she tosses them over the side. She drags them around the house, they come in the car and once in awhile they tag along into shops and such, though we're trying to avoid an attachment like Matt's yellow blanket- far too many witnessed the wrath of Matt when it was missing! (Right Kristi?!) I love each blanket because I think of the wonderful women- friends and family- that handmade almost all of them for my baby girls. What gifts of love.CHERYL: As a young child I started a sticker collection. Through most of elementary school I saved all the stickers people gave to me and stored them in this little metal tin. As I looked through it today (it was stored in my cedar chest) I found a little piece of paper that had 3o2 stickers scribbled on it. Quite the collection. Check out those Michael Jackson and Gremlins stickers- totally 80's!One summer I started a coin collection. I think I only ended up with a few pennies, quarters, nickels and dimes of no importance, but I did find this 1943 penny. It's the only coin that I kept over the years besides a 1977 (my birth year) 50 cent piece. The 1943 silver colored penny is a wartime issue made of steel, and coated with zinc. During World War II, copper was so badly needed for the war effort (to make shell casings) that the U.S. penny was made out of steel that year, which is why most 1943 pennies are silver colored. They are worth about 12 to 15 cents each in circulated condition, and as much as 50 cents or more if uncirculated. Not a lot of monetary value, but it was a treasure find for me that summer.As I thought about what I have collected as an adult, my mind drew a blank. I really don't collect things. The only thing I have tried to get over the years weren't very hard to come buy. In fact they were quite cheap. They are McDonald's Happy Meal toys. Before you think I'm completely nutty, there have only been 4 toys since Trey was born 8 years ago that I have wanted to get. They were the Ty Beanie Baby animals and bears, the Build-A-Bear animals and the Madame Alexander dolls.
These cute animals came out when Trey was a baby. With the help of my mom and brothers, we got quite a stash. I kept them in a basket in Trey's room and took them to church as play toys. They have been stored in a box since they move so it was fun to pull them out today and look at each one.These bears came out a few years ago. The boys had fun seeing which one would come with their meal. They too were in storage. Matt happily grabbed one of the green ones to add to his green toy collection. They had these when the girls were babies. My boys go to Build-A-Bear each year on their birthday, so to find smaller versions of their dolls was a real treat. We didn't get them all, but we got a lot. (Thanks again to my mom, Kurt and Rhett!) The rabbit is my favorite.
These are my favorite toys. I love these dolls. McDonald's has put out different dolls every few years and I have tried to get them all. When I only had the boys they HATED getting the meals with the doll, especially since I took it and stuck it in my cedar chest. I knew that if I had a little girl one day, she would love to play with these. My favorite doll is Rapunzel. Last year they came out with the Wizard of Oz dolls. The first McDonald's I called asking about which number they currently had, they said they had them all in the back room. I could buy one of each if I wanted. That saved me a lot of time and money trying to come back each week for a new toy. Hope they come out with more in the future!

What do you collect?