What did Grandma get you?

My mom died in 1996. You never realized how much your mom means to you until she is no longer there. It's true, we didn't have the closest relationship -not like the wonderful ones I have with my own daughters, but she is my mom and I loved her. I will never forget the first Christmas after she died. I found myself very sad. As I thought about it, I realized how my mom tried to make Christmas full and happy. We were a poor single parent family. She had to work to support her mom, her son and me. In those days (much like today) women didn't make the same wage a man did. But that is not what this post is about....

She had a Christmas Club account at her bank. She would have the bank take out a little each paycheck and put it in an account then give it to her at Christmas in one lump sum. She would buy our gifts out of that. There were always gifts no matter how poor we were. On our birthdays, she would always buy us something we wanted and then give us a crisp $50 in our card. Anyway, back to my story.

The 1996 Christmas was sad for me. I thought of a way to remedy the situation by buying myself a gift. I decided I would buy myself something I really wanted but didn't want to ask for it from my family. I don't even remember what it was, but I will always remember that Christmas because of the kids response. I received the gift in the mail, then promptly wrapped it. I put it under the tree with a tag that read "To Pam from Mom". When the gifts were distributed, the kids could not believe what they read. I am pretty sure they think I was (and am) crazy. But, it made us all laugh and made me feel better. I remember saying..."huh...I don't know where that came from". I figure, she would have gotten me a gift like that, so what better way to remember her?

I have a birthday coming up in a few days and I received a great gift from my mom!

You remember a little while ago, I bought some new dishes? Well, my mom gave me some great bread and butter plates to augment my set....


So..how cute is that? How did she know? She was very generous this year and gave me another addition...

So why all the weird Disney character pictures? The above bread and butter plate reminds me of Kaa from jungle book (which is being released on DVD on October 3), and the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. If you spin it around it makes an optical allusion, much like Kaa or maybe Jafar's stick! I think I can use to it mesmerize my family!

Thanks Mom, it's just what I wanted! Love you!