Christmas Creations For The Kids

And the process begins!  At the London Bridge in Lake Havasu, Arizona, I discovered these small treasure chests.  When I went to the clerk and said, "I'd like twelve of these," I think she believed I was teasing.  Nope.  'Tis twelve that I need.  (Granpa thought I'd gone a lil' nuts, too!)

Then I began considering what I would fill them with.  First, red felt just to class them up a bit.  Then, of course, $2 bills are required, and some other money - but what other kind of money??  I decided to begin haunting some of the many local pawn shops here in Kingman.  I would go in and ask if they had any "fun" money.  They also looked at me like I was crazy.  I emphasized that I was looking for "fun" money, not "funny" money (which is slang for counterfeit.)  Slowly but surely I amassed enough buffalo-head nickels and Indian-head pennies for one per treasure chest.  Some of them dated back to the 1800's!


As we are in Kingman, the turquoise capital of the world, Granpa and I went to the mine here in Kingman. They sell turquoise in as many shapes and sizes and grades as imaginable.  We dug into a barrel marked $400 per pound and came up with a few pebbles for each treasure chest.

Then, while we were at the Grand Canyon in search of snow, ( http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2013/12/in-search-of-snow.html ) I picked up some bags of polished agates, quartz crystals, and iron pyrite - better known as fool's gold - because they are pretty and represent the geology of Arizona.

Because a couple of our grandkids are so young they don't appreciate real money, I went to Cracker Barrel and got bags of chocolate "coins" wrapped in gold foil.  That reminded me of the gold dollar coins that came out a few years ago, so I went to some of the banks in town and gathered enough of those for each treasure chest.  While there, one of the clerks suggest some 50-cent pieces.  Ah!  Perfect!  And because these kids are so young, they got the added bonus of tiny race cars and action figures.

My momma gave us these "books" of Lifesaver candies when we were children. Another small tradition to carry on... so there were twelve of these, too.

On the way home, Granpa had to stop at a Russell Stover Candy outlet.  We bought so much candy there that he got a free stuffed animal!  (Boys never grow up!)  And so each of the kids got a stuffed toy along with sample boxes of candy.

None of this, of course, would fit in the treasure chests, but that was okay.  I don't think the kids minded at all!

And for our grandbaby-to-be (Mayberry if it's born in May, and Junebug if it's born in June - not really, but that's what we're callin' it right now!) there was a little stuffed toy and one of my afghans - baby size, of course.

There was a collection of gifts for the parents, too, but not nearly as creative or labor intensive.  (Sorry, guys!)

Overall I think it turned out to be a pretty good Christmas - especially when the older grandkids found out how much the Indian-head pennies were worth!

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