Collector or Hoarder - You Decide.

My grandmother is one for sales. She couldn't pass up a sale if her life depended on it. But not just ANY sale... she can't pass up a sale on:

• Placemats
• Hand Towels
• Cloth Napkins
• Plates/Bowls/Cups/Glasses, etc

She has so many "Winter/Christmas" placemats, she could 1. open up her own store 2. feed the whole neighborhood on a different placemat each day of the season.

For example, beginning in Octoberish come the Autumn placemats. Then come the Leaf placemats in November along with the Turkey plates (WHO HAS TURKEY PLATES?!). But don't be fooled. The day after Thanksgiving, the Turkey plates go into hibernation, and out come... SNOWMAN PLATES and SNOWMAN BOWLS and the SNOW placemats in a variety of shapes and designs.

I've known she's had this "problem" for many years now. I would be over her house as a young girl, and there would always be new glasses in the cupboard. In my house, we would only replace glasses if and when they fell and broke. And guess where we would get replacement glasses from? Babcia's house! Because she had BOUNTIES of glassware. I have an entire bureau in my room...(four drawers) full of themed cloth napkins and placemats.

Example of 2 drawers...

Now, earlier in December I noticed an over-abundance of festive hand towels in the bathrooms. "JOY TO THE WORLD" and "WELCOME WINTER"  were embroidered on some, others had embroidered poinsettias or pine trees... As well as a basket. A WHOLE basket of small hand towels.

"Babcia, what are all of these hand towels for? There has to be 40 in there!" - Justine

"They're for the guests" - Babcia

"What guests? And HOW MANY ARE YOU EXPECTING?" - Justine

"Any guest... You're supposed to use one to dry your hands after you wash them and then put it in that basket over there when you're done." - Babcia

"I have been coming here for 23 years. I have never seen a sign or been told to do this in my life." - Justine

If you come to her house...now you know how to dry your hands.

 I mean, if this is considered "hoarding" at least she's a neat hoarder. And if this is "collecting" at least she gets things on super-duper clearance sale and she's not spending bagillions of dollars (for her own sake. But I mean, Wenisa and I can only eat off of ONE snowman plate at a time. I just think of all of the sad Easter paraphernalia that is just waiting to be used for 2 weeks up in the attic...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

SSRIs out the Wahzoo...
Justine