My "indulgent" present

I found it.

I ordered it (right away as it was a vintage Etsy item and might have been snapped up by someone else).

It was less than I budgeted - I budget about $100, this was about $50.

It was this:

Yeah, I had (and still have, at my parents' house) the original Sunshine Family (but their clothes were different so I wonder if this was a different run of them). Never had the grandparents and I especially no longer have the little instruction booklets on making furniture and stuff out of household items, and that was what I really wanted.

I dunno. The idea of it just makes me happy. (Will have to think of names for the grandparents if they come unnamed: I have already headcanoned that they are Stephanie's parents - she is the young woman, her husband is Steve, their baby is Sweets. Maybe the grandparents' last name is something that begins with D - like maybe Delight (Steve's last name is Sunshine*) and so Steffie's dad can be Dan and her mom can be Diana...to keep the alliteration going)

(*What? Yes, it was the 1970s)

I remember these fondly from my childhood, especially the idea of making stuff for the family - furniture, and bedding, and all that. I was a craftmaking child, probably my mom's influence there. And I liked the "family" idea. I've said before Barbie felt kind of foreign to me when I was a child because I didn't care about clothes and was kind of baffled about the whole idea of dating (playing baseball with boys, or building sand castles, that I got, but going out to a restaurant and eating food...not so much, not until after I grew up)

But the family idea made sense to me. There was a wholesomeness to the Sunshine family that appealed to me even as a kid: the play made sense to me - it was sort of the simple every day stuff, keeping house, growing food (The Sunshine family are true 1970s back-to-the-landers, I guess). Or making crafts - I think there was a craft cottage with a potter's wheel, for example. I could see Steve as a truck-farmer who does construction work or cabinetry on the side, and Stephanie helps out on the farm but also does craftwork to earn money. And maybe they live on her parents' farm, I don't know.

(I guess I still do have somewhat of an imagination for toy play....)

Anyway. It will be fun and nice to have. Supposed to come some time next week; the seller is here in the US.

****

I also got my Toys for Tots donation-gift yesterday: I bought a "Pomsie" (the rainbow pastel/white kitticorn) at the wal-mart. This is an interactive plush toy; you boop the nose and it turns on and makes noises at you. Kind of like the Fingerlings things, but plush, and with a prehensile tail the child can wrap around their wrist.

I bought it because:

a. I think lots of kids want these
b. It's the kind of toy I would have liked as a kid.

Now I just have to find a local donation spot. Usually the Chamber of Commerce does one, and they're just a couple blocks from me...