Erika Shupe *grim rictus* Large Families on Purpose Part 3

[nickelodeon]

Wasn't "peace on earth, goodwill to men" the song that angels sang at Christ's birth? Stinking secular angels.

The aside about how she doesn't trust Mall Santas is excellent too. (One time Bob and his crew found boxes of porn in this old Santa's attic "which the employees refused to touch, empty the contents of or clean of course".... of course!)

[princessmahina]

I'm not going to snark on her mistrust of Mall Santas, tbh (though I don't think having porn necessarily made him a bad person). It always squicked me out to sit on a stranger's lap when I was a kid. I don't want to make my kids go through the same thing. I also don't intend to do Santa or the Easter Bunny either, so I don't really see a point in doing the whole Mall Santa thing.

[slickcat79]

Her recipe for cocoa is one of the most repugnant recipes I've ever seen. I can see the women on my father's side of the family drinking it. I think I would rather have tasty cocoa less often than microwaved sugar free slop all the time.

I would rather just drink water than have her "coco". Seriously. Also my attitude towards diet soda.

[JillyO]

I would rather just drink water than have her "coco". Seriously. Also my attitude towards diet soda.

Yeah. And if I want a sugar-free, fat-free hot drink, I'll have a nice cup of tea. I can't believe she's feeding her kids that crap (and thinks it's healthy... what the actual fuck)!

[Anonymousguest]

My grandfather was a mall Santa.  Real beard,  but stained brown from 3 packs of unfiltered pall malls every day,  lmbo. He probably had porn stashed some where too.  He didn't seem to like kids much,  and was completely deaf in the rage of sound children speak in,  so he probably couldn't hear a single request.  But he was harmless

why would they not touch the porn to get rid of it?  I don't understand that part. 

[Antimony]

Erika's attention to detail kind of weirds me out. She hangs her Christmas cards on 2 inch ribbon. Specifically 2 inch. Could it be any other kind? If 1.5 inch was on sale, would that be okay or would it have to be two inch? 

I don't see how dreaming about a world without war is secular. Jesus would be so hip with that.

She says she uses a lot of winter themed decoration because they aren't Christmas specific. Sounds a whole lot like a "holiday tree" kind of deal to me, Erika. 

Also, this is a super personal opinion but I hate her 3 foot Christmas tree. I understand why adults sometimes don't want them and why smaller ones can be good, I get that. This year I have a rosemary bush that has been trimmed into a tree shape. They were selling them for like $17 at the grocery store in the floral section. It's small (maybe 2 feet?), a practical herb, good for all year round and alive. But I live in an apartment. I threw some mini-tinsel on it and painted some dry bow-tie pasta with nail polishes. It's a cute throw-together for a grad school apt. 

But here's the thing about the tree. Erika choose her favorite ornaments. HERS. 
A huge part of Christmas for me as a kid was making ornaments. Popsicle sticks, those little paint a stain-glass window ones. 
And having ones that I got to chose.
My favorite Christmas trees are the hodge-podgey ones that belong to families with small children. And Erika and her kids are missing out on all of that.

I also don't know if I missed it but do the children gift each other? Lots of bigger families make a Secret Santa and they all get assigned to another child (I think Zsu does this, and so does one of my co-workers.)
 

[iweartanktops]

My grandfather was a mall Santa.  Real beard,  but stained brown from 3 packs of unfiltered pall malls every day,  lmbo. He probably had porn stashed some where too.  He didn't seem to like kids much,  and was completely deaf in the rage of sound children speak in,  so he probably couldn't hear a single request.  But he was harmless

why would they not touch the porn to get rid of it?  I don't understand that part. 

I'm going to go out on a limb, here, and suggest that that's just what they told Erika. 

[grandmadugger]

Erika's attention to detail kind of weirds me out. She hangs her Christmas cards on 2 inch ribbon. Specifically 2 inch. Could it be any other kind? If 1.5 inch was on sale, would that be okay or would it have to be two inch? 

I don't see how dreaming about a world without war is secular. Jesus would be so hip with that.

She says she uses a lot of winter themed decoration because they aren't Christmas specific. Sounds a whole lot like a "holiday tree" kind of deal to me, Erika. 

Also, this is a super personal opinion but I hate her 3 foot Christmas tree. I understand why adults sometimes don't want them and why smaller ones can be good, I get that. This year I have a rosemary bush that has been trimmed into a tree shape. They were selling them for like $17 at the grocery store in the floral section. It's small (maybe 2 feet?), a practical herb, good for all year round and alive. But I live in an apartment. I threw some mini-tinsel on it and painted some dry bow-tie pasta with nail polishes. It's a cute throw-together for a grad school apt. 

But here's the thing about the tree. Erika choose her favorite ornaments. HERS. 
A huge part of Christmas for me as a kid was making ornaments. Popsicle sticks, those little paint a stain-glass window ones. 
And having ones that I got to chose.
My favorite Christmas trees are the hodge-podgey ones that belong to families with small children. And Erika and her kids are missing out on all of that.

I also don't know if I missed it but do the children gift each other? Lots of bigger families make a Secret Santa and they all get assigned to another child (I think Zsu does this, and so does one of my co-workers.)
 

Our Christmas tree growing up was never hodge podgey.  My mom couldn't stand it and frankly neither could I.  Each year we changed the color theme of our tree and I always got to pick that.  One year we had a purple Christmas tree, one year we had a pink theme.  Your tree sounds adorable.

[Antimony]

Our Christmas tree growing up was never hodge podgey.  My mom couldn't stand it and frankly neither could I.  Each year we changed the color theme of our tree and I always got to pick that.  One year we had a purple Christmas tree, one year we had a pink theme.  Your tree sounds adorable.

Even when little-little? We couldn't afford to buy them when I was ~6 so I made all the ornaments that year and the topper. The topper was a 6 pointed star because I couldn't figure out how do cut a 5 pointed one out of paper but she put it on anyhow.

And now of course I have to add a picture of my tree. I like to think the painted pasta makes it like a themed...kitchen tree. Rosemary smells great too.

 

[princessmahina]

Erika's attention to detail kind of weirds me out. She hangs her Christmas cards on 2 inch ribbon. Specifically 2 inch. Could it be any other kind? If 1.5 inch was on sale, would that be okay or would it have to be two inch? 

 

NO! *hysterical shriek* ONLY TWO INCH RIBBONS WILL DO! *primal screech*

Cue Erika beating Karen with a 1.5 inch ribbon a la Mommy Dearest. 

Oh, and we always do little trees. Our cats are border line feral sometimes and will rip a large tree to shreds. If we have a small one, we can perch it on a table and they'll stay away from it. We also use a fake one because of our allergies. Sometimes it looks a little dismal, but we think it's better than a running nose and clattering all night. 

[Antimony]

NO! *hysterical shriek* ONLY TWO INCH RIBBONS WILL DO! *primal screech*

Cue Erika beating Karen with a 1.5 inch ribbon a la Mommy Dearest. 

Oh, and we always do little trees. Our cats are border line feral sometimes and will rip a large tree to shreds. If we have a small one, we can perch it on a table and they'll stay away from it. We also use a fake one because of our allergies. Sometimes it looks a little dismal, but we think it's better than a running nose and clattering all night. 

We use fake because stepping on pine needles is the worst.
The newer fake ones are super convincing though!

[mango_fandango]

We use fake because stepping on pine needles is the worst.The newer fake ones are super convincing though!

We tend to go for non-drop. We usually put ours on a table. Last year we'd just acquired our dog, and ended up opening our presents in the kitchen with him (dog) still in the living room. We don't know what we're gonna do this year. In the Shupe house they seem to have a little fence that, ahem, fences off their kitchen, and I assume they keep Happy in there whilst they open presents. 

[Rubaiyat]

But here's the thing about the tree. Erika choose her favorite ornaments. HERS. 
A huge part of Christmas for me as a kid was making ornaments. Popsicle sticks, those little paint a stain-glass window ones. 
And having ones that I got to chose.
My favorite Christmas trees are the hodge-podgey ones that belong to families with small children. And Erika and her kids are missing out on all of that.
 

Your tree is all kinds of adorable.  Now I want one for my kitchen!!

I'm with you - I love the hodgepodge ornament approach.  We make ornaments as a family every year, and now our big(ish, fake, awesome) tree is clad entirely in family-made gloriousness!  It's my favorite Christmas/Holiday thing.  

[grandmadugger]

Even when little-little? We couldn't afford to buy them when I was ~6 so I made all the ornaments that year and the topper. The topper was a 6 pointed star because I couldn't figure out how do cut a 5 pointed one out of paper but she put it on anyhow.

And now of course I have to add a picture of my tree. I like to think the painted pasta makes it like a themed...kitchen tree. Rosemary smells great too.

 

 

I was lucky enough to grow up as an only child with two parents who worked good paying jobs.  Living in our very rural area meant money went a lot further too.  So the only time I made ornaments was at Sunday School or school.  Only one of those ornaments ever went on the tree and that's the one that had the verse "To everything there is a season" because that was my dad's favorite Bible verse.

[princessmahina]

So, Country Living apparently interviewed Erika and a handful of other fundies: 

http://www.countryliving.com/shopping/a37002/big-family-christmas-shopping/

[Loveday]

So, Country Living apparently interviewed Erika and a handful of other fundies: 

http://www.countryliving.com/shopping/a37002/big-family-christmas-shopping/

Wow, they cracked the FJ Top 10 with that one, didn't they?--Lisa Pennington, Erika Shupe, and Kelly Crawford.

[desertvixen]

We have a fake tree - I bought one last year when a)I'd been down for the count with pneumonia for a week and we were spending Christmas away from home and b)we just wanted a tree.  Got it out again this year after consultation with my nine year old.  It's not the most awesome looking tree, but we have it decorated with our favorite ornaments - we buy a few every year, and the usual homemade stuff.

The decorator trees just leave me cold.

[DaffyDill]

We used to have a huge Christmas tree when the kids were little, and every year out come the hand made ornaments and things they made when they were little. 

This year, we're tossing up getting a small table top one, or......not having one at all  because the kids are 23, 21, and 20 and no one's enthusiastic at all about Christmas. Including myself. 

[feministxtian]

We won't be putting a tree up this year...see: cats. But I'll be digging out some ornaments and hanging them on ribbon on the wall, probably put the lights on our patio, and just make things look festive. We'll be moving into our new place about a week before Christmas so..we'll do what we can.

HOWEVER...when my kids were smaller, we went ALL OUT with decorating, including a manger scene painted on our front windows, in reverse so it could be seen from the street, with clear lights around the windows. A HUGE tree with TONS of decorations, including ones from when I was little, all the kids "baby's first Christmas" ornaments, all the ones they made at school.

Erika is a control freak c-word. I tolerate her presence, barely, on my planet.

 

 

[grandmadugger]

So, Country Living apparently interviewed Erika and a handful of other fundies: 

http://www.countryliving.com/shopping/a37002/big-family-christmas-shopping/

My respect for Country Living dropped horribly. 

[apandaaries]

I'm going to go out on a limb, here, and suggest that that's just what they told Erika. 

So...my ex was in the military and informed me about a lot of...interesting aspects of male behavior.  The thing about men's appreciation of porn is that there's a certain splatter level involved, and for the germ-phobic, that might make them back the F up.   I could see a group of poorly paid guys backing away from a cardboard box full of magazine porn.  Videos or DVDs, though, would probably have an entirely different reaction.  

[Hisey]

Here's what I think went down in the Shupe household that day:

Erika: You're kidding! You found *porn* in their attic?

Bob: [chuckling] Yeah.

Erika: [sharply] You didn't touch it, did you?

Bob: Huh? No! No, we refused to handle it, yeah, that's what we did. . .we told the customer, no way, we're not touching this box, it has porn in it. And they were OK with that.

Erika: Good, good boy, Bob.

Here's what I think went down in the Shupe household that day:

Erika: You're kidding! You found *porn* in their attic?

Bob: [chuckling] Yeah.

Erika: [sharply] You didn't touch it, did you?

Bob: Huh? No! No, we refused to handle it, yeah, that's what we did. . .we told the customer, no way, we're not touching this box, it has porn in it. And they were OK with that.

Erika: Good, good boy, Bob.

[pnwgypsy]

We have a new dog who's home alone during the workday so it's a 3' fake tree on a table for us this year.  I ordered one that's a mix of the traditional branches & the new injection molded ones.  Hoping it looks as good in real life as it did on Target's web site.

[iweartanktops]

So...my ex was in the military and informed me about a lot of...interesting aspects of male behavior.  The thing about men's appreciation of porn is that there's a certain splatter level involved, and for the germ-phobic, that might make them back the F up.   I could see a group of poorly paid guys backing away from a cardboard box full of magazine porn.  Videos or DVDs, though, would probably have an entirely different reaction.  

That's disgusting. 

[apandaaries]

That's disgusting. 

Totally and absolutely completely disgusting, but my ex was a bit over the top about germs, and seemed to have quite a bit of knowledge of ways that military guys "relieved stress" while on duty or whatever... Super absolutely gross, I know.  But also a point of view perhaps not instinctively covered by FJ members.