In this week leading up to Christmas, we'll be hearing from Pure Enjoyment authors and staff about their favorite Christmas memories. First up, Jamie Carie recalls a particularly special gift her parents worked hard to give her even though money was tight:

My dad was a preacher for a small fellowship so money was always tight, but my parents always seemed to give us a wonderful Christmas. I remember one Christmas in particular when my dad built a huge Barbie house for me. It was two stories high with a spacious attic and taller than I was. My mom lovingly furnished it with carpet samples, wall paper, and Dollar Store items made into creative furniture. I remember a toothbrush holder as the bathroom sink, made from blue glass on the bottom with a bronze colored top where the toothbrush slots circled the basin. There was a bed with real sheets and blankets, curtains at every window and kitchen appliances that I don't know to this day how she made so real looking. She sewed clothes for my dolls out of fabric scraps and let me buy plastic high-heeled shoes to complete their outfits. (Hmm, I think that was the beginning of my love for shoes!) I adored my Barbie dolls and now they had a real home and lovely clothes so that I could make believe all sorts of stories about them.

Sometimes I would even let my brother play with me, but not very often. He liked to give Barbie's baby a cape and make it fly, which drove me crazy. Or, just to hear me howl, he would pop off Malibu Barbie's head and chuck it across the room. Brothers!