Dish Carnival

Shannon over at Rocks in My Dryer has started a spur-of-the-moment dish carnival. I've never participated in a carnival before, but this one I can do easily. First up is a picture of my "fine" china. The pattern is "Currier and Ives" by Royal China, and it was made in England in the 1950's. These dishes were at grocery stores and when the patrons had collected enough stamps, they could redeem the stamps for dishes. Each place setting has 8 pieces, and I have 10 full settings, along with the serving pieces and a few other spare dishes. It took me 10 years to collect all of the pieces. I'm only lacking the teapot, so if any of you out there know where I can get one for cheap...
Next up is the picture of the birthday cake plate. I got this a year ago for my son's first birthday. I plan on having his birthday cake on this plate every year. If I have more kids, I'll do the same for them. I'm all about birthdays and feeling like an extra special person on a birthday, so I want to go all out for my kid's special days.
These are my Christmas dishes. For our first married Christmas, DH and I asked for money from the relatives. I waited until the Christmas things at Target went on clearance, and I bought them for 50% off. It took me two Christmases to complete my set, but I spent very little of my own money to get the dishes. Plus, I know that I will use these dishes much longer than I would use most Christmas presents. In case you can't tell, I decorate my house in snowmen at Christmastime.
Finally, we have my everyday dishes. These are Pfaltzgraff "American Heritage" dishes. I bought most of the dishes from various Goodwills last year, and I asked for the rest as my Christmas present from my parents this past year. I only have the dishes in this pattern. Since the dishes are plain, I can use my serving pieces from my other dish sets, or use my set of vintage Pyrex bowls. I purposefully picked plain dishes so that all of my dishes can go together if needed.