Happy Memories

Christmas Day has come and gone, and a wonderful day it was. Ann, Eric and the boys arrived at noon on Christmas Eve, bringing in presents and their bags to stay for a few days. The boys enjoyed the hot tub while the rest of us started preparing for Christmas dinner and finishing up a little shopping.

We had a lovely communion service at church at seven, and after visiting, we got home just in time to put the boys to bed (however, not to sleep!). The grownups were tired and headed for bed soon after. Around four, I woke up to thumps and bumps, which continued for a while. Finally I got up, crossed the hall to the boys' room, and noticed dim light showing through the slight opening of the almost closed door. I opened the door and found Keaton on the floor in front of the night light, going through his stocking, and Cameron on his bed with his reading headlamp on, going through his! I laughed, and went back to bed. Finally all was quiet and I went back to sleep.

We all were up by eight (apparently the middle of the night stocking adventure had helped the boys to sleep in) and had a wonderful time opening presents. Breakfast followed and then we "hopped to" in the kitchen in anticipation of the arrival of my parents, Bruder Bear, and Kirsten and JR. Karen is down with their daughter, getting to know little Grant, and Bruder Bear isn't able to go until next week.

Our house was full with eleven around the table for our dinner of ham with all the trimmings. So wonderful to have four generations eating and sharing together! We were stuffed after dinner, so we held off on the pies and cookies until later as we visited and games were played. Bless Kirsten and JR's hearts as they went to work in the kitchen and cleaned up so beautifully and efficiently! When I thanked JR for his work, he said, "Well, you did all the work to cook everything!" Bruder Bear, those are some great kids you've got!

After a trip over to Ann and Eric's to see the almost finished remodeling, Bruder Bear drove the five of them back to Mom and Dad's and we came home to more hot-tubbing and falling in a heap on the sofas. What a wonderful day!!

Bruder Bear and me, Christmas 1955:


Yes, I've got Tiny Tears on my lap, and apparently I also got another doll, the blond one sitting in the suitcase. John is wearing his Davy Crocket pants, and of course that's a toy gun he's holding. He did love his "six-guns!"

And this Christmas:


One of us got a lot taller!!

Merry Christmas!

The pies are made, the rolls are baked, the potato casserole is in the frig, and the little boys are in bed (but not asleep!). Christmas is upon us.

And most importantly, it's the birthday of Jesus.

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:10

Thoughts on Becoming a Great Aunt

My brother became a grandfather today. His older daughter, the one who made me an aunt for the first time, had a little boy this morning. Bruder Bear called me from the Dallas airport where he was catching a flight home after doing some audits for the company he works for. His first grandchild. I'm so happy for him. He's going to be a wonderful grandpa, just as he's always been the best brother.

When he called, his first words were, "Hello, Great Aunt!" We knew this little guy would be born today, but I was still surprised to get the call so early. What a great start to the day!

I've been a grammy for over eleven years, but something about being a great aunt sounds, ummm, old. Just the term sounds old. I remember growing up with my paternal grandmother's brother and sister living close by. We just called them Uncle Bevil and Aunt Eupha (they hailed from Missouri by birth--hence the unusual names) and they were two generations removed and always seemed old to me. Truth was, they were younger than I am now!!! And now I'm a great!


Welcome to the family, Grant Ragan! You are surrounded by so much love!

I Won...and the Story Behind It

Candace, over at Squash House Quilts, had a give-away the other day and I won! She asked her readers to comment with a favorite Christmas memory and I knew immediately what I'd share. Here's my "winning" comment:

Some friends made us a beautiful gingerbread house when our kids were little (two and three), and I proudly set it in a place of honor in the living room. Imagine my surprise when I got up the next morning and went to admire it and it was gone. Everything!! Even the cardboard it was displayed on. Then I noticed a trail of crumbs on the floor. I began to follow them and they led to the bathroom trash where I found only the cardboard and the paper cones that had been icing covered trees. My adorable children had been in bed when the gift arrived, gotten up and found it, and had eaten it all up!!!

When I found out I had won, I sent her a follow-up to the story:

You asked if they got a tummy ache, and amazingly, they did not! I still can't believe they ate everything. The husband is the one who brought it to our house, and I hadn't even thanked the wife since it all happened so fast. I knew I had to call her and thank her, and I didn't know what to say. I finally called and told her what had happened (I should tell you this was my husband's boss and his wife) and I was amazed and relieved when she burst out laughing and couldn't stop! Several years later they gave each couple in their department another one (though not so detailed) at a party, and brought ours out last with a wire cage around it and an old lamp cord attached to it!!! An "electric fence" for ours! Oh my did we all laugh. And that one made our son sick when he ate it with permission. Go figure. He must have lost his immunity on the first one!

So, what did I win?


A bag of Mary Ellen's Best Press in every scent (I love Best Press!) and Moda's Lumiere de Noel by French General!!! And a candy cane. :-) Thank you so much, Candace!! I love everything!

Christmas 1955

I was in the first grade and six years old the Christmas of 1955. We lived in a small duplex downtown and my brother was three.

In our town, Christmas officially began the Saturday after Thanksgiving. As I remember, the decorations which were strung across Main Street were put up Friday by men in town (probably some service group such as the Lions Club). Santa came on Saturday and it seemed that everyone in the area was in town to watch and gather in the bags of candy which were distributed. A stand was erected on an empty corner lot, and there, every Saturday until Christmas drawings were held to win prizes donated by town merchants.

I've mentioned before that I got a new doll each Christmas. This year, 1955, the most popular dolls were Betsy Wetsy and Tiny Tears. Both came with bottles which, when filled with water, could actually be "fed" to the dolls. They could then cry (small holes at the corners of their eyes) and wet their diapers. Every little six-year-old girl's dream!

At this stage of my life, I can't remember which was which, but my parents got me one doll, and I won the other one!! Oh, the bliss!!

Here I am, my new riches spread before me on the table:


I'm wearing my new Christmas pj's from Grandma Hansen. I can still remember them--they were salmon pink and white gingham flannel and instead of long pants, they had bloomer bottoms. I loved them!

Small Town Christmas Memories

In my last post I mentioned that shopping was rather limited in the small town I grew up in. Actually, that's not entirely true.

I remember Christmas shopping at the hardware store that had china and a gift shop. And I remember the dry goods store which had clothes and fabric. I mentioned the Rexall Drug that last post and they too had a gift shop as well as a toy department. Snyder's usually filled the bill for shopping for the guys, and of course the dry goods did, also.

So shopping in the '50's and the '60's while somewhat limited, seemed to work, especially on the small budget my younger brother and I worked with. The memories I'm thinking of right now probably began in the late '50's and progress to the mid '60's. Our meager budgets were augmented by a ten dollar each donation from Mom and Dad, supposedly for our chores for the year. (We received no allowance.) John and I often went together to purchase presents for our parents and I remember purchasing some pretty glasses for Mom at the hardware store which matched some glassware she already had.

As I mentioned, our town was small. Very small. And it was the same town our dad and paternal grandmother had grown up in. From the time we were school age, John and I were able to travel the town freely; we pretty much knew who lived in each house, and everyone knew us. Therefore, we were allowed to go downtown on our own to shop. I remember one year when John, he was probably about seven or eight, bought Dad a steel brush for cleaning tools. He purchased it at the Western Auto where they didn't wrap. (Thinking on it now, I'm sure it wasn't a store where gifts were often purchased.) As we continued our shopping, we wound up at Snyder's. They wrapped, so John asked them if they'd wrap the brush for dad. They did. Ahhh, the joys of small town life. :-)

Speaking of John and wrapping, another favorite memory of mine is a Christmas in the same time frame when he handed me a box and asked me to wrap it. Then he said, "Don't open it! It's yours."

December Memories

My favorite month of the year is here and it's bringing back lots of memories of Decembers past. Must be the snow and the Christmas music.

It's been a while since I've gotten a doll for every Christmas, but about fifteen years ago Dan did buy me Samantha, an American Girl doll. I still love dolls and have a display case of them in the basement. And I still love sewing for dolls. Since I have no granddaughters, I sew for my own dolls which include some from my childhood as well as some I've purchased for myself.

When I reached high school age, my best friends and I exchanged presents among ourselves. Shopping in our little town was limited, but there was a Rexall Drug which had a gift section and a large selection of perfumes and accompanying powders, etc. One Christmas I remember getting Revlon's Aquamarine soap and powder, and probably perfume. The powder was unique in that the powder itself was in a squeezable handle topped with an aquamarine colored powder-puff ball. Wish I had it now! :-)

My friends and I, in our quest to be young adults, even began exchanging Christmas cards. I loved reading the cards my family received every year, and couldn't wait to begin sending my own. I can't remember whether we actually mailed the cards to each other, or whether we exchanged them at school. I still love getting Christmas cards and for that reason, continue to send them out.

Right now I can still see the handwriting on cards my parents received every year from a couple named Ray and Mae. Ray always sent the cards. I never met him, but Dad knew him from the war where they both served in the 101st Airborne Division. Ray had been a medic and I remember Dad thought Ray was one of the bravest men he knew because he jumped without a gun, only his packs to help others. (Ray always held a piece of paper under his writing to help him keep his lines straight and thus his cards were very distinctive.)

Meanwhile, I began my Christmas baking yesterday. Two batches of shortbread cookies, stamped with Rycraft cookie stamps.


Here's my mixer churning away on a batch. The little paper on the front left has recipes for the cookies and came with two stamps from Matt, Christmas 1990. I know because I wrote on the paper. I wish I did that sort of thing more often.

Here are some cookies, stamped and ready for the oven. These designs are the ones Matt gave me.


That was twenty years ago and he was in high school. But the memories come back every Christmas when I made the cookies.