Do you remember that scene in Christmas Vacation where Clark Griswald(Chevy Chase) was up in his attic  looking at old movies of his family when they were all younger?  Sitting there with tears running down his cheeks while he watched?

I just had the same experience looking through some old pictures of my growing family as we celebrated Christmas in the past.   I so miss those little children and my parents who made Christmas so special for me.   Those little children are middle aged now and my parents have gone on to live in Heaven.

This is my mom and daddy.   I miss them.   They have been gone for decades, but you never really ever get use to being without your parents, no matter how old you get.

 

This is how it was for many Christmases at our house on Christmas morning. The kids would come down the stairs, youngest first. Look at  those faces.  To have the joy of a child at Christmas again!

One year our younger son played Santa Claus in his school Christmas play.

Who is that handsome man and who are those babies?   I think this was taken in the Virgin Islands when we visited David’s mother there one Christmas.  Our daughter sits on his lap and her cousins are watching her open a gift. This was the trip where she fell into the swimming pool and was afraid of water for a long time afterward. It was even hard to get her in the bathtub.

 

New pajamas?  I remember that sofa.  I really loved it for a long time. Now I think it’s kind of tacky.  LOL.   And it clashed so well with those drapes. An interior designer I was not at that time.   I still have that jug lamp only because my daddy made it for me.

 

Someone got a new bicycle that year.  Snow didn’t stop the first ride.  We lived up a hill with a park right next door to us and we could walk down a path to a lake and to a playground where the children could play. I loved living in that house.

And the Big Green Machine. Remember those?   This was a fun Christmas for those two boys. You can see the lake behind them. We use to go ice skating on it. There would be a big bonfire and lots of skaters and it was so much fun.  I wish I still had my skates, but I sold them in a garage sale before we moved to our present house.  I guess I knew my ice skating days were over.

I made those coveralls my younger son is wearing.  I made a lot of their clothes back then. I believe I made the plaid shirt also.   I think they are adorable.

David’s Grandma reading to the boys. I loved her. She was such a wonderful person and really loved her great-grandchildren.   And they loved her.

The year our younger son had one of his first of several broken bones.  He was playing on a hill behind our neighbor’s house and jumped off a little hill and landed wrong, I guess, because he broke his leg.  I thought he had stepped on a nail and pulled off his shoe while he was screaming.  Probably didn’t help the break any.  I was so surprised when I learned he had broken his leg.   He got very proficient on those crutches.

I use to bake so much at Christmas. Now with just David and me at home I don’t bake as much.  I use to make gingerbread houses all the time at Christmas, too.  Today I baked two cakes and some sugar cookies because the grandchildren are coming and like sweets.

Really wish that I still had this little girl around.  But she grew up and so did the boys and life goes on.    Now with tears in my eyes I will close. Tomorrow I will write about the time I saw the “real” Santa.   Bye.