Christmas through the years

Believe it or not, but I remember this. We were still living in our old house, with my Opa and my aunt, mom's youngest sister. My brother and I used to love to rearrange the little people in the manger. The year was 1950. The tree was pitiful, but my father probably got it from the woods somewhere. A real Charlie Brown tree. It had real candles and that fluffy angel hair stuff that would set everything on fire.

The manger and the nativity figurines are still around, somewhere in a box, although in later years my father always made a rock like contraption made to look like a grotto, with grey paper, snow and trees and a real light to emulate the Star of Bethlehem.

The three wise men never made it out of the box, because by the time they were supposed to come out (January 6) my mom was sick and tired of vacuuming up the pine needles, and keeping an eye out on the candles. Besides, the big tradition in Holland is to burn your Christmas tree on a bonfire at midnight, New year's Eve.
This was in 1973. My son was about Boo's age here, shopping for a tree with his dad. I still have that little jacket, I bought it in Holland. It's so tiny. We were pretty poor, and we made our own ornaments. We had no lights on the tree, for fear of my son electricuting himself. I remember having the ornaments hung out of his reach, because he had the tendency to rearrange them....often....
1983. Bugs' first Christmas, here with her big brother picking out a big tree on Bainbridge.
Since we had high ceiling in the house, we always picked the biggest tree we could find.
Wheelie's mom knitted hats for each of us every year, all the same color, with a pompom on top.


Georgia, 1984. Bugs was two here, our first Christmas in Kennesaw, Georgia. This was in the first house we rented, the one with the moldy basement, where we nevertheless spent many hours "playing" during thunderstorms and tornado warnings.
I had just cut Bug's hair here, not that it was long, but I evened out the bangs and the back. She just loved helping Wheelie put up the orgnaments. She wasn't as destructive as her big brother.
Snow in Kennesaw. In front of our "new" new house on the cul the sac. It snowed enough to make a snowman. In the evening my son went around the neighborhood and put all the noses/carrots down to make penises. Ah youth!
Bugs with short hair and a pugdie little face. She was a bit of a porker in those years. This was 1990, Grandma had move with us from Oregon, and this is in our new four bedroom ranch house in Acworth. A wonderful house with a huge kitchen, and big backyard.
A few years later, her hair long again. As always, helping Wheelie trimming the tree. We were in that house for ten years, ten Christmasses, some good, some not so good, you forget after a while.
At this point in time Grandma was in the nursing home. That story is still on the back burner. But I will get around to it eventually.
Last year.
Boo's first Christmas. I cut Daddy from the picture.
She really did her best providing us with a very nice dinner. And we opened our presents, everything all about the baby, of course.

Sunday evening now:

So this year, there is another man in their lives.
It so happens they came over for dinner here tonight. Boo is smitten!!!
PH is a nice fellow. He is HUGE. We enjoyed our lasagna and our famous horribly fattening garlic cheesy bread. Boo fell asleep in her chair, but when we tried to put her to bed she revved up and ran around the house playing hide and seek.

So, a nice evening, short, but sweet. The best thing of all was PH thanking me, and that he liked our "home" That he felt welcome and at home here.

WOW...

SGMKJ!