Last summer during my Mom and Dad's garage sale, my Mom had a bunch of old Christmas ornaments for sale. I took two ornaments...Far Guy's Mom made them during her Cross Stitch days and gave them to my Mom as gifts.
I in turn gave them to Jen.
Far Guy's Mom liked to cross stitch and did it until her eyes couldn't do the fine work anymore. It was a good hobby for her. I believe these ornaments were made in the early 1980's so they are about 40 years old.
Far Side
The stockings have been hung on the fireplace mantle…only two so far but everyone will bring theirs along. If you don’t bring your stocking you get a plastic bag.
This sock has been repaired. One year Far Guy sat the stocking down…Chance retrieved it and chewed a hole in it to get at some candy…so it is a sock with some history.
A long time ago Far Guy’s Maternal Grandmother made feldt stockings for Trica and Jennifer. They were hung up on Christmas Eve and just like magic they would be filled in the morning. I wonder if the girls still have those stockings? Jennifer made the stockings that are hung on our fireplace mantle.
When I was growing up we didn’t have stockings to hang up. Far Guy says yes he had a stocking and it was hung on the closet door knob in the living room and something would be in it on Christmas morning.
Did you have a stocking to hang up?
Christmas Day in 1969. Far Guy and I had been married five days. We spent Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with Far Guy’s family.
This is an old Polaroid photo taken by Far Guy’s Dad…he liked to take photographs.
In this photo we have Far Guy’s Mom, Far Guy’s sister Janice with Muggy, Far Guy and me. Looks like we had a bunch of snow that year…as I recall it was a very cold that Christmas. Note the flocked Christmas tree, Far Guy’s Mom wanted a white tree that year…something puzzling about this photo…the drapes to the East (behind the couch) were hardly ever open. The photographer must have need more light.
When we visited the old house last summer I took a photo from just about the same spot. I wonder where they will put the tree? It was always in its place in front of that window for years and years.
These are photos that Far Guy’s Mom put in a photo album for him.
They are not marked with a year…I would guess it is 1958 or 1959.
The chair on the left was torquoise and the rocker on the right was beige I think. The tree is in its proper place in front of the window. Far Guy has something in his hands …might be a Christmas Program…perhaps he had a speaking part and was cramming at the last minute.
Here he is joined by Muggy and his sister…who looks very thin…I wonder what color her dress was…I will guess blue. She would have been 14 or 15 in this photo.
Far Guy says he thinks his sweater was light blue…but he wouldn’t swear on it. Yes the photo was taken after church.
See the Shiny Brites on the tree?
These are both Polaroid Photos taken by Far Guy’s Dad. Muggy does not look thrilled.
The downstairs tree is done. Complete. Two weeks to spare. Yahoo for me.
We have Bubble Lights and Merry Go Round Horses at the bottom of the tree. We are still using the Christmas Tree Skirt that Far Guy’s Paternal Grandmother made, it is velvet and Far Guy used to use it as a cape. We are still using our artificial rendition of a Colorado Blue Spruce that we bought in 1996. Twenty years and it has served us well.
The Post Office was delivering packages on Sunday.
This ornament is from our friend Sue in Indiana. I love it!
The upstairs tree is still a work in progress. It needs a few more days.
It warmed up to snow but has turned cold again.
A very long time ago. Christmas 1974 to be exact…Trica was little…just two years and eight months old. (This was BJ…Before Jennifer) We lived in what Trica called “The Bricksidewall” poor kid didn’t quite know where home was…we had lived in Colorado and then Florida and finally Minnesota. When we would say “Let’s go home.” She would ask…”Which home…the bricksidewall?” Probably because she didn’t want to spend hours upon hours in a vehicle. (The apartment building was made of brick hence the bricksidewall.)
That December Far Guy was working from 4 PM to 1 AM sometimes later at Steiger Tractor. I tried to keep Trica awake late into the night so she would sleep in the morning.
We didn’t have very many ornaments on our tree, so I bought some wooden cutouts and painted them in the evenings. Of course Trica was not allowed paints…but she did get ahold of some color crayons.
Trica’s artwork on the Santa 1974
Somehow two other ornaments painted that year make it onto the tree every year.
The Angel always makes it near the top of the tree.
And this puppy in a stocking…looked nothing like the Black Scottie Mix Mutt named Snuffer that we had at the time. Years later we would have two litters of Sheltie puppies that looked just like the one in the stocking…out of eight puppies we only kept one ( I gifted it to my husband) and I gifted another to my parents…but their dog came back to live with us after a year or two.
The other wood ornaments in this set just never seem to make it on the tree…there is a snowman, a bell, some holly, a king, a toy soldier and a deer among others…but they are at the bottom of the ornament box. Seems like by the time I get to the bottom of the box the tree is full.
I haven’t started decorating yet. No decorations have been unearthed, just old memories.
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Please share what your favorite ornament is in a comment on this blog to be entered in this years Christmas Ornament Giveaway. I have at least two hand carved painted ornaments to send out. What they are will be revealed in time. If you are shy and don’t want to leave a comment you can send me an email which is found in my profile. Remember to tell me about your favorite ornament! I will pick the winners on Friday night December 4 at 9 PM my time.
We had a house full of company. These are all polaroid photos taken with Marvin’s camera.
Jennifer (10) Janice (Far Guy’s sister), Trica (13), Bethany(3), Marvin and Evelyn (Far Guy’s parents they both would have been 71 that year) This is at our home in North Moorhead. That rocking chair and footstool were handed down to us by Far Guy’s Grandmother Tracie. It has since been upholstered and is upstairs. I still have that 1940’s coffee table but it is in the garage awaiting a new home. I still have the same crèche and nativity set. The tree looks like a real one!
Now Far Guy and Ronald have joined the girls.
Poor Ronald, we gave him and Janice our waterbed to sleep in….they didn’t sleep a wink.
This was the only year that I recall that Far Guy’s family came to our home for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.
Now I finally got in the photo! I cooked a lovely meal…got out the China and the special goblets. Far Guy used to collect coffee cups…and I used to collect Depression Glass…you can see cups and plates on the plate rail. I served supper after Christmas Eve service at Our Redeemer in Moorhead Minnesota…one of the best church homes we ever had.
Christmas 1985 was a sad Christmas for us. My Dad had just been diagnosed with Bladder Cancer and we were not certain if he would live or die. He is a Cancer Survivor for 29 years now…going on 30. Christmas Day in the afternoon we packed up and went to my parents home at the lake.
I feel very sorry for anyone going through a health crisis during the Christmas Holidays. I recall the carolers all dressed in their finery singing up and down the hospital halls just before Christmas that year. I wondered at the time…how can they sing such joyful songs…it all seemed so foreign to me…my emotions were raw….and I was a tad angry. Of course Christmas is a time for hope and joy…and in retrospect I should have been more hopeful and joyful too because no matter what our Savior was born.
In December of 1975 our daughters Trica (3 years 8 months old) and Jennifer (3 months old) at our home in Moorhead MN. Thirty nine years ago.
We had a live tree…looks kinda like a Charlie Brown Tree. I still have some of those ornaments!
We should get a photo of the baby alone.
Not such a good idea. Poor thing…cried and kicked so hard she blew a slipper….but her sister is still smiling.
Trica, Julie (my sister) and Jennifer. Trica must be practicing her smile.
Far Guy’s sister Janice and Jennifer at Far Guy’s parents in Park Rapids Minnesota.
Far Guy and Jennifer
Far Guy’s Mom holding Jennifer. In the background we have Baby Snuffer, my other baby brother Jody, Trica near Jody and brother in law Ron in the red pants.
Jan and Ron must have come up from Indiana for Christmas. The tree was on the end table that year. On the coffee table I see amongst other things a terrarium. Far Guys Mom fussed and fretted with that terrarium…everything had to be just perfect…the layers of sand..the stuff inside…I don’t remember much of what was inside….but they were all the rage in 1975. We still have that granny square afghan that is on the couch, it is upstairs and hangs on the quilt rack.
Far Guy’s Mom had that streak of grey/silver in her hair on purpose…the rest she colored but that front part was natural. Not sure why..it must have been all the rage back then.
A long time ago my Mother’s best friend Ann would toil away in the kitchen in the days before Christmas. Inevitably a tray of cookies would show up at our home.
There was one “cookie” that I looked forward to every year. It was an Apricot Ball something. Recently I called my Mom to ask her for the recipe.
I would have called Ann but she is in heaven…she died a number of years ago…breast cancer and then cancer took over her lungs and the rest of her body.
I can still see her in that coffin…a pleasant look on her face. A fork grasped in both of her hands…most people have their hands clasped together in prayer or holding rosary beads…but a fork?
Well here in Minnesota after a meal, the hostess usually clears the plates and says “Save your fork…dessert is coming up.”
For Ann being a Christian woman…she was all set for the dessert!
Ann’s Holiday Apricot Balls
One package (8 ounces) Dried Apricots ground fine or finely cut
2 1/2 Cups Flaked Coconut
3/4 Cup Sweetened Condensed Milk
One Cup Chopped Nuts
Blend together, shape into small balls, roll in chopped nuts. Makes about 5 dozen.
** I found that if I chilled the mixture it was easier to work with.
I made made a batch of Apricot Balls and I also made a batch of Craisin ones that were infused with Pomegranate Juice. Both are quite tasty and as good as I remember.
Have you ever asked your guests to save their fork?
Dragging the tree to it’s spot in the living room, leaving behind a trail of needles and possibly some pine pitch. (our house)
Every cat in the house is interested, of course the dogs are smarter and act like they know that it is perfectly normal for a tree to be in the house. (our house)
After the tree has unfrozen and sucked up an undisclosed amount of sugar water it can be decorated. (our house)
The lights are first…remember patiently waiting whilst your Dad checks every bulb for the one that is bad and must be replaced before the lights work? (My parents home and Far Guy said until all the appropriate cuss words were uttered nothing worked at his parents house.)
Then it is time for the garland…sometimes gold or silver or colored strings of bead like baubles. (my parents)
The ornaments one by one are taken from their hiding spots amongst the tissue paper…remember this one? Remember that one? (me)
The Star was placed on top (my parents). The Angel was placed on top (our house).
Mom placed the tinsel on the tree in exactly all the right places. (my parents house) I tried tinsel one year…cats pooping tinsel was not a good thing…(our house).
We turned off all the lights in the house to see the lights on our tree.
At our house…the cats thought the tree was brought in especially for them. They would tear down the hallway and run up the center of the tree. One year I thought Shadow was going to electrocute himself because he kept chewing the light stringers. I would catch him and put the ends back together with electrical tape. Eventually those light stringers were used outside because they were a hazard, a few years ago I threw them away…thinking that darn cat…and smiling.
The tree this week is one from Far Guy’s parents home. The year remains unknown.
Most likely from the 1950’s. A tree with a bit of sprayed on snow and some Shiny Brites…red if I recall correctly from later years.
Yesterday I sat down to mail out sympathy cards. One to a former customer, her husband died last week. The other to my cousin in Nevada whose wife died from complications of MS.
Last evening I got phone calls from both of my brothers. First my baby brother with news of his second grandchild’s birth. Presley a little girl born in Maryland weighing 6 pounds and 13 ounces and is 20 inches long. A few minutes later my other baby brother called..he had news of Teddy’s birth, his ninth grandchild weighing in at 10 pounds and 3 ounces. (Uffda..poor Megan) His tenth grand is due soon..and my niece was having labor pains..so all these babies could be born within days of each other. I am very happy for my brothers..I recall the excitement of seeing my own precious grands right after they were born..there is nothing better!
Births and deaths..life goes on and stops for no man or woman.
Sometimes life is like a sweet storybook.
Years ago when I was in Grade School, we used to exchange gifts at Christmas. The limit must have been 75 cents to a dollar. I believe these Sweet Storybooks were 79 cents when they first came out..a perfect priced gift. I never got one..but I always coveted them. During our 4H gift exchange..it was the same story..I never ever got one. Just so you know I faked happiness towards my friends that got them.
Now I have my own..after many years..and no I am not going to open the candy..I am going to save it forever. Sometimes it is enough just to look at the sweet little things in life:)
Far Guy has a set of Bubble Lights. He remembers them from Christmas Trees when he was a child. We did not put them on our tree..instead we put them with some fake garland around his carousel horses.
I tried hard to photograph the bubbles..they are quite mesmerizing.
We are almost done shopping. We made one last ditch effort in town and online. I wanted to be all done by Tuesday..and it looks like we just might make it! The roads are good for driving but every sidewalk and parking lot is an ice rink after the freezing rain. The stores were not real busy..some football game was on. We didn’t even have to wait in line to pay for our purchases.
We took some time out yesterday after shopping to do a little Sunday visiting..just like in the olden days:)
Sometimes I look back on some of these old photos and I look at my hair and my glasses and shake my head..like this one taken back in 1963. I laughed..so it is okay if you find it amusing too.
Mohair sweaters were all the rage that Christmas, as were those stretch pants..I believe I got these clothes for Christmas that year, along with the snazzy looking boots.
In this photo I see the TV off to the left..Moms plant stand behind me, a very short tree, a Dieffenbachia plant, my Mothers sewing machine, and a rag rug on the floor with a few of my other baby brothers new toys.
The old oak floor looks pretty good,my Mother used to use Johnsons paste wax on it and then it was buffed to make it shine. The oak floor was under many layers of linoleum when the house was remodeled the first time. Off to the left you can see a section that looks different..we are actually standing in the old pantry and a section had to be put in the floor where the pantry wall had once been. I can still remember the wonders that the pantry held..especially freshly baked bread.
It looks like it was frosty outside. This roll of film sat in the camera for four months before it was developed, my baby brothers tenth birthday photos were probably on the same roll of film:)
