The Gift That Didn’t Make It

This is what my kids were going to get this year.  Well, this isn’t it because this set belongs to Elizabeth.  Their sets are still in the form of material, buttons, batting, and thread.   The little ornaments are to hang on the buttons you can see on the trees.  It is an Advent Calendar.   Neat, [...]

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Priceless Nativity That Didn’t Cost Anything To Make

We made these bread ornaments thirty years ago with our good friends, the Hancey’s.   We treasure them as if they were made of the finest porcelain instead of crumbled white bread and Elmer’s glue.     I keep them in my China Hutch instead of packing them away each year because they are so fragile now.      We [...]

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Ichabod, Another Tradition

When our children were babies I found a cute little song about Ichabod, a little mischievous elf who spies on the kids and then tells Santa if they are naughty or nice.     Not long after they learned the song we started having little visits at the window from Ichabod himself.     He’d pop his little face [...]

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Creating Christmas Spirit

We wanted our children to feel the spirit of giving to others when they were young.   “It’s more fun to give than receive” doesn’t really set well on young ears that are eagerly anticipating Santa Clause and opening the brightly wrapped presents beneath the tree.     One of the ways I feel we accomplished this was [...]

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My Favorite Christmas tradition

  When our children were young we started a special gift tradition that became my personal favorite. It brought a special peace to our family and gave each person the opportunity to express their love for each other.    The night we opened these gifts always included tears of joy and big hugs all around. As [...]

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We Hung Stockings With Care

Hanging the Christmas stocking was a lot more exciting when we were kids.  In our family we picked one of our own stockings … yeah, the socks we wore … to hang by the chimney with care.   We could be pretty ingenius about it, too.   I remember the year Bill picked a big old work [...]

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Today When I Held Ande I Missed Mom

Baby girl is getting around now … like all over the house.   She knows she can often find me in the living room  and every chance she gets she escapes from their part of the house and does her fast crawl to our part of the house.   She looks like a crab scooting across the [...]

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Booby Traps … No pICTURES

Years ago when we lived in Blanding and our 5th baby was still young enough to be nursing I had an experience I have been reluctant to share because it is rather … personal.   We had just returned from a vacation and I had my sturdy, open suitcase sitting on the chest high shelf of [...]

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Visiting at Warren & Sandi’s

I got the biggest kick out of Warren and Sandi’s cat, who is the spitting image of our cat, FiFi … except for the fact that FiFi has a flat face because she is half Persian.   Elfie is a year old and although she looks full grown she has the mind set of a very [...]

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I Need More Geritol Please!

Watching my children be parents is one of my most favorite things to do.   It’s been especially fun to be here in the Seattle area with one family of teenagers and another family of small children.    I remember so many times my mother telling me how amazed she was at my patience and energy … [...]

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