Ghosts of Xmas Past - Thompson Hall Road 1985

 

Our kids' first Christmas in Alabama. 

Most of our presents during those years came from my parents who lived in California.

We got home from church late one Wednesday night to find a pile of boxes on our front steps.  

For several years, my kids believed Santa drove a big brown truck.

We had a party at our house that year. In the top picture above, the girl on the left in the red sweater is now Keith's wife. The man committing PDA was our preacher. (And that's not his wife.)

 All the folks in these pictures were our friends from church. Sadly, my kids didn't grow up surrounded by aunts and uncles and cousins like I did. So church was our substitute for extended family.

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Here are some pictures from other church-friends parties through the years.

Left, Gary Corum (with guitar). He was a high school history teacher at the time (1980), but is now a high-powered lawyer. Sitting on the floor are our friends from Alabama (this party was at our house on McRae street in Searcy, Arkansas -- they were visiting) Joe and Ruth Ann Gill, with their son Ryan.

This party was at our house on Lape Avenue in Searcy, Arkansas, at Christmastime 1982, shortly after Casey was born. Gary Corum on guitar (again). Next to him is his wife Diane and one of their sons. The guitar in the foreground is being played by another church friend, Jim Hardin. The cute blonde girl is his daughter Kim. The little guitarist in the middle is Christopher, of course. (Isn't he just the cutest thing?) Not sure who the guy sitting by the door is -- might be one of the Carrigan cousins. (They didn't go to our church. They lived about an hour or so away from us in Arkansas, and we didn't see them very often.)

Here's another party we had at our house on McRae street -- this one was for Easter, not Xmas, and not church friends but bona fide relatives. That's Keith in the red shirt, playing guitar. In front of him are Barbara and Jeannie Hicks, and in the background are Chuck (playing guitar) and Olan Hicks (playing steel guitar). They all lived in Searcy, Arkansas, at the time we lived there. Olan and Barbara have since passed on (just last year). Chuck and Jeannie both still live in Searcy.