On the Seventh Day of Christmas

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

...seven swans a-swimming...

On the Sixth Day of Christmas

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

...six geese a-laying...

On the Fifth Day of Christmas

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

...five golden rings...

On the Fourth Day of Christmas

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

...four calling birds...

On the Third Day of Christmas

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

...three French hens...

 

On the Second Day of Christmas

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

...two turtle doves...

On the First Day of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

...a partridge in a pear tree.

Christmas at the Farm, 1950

Once upon a Christmas, in 1950 near Buchanan, Michigan, on the farm that belonged to my great-grandparents Ulysses and Annie Hicks...

PHOTO: Ulys and Annie at the farm

* * *

( I'm not sure who wrote on these pictures, but I'm sure glad they did.)

Ulys and Annie had nine children - Ruby, Irene, Cleffie, Elvin, Evalee, Vernell, Olan, Bernice, and Lowell. They raised their family in Judsonia, Arkansas. But in the 1940s they took the three youngest children and moved north, to Michigan, to find jobs. Some of my great-grandparents' married children also ended up moving to Michigan. All but two of the nine Hicks children were living in Michigan by the time I was born. It looks like most of them were at the farm, with spouses and children, for this very cold and snowy Christmas. (I wonder if it made them wish they had stayed in Arkansas.) You can see in the photos above that it was a very small house, to hold such a crowd of people. (If all the adults in these pictures brought all their children, there would have been 14 adults and 15 children present.)

Barbara is Olan's wife. Charles is Evalee's husband. Elaine is Lowell's wife.

Charles, Jack (Ruby's husband), Buck (Evalee's son), Morris (Cleffie's son), Oma Dell (Ruby's daughter), Elaine, Wathada (Cleffie's daughter, my mother)

Jack, Charles, Lester (Cleffie's husband), Ray (Vernell's husband), Jay (Bernice's husband). Olan, Lowell

Ulysses and Annie Hicks

Ulys, Oma Dell, Annie

Ruby, Cleffie, Annie, Evalee, Vernell, Bernice

Lester, Annie, Cleffie, Olan, Ulys, Lowell, Bernice, and Barbara. The children are Ronnie (Lester & Cleffie's son), Clint and Chuck (Olan and Barbara's sons)

* * *

EDIT -- I have it on good authority that the baby on Barbara's lap is her son Clint (born January 1948). So this picture would have been taken in December 1948. That being the case, the baby on Bernice's lap would be her son Shelby (born November 1946).

A great big thanks to Jeanne Hicks Barnett for that information.

Family Reunion, Part 3

Here are the rest of the pictures from the family reunion/housewarming/retirement/Christmas party at Red & Wathada's house in Watervliet, Michigan, December 1997. 

PHOTOS: Bernice (Cleffie's sister), Cindy (Bernice's daughter), in the background are Dave (Leslie's husband) and Bill (Bernice's husband). Bottom: Grandma (Cleffie) Burford, Dale (Cindy's husband)

PHOTOS: Eileen (Bernarde's wife), Bernarde (Red's brother), Kim (Bernarde & Eileen's son) and his wife Cindy, Greg (Bernarde & Eileen's son) and his wife Dawn

PHOTOS: Kim, Rick, John, Cleffie

PHOTOS: Cleffie, Heather, John

PHOTOS: Me, Cleffie, Heather, John, Lorri, Taylor, Red, Rick

PHOTOS: Heather, Lorri, Rick, John, Red

Family Reunion, Part 2

The older I get, the more I appreciate the fact that we had all this family all in one place at one time. Hard to believe this was almost three decades ago.

PHOTOS: Morris and Becky, Leslie, Red, Dianne, Taylor (Leslie's daughter), Rick, Dave (Leslie's husband), Wathada, Kim Thomas and his wife Cindy. That child in the foreground (you can only see half of her head) is one of Kim and Cindy's, I think.

PHOTOS: The two Taylors -- Leslie's daughter and John & Lorri's son. On the right edge of the first picture is Wathada's cousin Cindy. On the right edge of the second picture is Karen (Morris and Becky's daughter, Leslie's sister). Bottom left: Heather, Lorri, Taylor and Taylor. Bottom right: Lorri, Cleffie Heather, and John. (That's me behind Lorri's outstretched arm.)

PHOTOS: Heather, Taylor, and Taylor

PHOTOS: Heather and Taylor (Thomas) playing in the snow. They didn't build the snowman. I just saw him in someone's yard and took his picture when I was out taking a walk.

PHOTOS: Taylor (Thomas) and his grandpa Red. Bottom right is John and Taylor reading books to each other.

PHOTOS: Cleffie, Heather, John, Red, Taylor, me.

Christmas at Red and Wathada's, 1997

My parents retired in 1997 and moved from California back to Michigan. They bought a house in Watervliet, and in December they had a family reunion/housewarming/Christmas gathering at their house at 339 Sutherland street. Here are some pictures from that occasion. 

PHOTOS: Mom and Dad in their house.(The picture of the house was not taken in December 1997. At the time of the family reunion there was snow on the ground.)

PHOTOS: Mom and Dad with me and my brothers Rick and John.

PHOTOS: Rick, John, Lorri (John's wife), Heather (John's daughter), and Mom

PHOTOS: John, Rick, Dad, Grandma (Cleffie) Burford (Mom's mother). Cleffie was 80 years old.

PHOTOS: Mom and Dad, John and Lorri, with Heather and Taylor (John & Lorri's son)

[Re: the variations in color of these pictures -- Some of them were scanned from paper photographs, and some were scanned from negatives. The scanner I used for negatives gave a blue-ish tint to all the pictures and I have tried various tricks to try to normalize the colors, with varying degrees of success.]

PHOTOS: Me, John, Heather, Taylor

Ornaments

 I tried to take pictures of all our ornaments. We bought new ones every year. This is only a sampling. I can't even imagine how many we had in total. An entire closet full, stacked floor to ceiling with boxes full of ornaments...

Silver and gold...

Santas...

Angels...

Balls and houses...

Sweaters and elves and gnomes...

And more...

And more...

And you wonder why I've gone minimalist since we moved to an apartment...

Boothe Road Decor

We had two display cabinets -- one with balsa wood cottages, and one with snow globes. And we had an entire china cabinet full of Christmas dishes, bowls, glasses, cups and mugs.

Here is some of our other Christmas decor on Boothe Road:

Stockings

My mother knitted four of these

Advent calendars

And more...

But wait -- there's more! Lots, lots, lots more! Way too much, too much, too much. It's all so lovely, but it makes me tired just to think about it.