Ghosts of Christmas Past - the Arkansas years

In 1978 we moved from Alabama back to Searcy, Arkansas. We lived in this house on McRae Avenue. This is the house where we lived when Christopher was born in May 1980.

I only have a few pictures of Christmases in this house.

PHOTO: Our Xmas tree 1979. We had accumulated a few simple ornaments since our first Christmas together (see yesterday's post). 

PHOTO: My mother knitted the stockings for me and Keith. The Singer treadle sewing machine was my mother's. 

PHOTO: This would have been Christmas 1980 -- hence the three stockings, one for Christopher.

The piano was a dream that I had of being a piano teacher while my children were growing up. Unfortunately, that plan did not come to fruition. I ended up selling the piano before we moved back to Alabama a few years later.

PHOTO: Christopher was 7 months old at Christmas of 1980. Our tree was in the dining room this year because we were having very cold weather (following an extremely hot summer) and the gas heater in this 3-bedroom house did not heat all the rooms adequately. So we closed off the living room and two of the bedrooms, and lived in the dining room until spring. (That's the kitchen to the left.)