Special Christmas Memories, chapter 2

 

Christmas 1977

The first Xmas after I married Keith. This Polaroid picture was taken at Topsy's (Keith's mother) house. The four people are spouses of her four children. Clockwise from left: Aubrey's wife Florence, Sissy's husband Garland, Sonny's wife Lucia, and me.

WOW, that was long time ago!

Special Christmas Memories, chapter 1

 

Ah yes, the year I fell down the steps and sprained my knee. And Casey was so sympathetic. 

One very special Xmas card

 

Kids & Xmas trees

 

Key (top to bottom, L-R): Sophie and Riley Griffin, Samantha Treat, Lori and Mark Burford, Leslie and Karen Burford, Drew Adels and Samantha Treat, Dianne Thomas and Donna Kay Hawley, Casey and Christopher Carrigan.

And, of course, my favorite of all...

This would have been around 1986, at Thompson Hall Road, Fairhope AL

Take a picture, make a card

 

Christmas Eve

 We always spent Christmas Eve with my dad's family -- rotating from year to year between my grandparents' house and our house and Bernarde & Eileen's house.

Photo: Grandpa Thomas and me. This would have been around 1967, I think. Maybe the first year Bernarde & Eileen were in their new house on the lake. (Lake of the Woods, Decatur, Michigan)

Photo: Grandma & Grandpa Thomas, Mom, Eileen & Bernarde. The little tyke checking out the food would be my brother John.

Photo: Kim, Richard, Mick. Not sure if this is the same year as the first two pictures above or not.

Photo: Wathada, Eileen. This looks like the dining room of our house on Haver Street in Hartford. That would put it some time between 1969 and 1971.

The stockings were hung...

 

...by the piano...

(at our house on McRae street, Searcy, Arkansas, 1979)

... by the sewing machine ...

(at our house on McRae street, Searcy, Arkansas, 1980. My mother knitted the stockings.)

... by the cedar chest ...

(at our house on Lape Avenue, Searcy, Arkansas 1983.)

... by the dresser ...

(at our house on Rosa Court, Fairhope, Alabama, 1993. I made these stockings from one of the kids' baby quilts.)

The piano did not make the move to Lape Avenue with us. I had given up on the idea of giving piano lessons by then. The Singer treadle sewing machine had been my mother's. It still worked. The cedar chest had been Grandma Thomas'. She gave it to me for a hope chest while I was still in high school. The dresser had been great-aunt Effie's. (I also had a Jenny Lind bed that had been Aunt Renue's and a beautiful antique rocking chair that Grandma Thomas gave me for a wedding present. I still have the cedar chest and the dresser. The other pieces of heirloom family furniture have been lost over time. I didn't cherish them as much as I should have.)

Dreaming of a White Christmas

 

Will whoever is dreaming of a white Christmas puh-lease CUT. IT. OUT!

First Christmases

 

Christopher Keith Carrigan's first Christmas, 1980

Casey Thomas Carrigan's first Christmas, 1982

Calliope Jones Carrigan's first Christmas, 2006

Gray Barrett Burford's first Christmas, 1987 (?)

Caryl and Daryl Carwell's first Christmas

Heather Rae Thomas' first Christmas, 1987

Sophia Rose Griffin's first Christmas, 2003

Leslie Renee Burford's first Christmas, 1969

Amanda Jean Waller's first Christmas, 1977

Russell Vernon Hicks' first Christmas, 1950

... well, I'm sure I have more First Christmas pictures than this, but I got tired of looking for them...

Ancestry dot fun

 

Christmas 1996

Back: David, Oma Dell, Donald, Donna Kay. Front: Aaron, Mandy, Rick.

David and Donna are children of Oma Dell and Donald.

Aaron and Mandy are children of Donna and Rick.

Oma Dell is the daughter of my grandmother's (Cleffie) oldest sister Ruby.

    

Photo: Ulys and Annie with all their children plus Jack and Oma Dell. Jack and Ruby were married in 1926, and Oma Dell was born in 1928. This picture would have been taken in 1930 or 31. Ulys and Annie's last two children -- Bernice and Lowell -- were born after their granddaughter Oma Dell.

Photo: Ruby, Jack, Oma Dell

Oma Dell married Donald Hawley

Photo: Donald and Oma Dell with their first two children, Donna and Mike. (Danny and David came along later.)

Donna married Rick Waller

Photo: Donna and Rick with their two children Amanda (Mandy) and Aaron.

Photo: Ruby, Oma Dell, Donna, Aaron, Katelyn. Five generations.

I guess this picture would have been taken some time around 2000. Aaron was born in 1980 and Ruby died in 2004. I don't know for sure when Katelyn was born. She was Ruby's great-great-grandchild.

(Not many people can say they've met their own great-great-grandmother!)