Canada

FB is a quick place to jot things down and later transfer them over to my blog...I am getting so forgetful, that I am going to start just writing whatever comes to mind before it is forgotten forever...

this is from our road trip 2 summers ago, when we took Zozo with us...
we had had a really great time,traveling thru California, Oregon and Washington...leaving Whidbey was hard as we all love it there so much and Zo had had a wonderful time on the Puget Sound and even tho it was not part of the original plan, decided to take the long way off the Island thru Deception Pass and take Zo to Canada...

 we drove thru Deception Pass and it was gorgeous, we had never been that way before...to reach Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island, you get there by ferry and that is the way we always got onto the Island...there is one road in or out of the Island and that is thru Deception Pass...since we had never been that way, I never knew there was a cute little town called Anacortes and ...if and when we retire there, thinking we will go to Anacortes (cute thing I read somewhere that the guy that discovered the town named it after his wife...) awwww...
so Zo is getting excited about going to another country...
we pull up to the border and we get this guy on the Canadian border side who was not nice at all to us and he was telling us in so many words that he did not believe us and told us to pull over to the building...we did and were told we were to go inside the building...once there it got nasty...they confiscated our car keys, searched our car, pulling things out, took Zo aside to speak to her (& her being kind of shy) and spoke with us for the longest time...they tried to call Samantha and Brant with no answer...let me add that we had all of the correct paper work that AAA told us to take with us regarding a minor...
finally they came to a decision and said that we could go...turns out they thought we were tryng to kidnap Zoe...ummm really?? they said we were cleared to go into Canada and Ross said, "no way, before this happens again I want to be back on US soil."

 

our second Christmas together

our second Christmas together was special in the fact that that Christmas night we flew to Oneida New York to visit Ross' grandmother...but, not only that was special we had our 6 month old baby, Samantha to take with us, to show her off...
I had never in my life before even seen snow and it was very snowy then...we had a great time in NY in the snow, with his relatives...his grandma lived in this great old house and once I remember Samantha was asleep and his grandma told us she would listen for the baby and Ross and I took a walk to the downtown area and that is where I discovered my first Hallmark store, bought a baby's first Christmas ornament and the rest is history...my obsession with ornaments began in NY...I remember how nice it was for my first time in snow...

more to add as I remember...
one thing I do remember...everywhere we were invited for dinner while there, the hosts made stuffed pork chops, we were a little tired of pork by the end of our trip...LOL....
Sam was just crawling then, and in one picture, she crawled over and was chewing on the toes of Ross' uncle...

our first Christmas

when we were first married, (we married in Feb.) and our first Christmas came, and we went and bought an artifical tree, and some "dime store" decorations...it was our first Christmas together but, it did not feel the same...we thought we were saving money by buying an artifical tree and because it was ours, we thought it beautiful...still I cannot remember a whole lot about that Christmas,it mostly was spent with friends and his family...I do remember buying gifts for his family, especially his little sister, we got her a nightgown and a purse...

the stockings were hung...

growing up, my mom made our stockings...they were always from red flannel and she hand embroidered our first name on the front and our middle name on the back...I loved my stocking and that was all I really wanted from her belongings, once she died...
when I had my own children, I made their stockings, but I made them with red gingham, (anyone that knows me knows how much I love gingham) and they hung for maybe 6 or so years and as our family grew, I made new ones and guess what? I made red flannel with names either in green or white, sort of reminds me of when I was younger...and that is what we still use to this day...

# 6

only have 2 more days to tell my holiday stories...
when I was about 12, I was old enough to start babysitting (other peoples' kids...I already was a master at my own brothers and sisters...) *have to add a little something that just came to mind* I did not have a lot of friends in school, (& by this time my mom had given up on private schools and we were going to public schools) but once a co...uple of friends of mine knew how many babies were in my household they begged to come over (to play with the babies, not me...) anyway not sure how I started babysitting for this one family, they had 4 little girls, the cutest little things, and I truly loved them...this was the normal family that I had always longed to be a part of and the kids loved me also...for Christmas the year I worked for them, I had saved my money and bought each of my brothers and sisters a small gift and they had given me a pretty little locket, I regifted that to my mom...that Christmas I remember as being sort of all right, we had food, and my mom had made her date nut pinwheel cookies and we seemed happy...instead of construction paper chains, we made them out of newspaper and old Sear's catalogues...I think my mom appreciated me babsitting cause I always came home and gave her my money and I babysat for this family for a long time...

# 5

...I am not sure what is compelling me to write these stories, I know I want my own kids to know them and so I am typing them here for now, and hopefully sometime I can get them together...my only wish in this, is that I truly wish I could remember in order of when they happened...but, if I can not even remember what I had for dinner some nights then these posts will just be as I remember- litt...le patches...
one Christmas, not sure how old I was, one of my sisters was in kindergarten at the time and my mom was always worried that "Penny," would let the cat out of the bag to her teacher just how poor we were...my mom had a big thing about not accepting charity, but to my way of thinking charities were not as prevelant then as they are now...so, Christmas came and my mom could only afford one gift and we all took a vote that it should go to "Penny," so when she went back to school she could take her gift to show and tell as would her classmates...and I remember not feeling jealous or anything like that...we all were glad that she could be so happy and us older ones always kept trying to show the little ones we were not as poor as we really were...so
Christmas Eve. that year, there was nothing in the house to eat at all...we had had our oatmeal for breakfast but, we at least wanted "Penny" to have something else...my dad was working at the tiime (so I am not sure why wwe were doing so poorly) went back at night to his job and a coworker had left 2 pieces of bread and a jar of sandwich spread in the frig...my dad took it home to "Penny." us older kids liked taking walks at night, cause we liked glancing in the windows with lights on and seeing just how normal people lived and so we did also this night while my dad was gone and we went by this house that had a huge orange tree in the front yard and just as we were passing the lady of the house came out to throw trash away and said, "Merry Christmas," to us but she must have seen something in us and I cannot remember how it came about, she let us pick some fruit...she offered us some cookies but knowing how my mom was about handouts, we had to refuse, even tho our stomachs were growling from hunger.....

# 4

I agree with my friend Mona, when she said that growing up they did not know they were poor...to a certain extent, neither did we. My mom "liked us to go to private school but, that costs money, which always seemed non existent in our household, us kids found out we were poor, cause the rich kids at private school loved rubbing it in that we had a crappy car, wore weird clothes and most... times did not have lunches. the school when they could not get money owed them by my parents, took to taking us kids out of class, to pick up bathrooms and while the rich kids could enjoy recess and lunch, we were made to walk around the school yard and pick up trash. the school seemed to take pleasure in using us for janitors but, yet it instilled a good quality in me. was the school right in what they did? probably not, but they did what they had to I guess to recoup the money they thought they were out.
sorry that is not holiday-ish but I thought relevant to whole story.
as I previously said, we were often without utilities, and one Christmas Eve stands out in my memory. The electric guy came to turn our lights off and the old man across the street (never will forget his name, Mr. Honeycutt) (& I was maybe 6-7 or so) came over and offered to pay the electric guy and the guy refused and turned them off anyway...my mom's tears did nothing to alleviate the situation. a little while later, the lights as if by magic came back on. Mr. Honeycutt had gone and paid them late fees and all