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

# 3

continuing my holiday stories:
when I was a kid, with 12 kids in the family on good Christmas' we considered it a very good holiday if we got a piece or 2 of fruit, & my mom always got a pack of life savers and split them up between all of us kids (except the babies of course and with 12 kids, there was always a baby or 2)...& she tried very hard to make at least one kind of cookie for us...she wa...s legendary for her angel food cakes with coffee frosting...but see, we did not know any difference, that was a great Christmas to us, even if all we got to eat that day was a bowl of oatmeal, we still considered it "magical." can you even imagine now days of being married to an alcoholic, who did not like to work and have 12 kids-we almost always had our utilities turned off for nonpayment, but we thought it special to eat our little bowl of oatmeal by candle light with our life savers and piece of fruit..this went on for many many years..as us kids got older and we began to work and "help out" our mom, things got better monitarily..now I truly believe that this type of life instilled good character in us but we also swore to ourselves that as we left home, we were determined never to live like that again..and sometimes it is all in who you marry..out of all of us kids, I am the one that has done the best with Ross, we are still married with family and great grandkids, whom my mom never had the great pleasure of ever meeting.
to be continued.

holiday memory #2

I have run the gammit of holidays, so to speak-I have been dirt poor & I have had the best of the best...but, it has been a life lesson for me showing me & my kids that the holidays are all NOT about money...growing up, one of 12 kids, extremely poor, most nights going to bed without dinner (why would the holidays be any different?), then we did OK being newly married with babies, but when I went ...back to nursing and Ross had his aerospace well paid position we had the creme de la creme, that was the good life. who knew he would lose his job, never to work (good) again. once again I got plunged into darkness of having nothing. but surprisingly, the last one was the most memorable to us as a family...we could not even afford a tree, less alone presents, food etc. but we made due with what we had and we stuck together as a family and that is what my family still talks about. one year when we were really down and out, 2 other families stepped in and gave my kids a wonderful holiday...you see it is not about money or having or not having, it is about being together...I will not speak of what this year is going to be like, we will make a new memory not with the same traditions we are used to but we are together for another year with healthy grandkids...

my dutch treat...

I started this new blog to be able to write memories down right away before I forget them so they may be passed onto my children and grandchildren...
because this is right after Christmas, 2011, the first posts will be about the holidays, then we will go from there

‎#1 ok, my mom was born in Ottawa Canada, she had one older and one younger brother...when my mom was 5 years of age, her dad died of cancer leaving her mom a single mom ...of 3 small children....when my mom was 7-8 (not sure of exact age, my mom and for good reason did not like talking about this...) her mom also died but from TB...now, I do not know the reasons for anything that happened, relatives in Canada I guess they decided they could not care for 3 children and my mom was shipped off to live in Colorado...now, since I have had kids and grandkids and I can so totally relate to ages, etc. I feel so horrible for this little Canadian girl around my own grand daughter's ages who has known nothing but Canada all her life, to be torn away from the only life she had ever known and sent on a train completely by herself all the way from Canada to Colorado to relatives she had never met, nor were they particularly happy to have to take this little orphan girl...she was ripped away from her 2 brothers, never ever to see them again to live her life anew in a country she knew nothing about...I cannot imagine this poor little girl all alone on a train, leaving behind her brothers, notknowing what she was going to...especially after having just lost her mother, and also her father just a few years before...did they prepare her for what she was going to, were they nice to her? how did they explain it? there is no way on earth I could ever explain something like this to Zoe or Sian...we do not even let then in the front of the house, much less on a train all that way...I am blown away by the tenacity of what happened to a little orphan girl and it has really haunted me much of my life, especially after I had my own children and how protective I am over them...She arrived Christmas week in Colorado...with only one suitcase of belongings...Tim is researching her life for me, thru geneology sites and I so would love to better understand why and how this could happen...