Christmas Past...

Grandpa Farwell with Mike... make my day

Merry Christmas!

While preparing for our holiday decor and traditions this year, I began musing about the traditions that our children missed from my own childhood. So many things are different for a very good reason: we moved to the west coast, and away from our parents and family when our children were quite small. We could not continue many of those seasonal traditions: I wish we could have our parents nearby to share Christmas with.

Daddy overseeing the gifting the month before
I was hospitalized in January. Mike, Rose (unseen),
Vicki, Billy and me (I was puffy from Nephritis)

When my siblings and I were young, we always had grandparents with us early in the morning to see us open our gifts. Usually this was my dad's parents, and my mom's parents went to her sister's home. Both of my parents were one of two children, so that made things simple. Dad's sister was in our area for a few years, then relocated to the west coast.

After opening the anticipated gifts, we had brunch and played with toys or tried on clothing and visited with the grandparents that were with us. By lunchtime we began to prepare for our trip to the other grandparent's home, while Grandpa and Grandma Farwell headed over to her parent's home to visit.

At Grandma Chatel's home, with our aunt (Betty) Jean's family, we had a big dinner mid-afternoon and opened more gifts and stockings. Ham, scalloped potatoes, and Hungarian Kiflie cookies were ALWAYS on the menu! When we teens were older and played instruments, we performed a small concert for our family. We played table games in the basement rec room (usually Crazy 8's) and other games. After dinner, opening gifts and clean-up, we headed over to spend some time with my dad's sister, Aunt Zona, and her family, when they still lived in Michigan. We usually stayed there until way past our bedtime playing with our cousins and their gifts.

The band's all here: Gail (Flute), Barb
(Clarinet), Mike (Sax) with Vicki and Rose

One memorable Christmas when I was ten, our family moved  to Harvey, IL in October to be near Dad's job. He had been living there a few years and driving home every few weeks to see us. His trips were getting more rare, so we moved there and rented a home. We had left all of our Christmas decor in our house in Michigan.

That year my mom's parents drove to visit us. That is the only time I recall them spending Christmas morning at our house. That was a very lean Christmas, and we had not planned to get a tree. My sister, Vicki, however, managed to drag home a tree from her 7th grade classroom... from a half mile away. After propping the big tree in a rock filled bucket, we decorated it with our homemade ornaments. It was "SIMPLY" beautiful with garlands of popcorn, construction paper chains and snowflake cutouts. Tickled to find our Christmas "surprise" of a few strings of lights on Christmas morning... we had the most wonderful tree of all!

Our last Christmas in Michigan with our children was celebrated in our little house on Floral Street in Livonia MI. (The living room was about 12x12 and the kitchen only about 10x11.) My two sisters spent the night before, along with Vicki's daughter, Audry. Early in the morning my Daddy came over with my step-sister, Jan, and her mama, Shirley. My mom came also, with my brother, Bill. (My brother, Mike, had passed away that fall). There were so many gifts under the tree for all five of my parent's grandchildren!

That was an exciting day, crawling over each other and discovering treasures under discarded wrapping paper! The newborn, Ruth, was passed between aunts and grandmas, between feedings. They all spent the day with us, had all the meals in our little house, including a ham dinner from our little stove. This was the last Christmas we ever spent with my parents, because of the long distance after we relocated to Washington. I am so glad we have that memory on video.

As our four children married and added more family members and in-laws, it became increasingly difficult to get together with all of our girls, with times that would not conflict with their in-law's events.

Our family with our daughters began to just gather a few hours in the morning, after their family time at their house, and they would stay through a big lunch before they went on to their spouse's family gatherings and dinners. Those who had no other plans would stay as long as they wished.

As the years passed, the lunch or brunch began to simplify to finger food, sandwiches, cheese and veggie trays, served with all the desserts that came from their homes. Stockings from grandparents were given, and small gifts for everyone. As the family GREW, approaching 20 grandchildren, the stockings became nearly impossible to stuff financially. Eventually, we had to limit the gifts to one per family and hope we had something for the littlest children to play with. The meal together became more difficult over time, between travel and family schedule conflicts.

This year we left the schedule and planning up to the kids. We were curious how many would come visit if we left our plans "open", if they had the choice to not visit our house. I posted a question on Facebook to see if there was any interest in coming to our house this year, and what ideas they had.

All in all, Christmas is about the birth of our Savior, and there is nothing like sharing special time with family to make your circle complete... all the generations touching hearts and hands together with memories for a lifetime.

It looks like our house will be quiet for most of Christmas day. We will have dinner at Charity's home and spend a quiet morning alone, and perhaps have Alice and her children come in the evening for a movie night. The house is open for visits, and snacks are available. We will get the gang all together on Saturday, instead. Merry Christmas!

Family memories on Annapolis...

This photo is probably the last portrait of my family before my parents divorced. Bill appears to be a few months old so likely late 1960 or early 1961. The photo was taken in our living room on Annapolis Street. 

back row: Barb, 10(me); Mike,7; Vicki, 12

seated: Mom with Bill; Rosemary, 4; Dad

Once upon a time...Mom and Dad

Once upon a time my parents were happily married.

I tried to capture that moment in this scrap page. The photos are my favorites of them.

Seen online in my gallery here:  BILL & VI

Siblings together again! Mixed emotions...

 

The house on Winifred in Wayne where Al lived from 

Kindergarten until his folks passed away.  

Its vacant and in foreclosure.

 

Ernie and Agnes Leasure with their daughter, Carol (aka Kirk),

who babysat Al & I often in her teens. The Leasures

lived across the street from Al's family and Ernie worked 

and carpooled with my dad to Ford Motor Co. They were

the COMMON LINK that brought our families together.

 

 SIBLINGS: Bill, Rose, Barb and Vicki 

Siblings with spouses, minus Al: Dan & Rose, Barb,

Vicki, Cheryl & Bill 

Its been a roller coaster ride of emotions this week. Driving down the street I used to ride my bike on, seeing the aged homes looking so much the same as then, feeling a bit of excitement to be there, but apprehension at what I might find around the next corner... Seeing the lot where I lived with a new home and the same old address was a totally unexpected experience.

Its is SO HARD to see the economic crisis here. So many homes are on the market, with so few persons to buy them. 

Driving out to the country where my sisters live, memories flooded my mind of the country afternoon rides with dad when we drove through fallen leaves at breakneck speeds on dirt roads, hunting down the elusive hickory trees on the roadside. When we found hickory trees, we jumped out of the car and gathered as many nuts as we could before heading out to locate more trees. (Dad LOVED ice box cookies with hickory nutmeats!)

I spent much of the week trying to copy family photos for the siblings. After several days of computer vs scanner conflict, I finally called my other sister, Rose, to see if she had a functioning scanner. We spent the evening scanning over 250 photos before I headed back to Pinckney for bed. 

Today the brothers and the sisters came together again for the first time since I was here last... about ten years ago. It was a wonderful time of remembering and getting to know each other again. If you still have your siblings close enough, get a hug while you can (I can certify that we hugged on each other all afternoon!)

Back "HOME"... not what it used to be!

I don't have a photo to share, but my sister's dining room table is covered from one end to the other with stacks of photos I want to scan or photograph before I leave here. However, the scanner that I brought with me "hiccuped" so often that it finally quit altogether. There seems to be a problem with my 64 bit processor vs the old scanner software.

Next choice is to wait on my sister bringing her scanner back from my nieces tomorrow night, so I will be scanning all afternoon Sunday! It will be an interesting rest of the week here.

I have found some wonderful pictures and cannot wait to share them with my own family.

See you soon, family! (and Al, of course!)

Father's Day... Honoring Hubby

This scrap page began over a year ago... I wanted to give it to him LAST Father's Day. However, because I did not have all the photos of the twenty grandkids to put in his "shadow" and "steps", it had to wait! 

What a difference  you have made in our lives, Preacher! We love you!

Online version:  Steps

60 and forward...

SURPRISE!!

Hugs all around... Grace with me here.

Honey Hugs and pictures taking pictures.

Chocolate cake! And ICE CREAM!

Grace "riding" Sally piggy-back.

Me and my girls: Joy, Ruth, Me, Alice, Charity

The HUGHES SIX.  FR: Ruth, Joy, Alice, Charity  

(reverse birth order)

Al and I behind them.

Sally puts ice cream on Savannah's nose...

... and Jesse hides behind a balloon.

Turning sixty was no big deal until the surprise event! Before the Wednesday night service, the girls brought me lovely gifts: yellow roses, pink azaleas, a Vera Bradley handbag and Cookie Lee jewelry.  Then the crowd quickly disappeared while I was "detained".  I followed the last of the crowd and found everyone "hiding" in the fellowship hall. 

What a sweet family and church family God has blessed me with! Thank you everyone!

Turkey Trot, Big Bird and fun for all!

Big Bird came to our house today... and we ate him!

Starting out the day, Al ran the 5K Turkey Trot race in a nearby town. He finished at 27 min 19 sec!! There were 1500-2000 runners and he was in the top 100 or so.

While we were at the race, we left grandson, Jon at the house to put BIG BIRD in the oven on time. The bird was 23.95 pounds! HUGE! (and no leftovers, either!)

I made the family favorite munchie: Sausage rolls. Basically they are breakfast sausage rolled in pie dough... yum!

In this photo l to r: Abby, Ruth, Al, Charity, Jon, Pearl and Sally.

Jesse discovered binoculars make for interesting views at the table, even backwards at times!

Abby observes Charles aiming at me, aiming at him! Most of the older boys brought their "weapon toys" and were in the park behind our house most of the day, playing war. Nephew Josh was able to come and he spent some good time with his cousins in the park.

Alice brought a puzzle to assemble, and she helped Joy before we put on the Stardust movie.

Savannah said, "I'm helping!!" and did some interesting placements! Note the food buffet was visited all day long! They ate pie all day and still had leftovers! Good meal planning!

We had a wonderful and interesting day with the 25 people able to come. We were thankful to God for all his bountiful blessings on our little corner of the world. He is GOOD to give us these wonderful gifts of family time.

Ruth and Jesse's wedding!

The bridesmaids in front of the lovely home where the wedding was held.

Ruth and Jesse's wedding was beautiful on a gorgeous sunny day!

The radiant bride and teary-eyed groom tied the knot under a garden arbor Jesse built for the occasion, covered with tulle and garlands.

They are off on the honeymoon! Congratulations!

Vicki caught this group shot of my daughter Charity's family at the rehearsal dinner. More pics later.

Happy Thanksgiving! Giving more thanks...

Isn't today just a WONDERFUL day that the Lord has made?

I just finished the pie making with Joy EARLY this morning. I am SO THANKFUL for daughters who are sharing the big job of meal preparation when we have a big event for our BIG FAMILY. Truly its a blessing to share the load. Over the years we have fallen into a pattern of who prepares which part of the meal, and this year Joy decided to try her hand at pie making (normally Ruth's contribution to the meal, but she won't be with us today). So all of us planned to bring pies and Joy came early to learn how to make my "tart" lemon meringue pies, my specialty that developed over the years. She did an AWESOME JOB!  [We hit a few snags when we discovered that my sugar supply was almost depleted and we had to borrow some very early.] But we finished by 6:30 AM and were able to play a hand of cribbage over a cup of tea before she went home to spend the morning with her two boys. (She won!)

Brunch?  Looks like mincemeat pie is on the menu for our mid day meal, since early dinner at 2:00 is too long to wait for food... yummy day in store!

Have a wonderful holiday with your loved ones! See you!

UPDATE: Dinner done and food and fellowship was GREAT! After the meal, Sally beat me in a hand of cribbage... so I am on a SLIDE! Twice in a day! (Just wait!)

I'm tagged AGAIN? Well, I am thankful, anyway...

Ten things I am thankful for (can't top Alice's cool photo list, so won't try).

1. My salvation... (don't leave home... or earth... without it!) and my church!
   
2. My family... well, everyone knows ten numbers won't cover each one by name, so I will start with my three remaining siblings who give me nieces, nephews, etc. to love and pray for.
   
3. My spouse who gives me way more than I will ever deserve.
   
4. My four lovely daughters and best friends... who love me in spite of me.
5. My nineteen growing and glowing grandchildren, of all ages (well, 2-almost 20, anyway).
6. My special times with aforementioned grandchildren, who never cease to amaze me with their mental, spiritual and physical growth. This often makes me recall some of the unusual things I would think up, too! They keep you on your toes!
7. Sons "by law" that have become SONS in the flesh, that someone else "grew up" for us!
   
8. My computer with internet... who knew? Friends across the world at your fingertips!
9. My health, both mental and physical... I enjoy it while I have it! I won't take it for granted!
10. MY BIBLE! Oh, yeah (thought I forgot, didn't you?)... like air, ya GOTTA have it! Makes the day so much better (and gives some good answers for those inquisitive youngun's)

Let's see, I tag... ummm... how about Lindsey! I have been watching your blank blog for a week and I see you are feeling better...YAY! Good to see you again! Go for it!