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!

Not the little girl I was...

Challenged to scrap a page about myself related to a "song" I scrapped about how Al & I met. We have been married 43 years, but have known each other since he started first grade.

The journaling reads:

“Little Allan” moved to the neighborhood in the summer
of 1954, just two blocks from Barb’s family.

Barb’s dad worked with Ernie Leasure, who lived across
the street from the Hughes’ new house. Thus, they met
soon after Allan moved to their house on Winifred Street.

After his parents passed away, Al moved to the north end
of Detroit. When he called to meet up with Barb in 1968,
she was not the little girl he once knew,
and he asked her to marry him that summer.

Posted online in my gallery at Scrap Girls  HERE

Missing my mom...

I just read a Facebook post about someone's "mama" being in heaven, and my tears began to flow...

My mom's been gone over 30 years and that wound can still be pricked in just a moment. I am missing talking with her every day, writing to her every week.... hearing from her every week.

Mom with Bill about 1962, in our front yard on Annapolis Street.

If you still have your mama, what time will you spend with her this week, while you can? [She knows you love her... but enough to spend more than a few minutes at a time with her?]

I am betting she misses your every day phone calls about nothing in particular!


She was one tough mama, and loved us more than her own life! She was a single mom working in a man's job at a factory to provide for us when Dad failed at it due to alcoholism. I miss her today...

Montana memory: BIG PURPLE SPOON

Montana was such a joyous trip... so many memories to scrap. This page came about because the High Noon Crop at Scrap Girls challenged us to scrap "PURPLE". I remembered this funny memory and went looking for the photo. Scrap Girls Camille's Garden was the kit used. Thanks for looking!  ONLINE VIEW

Page reads:  After our Jammer tour on the EAST side of Glacier National Park, we ate lunch and browsed the shops in the park.A SPOON CARVING shop featured this HUGE SPOON.Because it was SCRAP GIRL PURPLE, Al wanted to stop for a photo with Barb and the spoon!  July 2010

Oh... to be a KID again!

 "BUDDY" doll was our Grandma's "LIVE IN" grandchild.  EVERY grandchild played with Buddy and he was their "BEST FRIEND", even the grandsons. Buddy went everywhere in the house with us. He wore size two clothes and was always "happy" and "Smiling" and "approving" of our games.

When I was in Michigan this past week, I asked Aunt Jean (mom's only sibling) if she knew where Buddy was. They located him in her house and we had such a sweet and memorable visit with him. We estimate he is 55+ years old, at least. The overalls he is wearing were originally my cousin, Gail's. There was a second "Buddy" when he began to wear out, but this is the REAL DEAL Buddy.

Good to see you again, Buddy!

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Someone collected these observations about the "good old days" we had as children. They were so insightful and I recall most of these feelings at some time in my youth. I miss the "good old days".

Oh, To Be a Kid Again...

Decisions were made by saying "eeny-meeny-miney-mo."

Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do over!"

"Race issue," meant arguing about who ran the fastest.

Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "Monopoly."

Catching fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening.

It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends.

Being old referred to anyone over 20.

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties.

It was magic when Dad would "remove" his thumb.

It was unbelievable that dodge ball wasn't an Olympic event.

Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot.

Nobody was prettier than Mom.

Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.

It was a big deal to finally be tall enough to ride the "big people" rides at the amusement park.

Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.

Abilities were discovered because of a "double-dog-dare."

Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute ads for action figures.

No shopping trip was complete unless a new toy was brought home.

"Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense.

Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down would cause giggles.

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.

War was a card game.

Water balloons were the ultimate weapon.

Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle.

Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin.

Ice cream was considered a basic food group.

Older siblings were the worst tormentors but also the fiercest protectors.