Memories of Christmas past and present.

Being I'm at the ripe old age of 79 there are too many Christmas's to remember. I'm grateful for all of them. I

think because of the war years I don't remember the holidays much during that time. My cousins and I always had Christmas stockings. We always had Christmas at our house because we had the biggest house, my aunts lived in Victorian era row houses, we lived in a more modern council house. I do remember one present in particular it was when I was about 10, my favorite gift was a craft set. It was several colors of sealing wax, the kind they used to seal envelopes, in the "olden days". The project I was working on was to melt the wax and drop it on to the end of a pencil and the shape the wax into a flower. I had a lighter to melt the wax, and big blob dropped on my left index finger. The grown ups were all play cards and telling jokes, probably having a drink. I didn't want to bother them so I stoically waited until the wax cooled, and peeled it off. I think several layers of skin came off with it.
The next Christmas I remember I was 14, and they said I was old enough to have a mixed drink. So I had a gin and orange, the drink of choice in those days. The orange is not the orange juice as we know, it was like cool aid with little flecks of dried oranges in it. I have never been sicker, I blamed it on the orange. Years later when my Mother in law, offered me a G and O, I said I'd have it without the orange. I'm sure she thought her son was marrying a drunk. I think after that Christmas got better, just those two stand out in my memory. Here is a picture of a Christmas stocking from the 1940s we usually had an orange in there, only if you had a green ration book. Green books were for the infants, guess they need more vitamin C.

I remember when we lived in Canada and the children were still little. Karen was an infant in her play pen, she got a clown with a nose that lit up and it twisted to play a tune. Kim (2yrs.) got a doll, and Steve (3yrs) got a gun with a target. The gun fired a stick with a suction cup on the end, which ultimately was supposed stick to the target. I was terrified he'd hurt one of his sisters, so I asked Daddy to stand there and let me fire at him to see if it hurt. He manfully stood with his arm clutched in front of him, and I fired. My aim is not good, I hit him in the neck. I don't how much it hurt, but it sure left a hickey.
In 1972 we had moved to Pennsylvania, Steve became an avid Steelers fan and that year, he got everything with their logo on it. Jacket, belt buckle. I even got into football then, loved watching Franco Harris, Lynn Swann such great players. I think Terry Bradshaw was the quarterback.

Steve in his Steelers jacket, his sisters will not like this picture.






Here's Cher's favorite Christmas Picture, the girls are wearing green velvet styled by their Daddy. This was our last year in Canada. Love that aluminum tree.

This is getting to be too long! Fast forward to Christmas 2012 when I went to Florida. Ed and Cher are like kids when it comes to celebrating Christmas. I love this picture Mr. and Mrs. Claus.

The Christmas Tree