My Favorite Gift of 2019

This morning I am so excited. You see, this afternoon I get to pick up my very best Christmas gift for the year. Our great-niece, Savannah, is arriving for a ten-day stay!

She moved to Reno over a year ago to live with her father. We got to see her in August when we visited there, and her dad agreed to let her come during her winter break from school.

Savannah is the author of A Wolf’s Magic.

She wrote the book when she was ten and eleven! We published it on her twelfth birthday. And it is a really good young adult fantasy. She is a naturally gifted writer.

She has changed quite a bit since we took her “author” photo. She is now thirteen and still adorable. We continue to encourage her to write.

So, when we had the chance to spend time with her, we jumped at the opportunity. We simply adore this young lady.

We were happy to get to know her dad while we were in Reno. He is a wonderful man and a terrific father. She is in a good place, and we are grateful.

On Saturday, we are hosting a post-Christmas party for the whole family—ours and hers. The tables are set, the ham is in the refrigerator, everyone is bringing a dish to share, and we can’t wait!

Christmas is a bit like my birthday—I spread it out as long as possible!

What was your best gift this year?

Santa Pictures – Part 2

Last week, I posted some of my photos with Santa. This week, I’ll show you the rest of them.

This was taken when I was five. I’m wearing the same dress I wore on the first day of kindergarten. I loved Santa, but I don’t look thrilled here. I assume my brother, Ron, has a separate picture. He would have been two. (I gave him all his photos years ago.) 

My mother loved bonnets on me. I hated them. Here, I'm wearing another one.

The next one was also taken when I was five. Apparently, I liked this Santa better, or maybe my cousin David (six-years-old) gave me more courage. (This is a better-looking Santa than the other one.)

Note the scrape on my leg. I was painfully clumsy as a kid and fell down a lot.

At age six, I look happier with the guy in the red suit. (He looks like the same one with me in the first five-year-old photo.) I still don’t know where my brother was.

When I was seven, I finally took a picture with my brother (aged four).

This one is bittersweet. By the next Christmas, my father was dead. (He passed away the following February.) This is the last real Christmas of our childhood.

I took Kim to see Santa when she was little (as well as the Easter Bunny a couple of times). I have the photos to prove it. As I recall, she generally liked Santa and looks happy in her photos.

These pictures represent the best times during my childhood. Do you have any of these? How do you feel about them?

Santa Pictures – Part 1

I have noticed many encounters with Santa no longer offer formal photos. I keep seeing signs for “Selfies with Santa,” where you can take your own pictures on your phone.

When I was a child, the formal photo with Santa was a required ritual of the season.

My mother loved these photos. My dad and grandfather both worked at the Broadway Department Store in downtown Los Angeles, so our Santa photos were always taken there. My first one was taken when I was sixteen months old.

I look at this photo and can’t believe I was this age when my grandfather stood me up on my grandparents’ dining room table on Christmas Day, where I recited A Visit From St. Nicholas. You probably know it better from its first line: ′Twas the Night Before Christmas. I raced through the whole thing, taking a deep breath following each couplet. Sixteen months old! And I know it happened since my mother recorded it in my baby book and often told the story. Besides, I actually remember looking down at my patent leather Mary Janes throughout the whole thing.

The next one is when I was twenty-eight months old.

My grandfather died two months earlier. He was the most important person in my life. In November, the month before, we moved into our new house in Alhambra, California, so my whole world had recently changed. I don’t look too thrilled, do I?

When I was three, my younger brother was a baby. He isn’t in this photo because he was too little (just over six months old).

I am always surprised to see photos of myself at this age because my hair was quite light. It was dark when I was little. It lightened until I was three. Then it grew dark again. I look as though I was forced to get the photo taken and was trying to escape.

By four, I was a veteran at taking these photos.

My hair was growing darker again. Note the curls. Not natural. Mom believed in permanent waves. They probably made dealing with my thick hair easier for her. I had a sensitive scalp, so it hurt every time she tried to brush or comb it. This is about as short as I ever wore it. (Note the skinned knee. It was a semi-permanent condition of my childhood.)

Ron would have been about a year-and-a-half, and I think he had his photo taken, too—by himself.

Next week, more Santa memories.

Did you have your photo taken with Santa? Do you still have yours?

Holiday Traditions

Most families have holiday traditions. Often these have been passed down from generation to generation. We are no exception.

In our family, one special tradition began several years ago when decorating the tree became a chore. When Kim was little, I looked forward to doing it. I have hundreds of ornaments, and each one has a story. We have no plain or generic decorations. Each one represents memories.

For many years, our daughter invited a friend or two to help put them on the tree. We had hot chocolate and cookies as a reward. Of course, the best part was spending time with Kim and her friends.

Even when we moved here to Dana Point, Kim still came over to help. But when she moved to Texas fourteen years ago, it became more and more daunting.

For a few years, I hired our friend’s teenage kids to help, but they grew up and had lives of their own.

Enter our neighbors and their kids. Their property adjoined ours in the back yard. We first met them when their little boy—aged six—broke our window. Before long, we fell in love with the whole family. Since we have no grandchildren, we became surrogate grandparents—even though they have four wonderful grandparents already.

About eight years ago, I asked their mother if I could “rent” the kids (at the time there were five) to help decorate our tree. They were excited to do it. The first year, I learned to put the most fragile ones on the tree before they arrived. I wasn’t as concerned about broken decorations (things are to use and enjoy) as I was about one of them being hurt.

Now there are six of them, and yesterday, the tradition continued. Their mother brought all but one, who had a game, and they swarmed in to finish the job for us.

I took me two days to put on about a third of the ornaments. They put on the rest in less than an hour. Thank goodness.

Over the years, I have given them some of my ornaments each year. Now all the duplicates are gone as well as the ones without an emotional attachment. I have also given them most of my Christmas books. Several of them went again this year, including a new copy of my favorite, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

Another part of the tradition is cookies. Ahead of time I bake several batches of cut sugar cookies. Once the tree is completed, the kids sit down and decorate them.

I put out icing and sprinkles and turn them loose. This year, Larry found eyeballs, and he couldn’t resist. The kids loved them! The youngest child decided to make “monsters” with multiple eyeballs.

Once they have decorated all of the cookies, each one chooses their three favorites to take home. (Of course, they eat few along the way.)

Before they leave, they always have to climb the back stairs and play in the back yard. They have now moved away, so one of their “jobs” is to check out their yard to see what has changed. (The family still owns the house.)

I know that some day in the not-too-distant future, they won’t want to come and do this every year. The oldest will graduate from high school in June, and the rest will follow behind.

But for Christmas 2019, we have a beautiful tree and cookies to serve during the holidays—along with the story of how they were decorated.

What special holiday traditions does your family observe?