Advent Calendar, My Annoying Christmas Letter, Errr Card of 2011

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

GeneaBloggers across the world are once again participating in the Advent Calendar challenge.  This year because I am still attempting to finish the never ending "THE Trip" series, I am probably not going to have a lot of submissions, and, I am not much of a fan of re-running prior years articles.  However, if you insist, I can direct you to my 2009 submission on this very subject, Christmas Cards, in which I freely admit I am one of those friends and family that writes those really annoying holiday letters.

But, I am going to take this opportunity to write my 2011 annoying holiday letter, and here it is!

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Dear Family, Friends and Fellow Bloggers,


Oh, my, 2011 is nearly over.  Used to be, pre-blogging days, I had long long annoying holiday letters to include in my Christmas Cards.  You will either be totally relieved or slightly annoyed to hear that this year I have very little to say.  That is because I have been chatting away at record paces all year long on this blog.  Everything I might have told you in my long long annoying holiday letters is already here on the blog.


To summarize our year, it started out in Las Cruces New Mexico, and will end in Gulf Shores Alabama.  2011 was the year we finally traveled west of I 35 and into the gorgeous red land of Arizona and Utah.  It is also the year I finally got to the research mecca, Salt Lake City (and no, I have NOT processed all those files, YET).  


We returned to our stick built home in SE Michigan at the end of July, the re-entry was full of dead batteries, and other issues of equipment left to sit unused for 8.5 months.  Man spent a great deal of time and a bit of angst getting all back up and running, and then, snicker, we left again, mid-November.

We lost a member of our fur family, our beloved Miss Tilly, in Custer South Dakota. Who knew she would go before her half-brother, Mr. G (aka, Gallagher).


Our human family thrives, over all they seem to be pretty happy with their lot in life, and our family gatherings are always such a wonderful thing, harmonious, joyful, and full of a bit of our family tradition, lots of teasing.  We are so proud of them all, our sons, our daughter-in-laws, our twin grands.


And, so, 2011 comes to an end, and 2012 looms on the horizon.  What will 2012 bring, we hope, much happiness and health to our many friends across the USA.  We have several family members and friends that are battling cancer and other health issues, they are constantly in our prayers.


So, to end this abbreviated issue of my annoying holiday letter, Man and I wish you and yours a peaceful, wonderful holiday season and a hugely successful year in 2012.  May your wheels (for our RVing friends) roll you to places yet unexplored.  May your brick walls (for my genie friends) come tumbling down.  


May your family be happy.  May your souls find peace.

Love and Peace to All,


Carol & Man




* Images, my Christmas village display.  Reflections is decorated for the holiday as well, hope you enjoy the photos and graphics all through the right hand column of the blog.

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Advent Calendar, Christmas Stockings

GeneaBloggers has a Advent Calendar event this year, 24 days of family history related subjects to challenge the researcher. The prompt/challenge for December 18th is:

Did you have one? Where did you hang it? What did you get in it? Do you have any Christmas stockings used by your ancestors?

Did I have one?  Yes

Where did you hang it? If there was a fireplace in the home, on the mantle. No fireplace, from half walls, banisters, someplace where Santa could find them easily.

What did you get in it? Small gifts, oranges.

Do you have any Christmas stockings used by your ancestors? Not really. Only have a photo of mine, and sadly, it is poor, but, for what it is worth, there it is on the left.


This stocking started a stitching project for me that has lasted almost 40 years.  This stocking was done by my mother, it is felt and sequins, very similar to the Christmas ornaments I chatted about on December 3rd. 


When our first 2 sons were very young I decided to stitch them similar stockings.  When son # 3 came along, I did another. 



Then, I stitched more, my nephew got one, his half brother and half sister did as well.  Son  # 1 got married, I stitched his bride one.  I did 3 more the winter of 2005.  Here are two of those three, yes, they were for the twins.

About this time, I decided that Man needed his own stocking, so, I went shopping and started stitching.  Nope, I have not finished it yet (too much RVing, family, family history research and other fun stuff has been shoving this project aside).  So, when I saw this challenge, I took it as a double challenge, a challenge to write about and a challenge to see if I could finish the stocking by today, and so, I started stitching.
 
Took a few photos along the way, first was November 27th.  Shows the stocking as it was, and supplies.  

December 2nd:

By December 14th, I had made this much progress, each brick had sequins applied and then was appliquéd to the base of the stocking, took about 1 day to do each row of bricks:

As of this evening, December 18th, when I stopped stitching because I was tired, hungry and cross eyed, the stocking looked like this:

It will probably take another 8 hours, guesstimate, to finish Man's stocking.  This is by far the most complicated project of this type.  Most of the prior stockings took about 80 hours each.  I know this one will take more than that to finish.

And, why would I spend that much time stitching a Christmas stocking?  Because I like the craft, I love the sequins sparkle, I love creating memories.

I'll post the finished project photo, soon I hope!  Only have a few more days before it needs to be finished, and I have to find a special spot in Tana to hang it as well.

* I have been informed by my mother, that my stocking - the black and white photo - was actually velvet and the Santa was done entirely in sequins.

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Advent Calendar, Grab Bag, The Switch

GeneaBloggers has a Advent Calendar event this year, 24 days of family history related subjects to challenge the researcher. The prompt/challenge for December 17th is:

Author's choice. Please post from a topic that helps you remember Christmases past!

Memories flood over me reading this challenge. Being pregnant with Son # 3, wondering if we would have a Christmas baby. The twin granddaughters arriving a month early and just days before Christmas during a horrible snow storm with temps that were brutally cold. Christmas Eve spent with the boys, Man and my father at Midnight church service, the only time I remember seeing my father in a church. So many warm and fuzzy memories.

But, there are those “other” memories. Background - - we are rather a gang of teasers. We also have members of this family who are champion “guessers”. You know the kind - - they can pick up ANY wrapped gift and within minutes, and sometimes seconds, can tell you without fail what is in that package. They relish in the fact that they can “get it”. Of course, these family members are also the “snoopers”, as they are constantly monitoring the presents under the tree and know when each and every one is added to the pile. As soon as the present appears UNDER the tree, they inspect it, shaking and poking, and announcing to all near and far, “I know what it in here, it is XXX”.

Now, I have to say, this can be VERY annoying to the givers of gifts. OK, take it up another notch or two, or three. It really ticks me off. Part of the reason is that I am not a guesser. I want to wait till Christmas day and be pleasantly surprised. Man might tell you, Carol is NO fun! All that poking and shaking is part of the Christmas tradition.

I digress, so, back to ohhhhhh the late 1970s, Man and I were young, had young kids, and had lots of bills so we did the practical Christmas list, if you really wanted, say, ohhhhhh, a bench vise, you might ask for that. And, so, in the late 1970's, that is just what Man asked for and that is just what I bought him. I drug that heavy thing home, fought getting it wrapped by myself, and struggled to get it under the tree. Man came home from work, immediately started snooping and guessing and within 30 seconds, proudly announced, “Yepper, that is my bench vise”. I was so mad I was spitting. In a moment of either madness or brilliance, I haughtily announced, "No way, that is a box of bricks". Well, Man did not believe it, this discussion went back and forth for hours, for days. Bricks, vise, bricks, vise. He just would not believe it was a box of bricks.

SOOOOOOOO, here is what ole Carol did. Went to his parents and found a large building brick that was very close in size and weighed just about what the vise did. I also found a box that was almost identical in size as the one the vise was packaged in. Brick went into the box and I wrapped the brick/box in the same paper as the vise/box. Brick/box went under the tree and the vise/box was hidden away under a table in the basement, behind a LOT of craft projects and material and Carol stuff.
 

 
 

Bricks or bench vise??

 
 
 
Bricks, vise, bricks, vise, the “argument” went on right up to Christmas morning. The kids were there, Man’s parents were there, and it was finally time for Man to open his present. Of course, the kids and Man’s parents were in on my Christmas bench vise/brick switcheroooooooo.

Need I say, he was VERY VERY surprised when after all this, all he got was a box of building brick! TA DA! I wish I had a photo of his face!

Yaaaa, I gave him the bench vise right after this, but I have NEVER let him live it down. (Me bad!)

Bricks, vise, bricks, vise.

*I swear, bench vise pictured is just like the one I purchased for Man way back in the late 1970's! Even the same brand. Thanks to Craftsman Tools and Sears!

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19th Edition of Smile For The Camera, Gift

Twas the Night Before Christmas.  Man read it every year to our 3 sons.  It was such a special gift to his entire family.

Twenty-nine years later, the twins gave the gift back to the family by reading the same story to all of us, one reading one page, the other reading the next and both reading the last.  (And, yes, I have most of it on a video.)

L and M read to their entire family.

The gift of reading and the gift of a family tradition carried into the next generation.

This is my entry for the 19th Edition of Smile For The Camera, Gift.

The challenge is:  It is the holiday season and a time for giving. So give Smile readers the gift of sharing, sharing a family photograph. It can be a gift given or received, it can be the gift of talent, it can be the gift of having the photograph itself. The interpretation of gift is yours.

This is also my post for the Geneal-Bloggers Advent Calendar, Christmas Gifts, the challenge reads:  What were your favorite gifts, both to receive and to give? Are there specific gift-giving traditions among your family or ancestors?

Answers:  Family, memories like this one, were and still are my favorite gifts.  Gift-giving traditions starting with my three sons included books, educational toys, records, puzzles.  They were always the first to buy, and are still my favorite to give to the grandchildren.
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Advent Calendar, Christmas Cookies

GeneaBloggers has a Advent Calendar event this year, 24 days of family history related subjects to challenge the researcher. The prompt/challenge for December 8th is:

Did your family or ancestors make Christmas Cookies? How did you help? Did you have a favorite cookie?

I was going to skip this challenge, but, I got thinking and remembering about my mother’s Christmas cooking siege and my mind wandered around the subject a bit. In that wandering around time, I remembered how my mother stored her cookies. She stored them in Guardian Ware cookware. Guardian Ware (or Guardian Service Cookware) was manufactured by the Century Metalcraft Corporation, Los Angeles, California, between 1935 and 1956. The cookware was not sold in stores. An individual would host a party at his or her house, and a salesman would cook the party guests a meal with the cookware. It so happened that Man’s father sold the cookware at one time. He would do the shopping for the food, prepare, cook and serve the meal. Man’s mother pulled clean up duty.

After Man and I had our memory lane trip down Guardian Ware Cookware, I started surfing the net, trying to locate a photo. They were all copyrighted and attempts to contact the copyright owners has been disappointing.

UPDATE:  Willie & Margaret Dinkins of DNK Collectibles, http://www.tias.com/stores/dnk (as of January 2019, her link does not function.) have graciously allowed me a one time useage of their great photo of the turkey roaster Guardian Ware.  Thank you so very much.  (By the way, this just happens to be one of  the best photos I found online!)  I remember my mother's version of this pan with the glass lid, Man's mother tells us this is just like hers.

UPDATE NUMBER TWO:  Michelle of My Granny's Attic Antiques, Collectibles & Custom Gifts (as of Janauary 2019 her link does not function.), has since also replied to my request to a one time use of her photo.  I want to thank of her for her gracious permission.  I chose not to use two photos, so, instead, I will direct you to have a lookie see at her fine site.  She is a commercial site, she has some lovely things, happy shopping!

You can visit this web site, http://www.guardianservicewarecollectors.com/ and see a short video and other examples.

Now, back to the cookies. My mother would make those double sugar rolled pecan balls. They have many different names. She would buy whole pecans and grind them up in a meat type grinder that you attached to the counter top. She baked a LOT of these balls. A LOT! She must have started baking right after Thanksgiving. I cannot imagine how many batches she baked. Since they also have butter and crisco in them, and all those pecans, they can spoil. She would fill the Guardian (in fact, several pieces of Guardian) with pecan balls. Between the layers she placed waxed paper, this would keep the powered sugar from clumping together.

Now, here was the secret to keeping the cookies fresh for several weeks. She would place the Guardian Ware full of those beautiful delicious round pecan balls with two coats of powdered sugar on the stairway to the attic. Unheated attic. In Michigan in December, in the stairwell of an unheated attic, they stayed fresh.

Ah, yes, a memory trigger for sure, Christmas pecan balls also known in our house as Christmas Snow Balls, Guardian Ware pans, cold attic stairways, cookies that also became favorites for our three sons. Not only are they tedious to make, the kitchen is a disaster after the process. I no longer make them every year, but when I do, the sons make a fuss and appear to be quite grateful!

I found a similar recipe here.

The original challenge asked three questions

Did your family or ancestors make Christmas Cookies? How did you help? Did you have a favorite cookie?

You know the answers to the first and the third. To answer the second: I helped by eating as many of those cookies as I could!

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Advent Calendar, Santa Claus

GeneaBloggers has a Advent Calendar event this year, 24 days of family history related subjects to challenge the researcher. The prompt/challenge for December 6th is:

Did you ever send a letter to Santa? Did you ever visit Santa and “make a list?” Do you still believe in Santa Claus?

Letter to Santa, I must have, I mean, you just HAVE to write a letter to Santa.  He knows who was naughty and nice, but even Santa could use a little assistance.  Can you imagine trying to remember what we all desire?  Yep, letters are a requirement of the season.

Did I ever visit Santa and "make a list"?  You bet!  And that list was reviewed and memorized!  Here I am with my brother about 1956.  I just love the look on brother's face!  He was about 4 years old, would love to know just exactly what he was thinking.

Do you still believe in Santa Claus?  You bet!  I have the photographic proof.

and

and

and

and

*Photo one of photographic proof - Son # 1 and Son #2, about 1972
Photo two - Son # 3, about 1977
Photo three, Granddaughters, M & L, 2001
Photo four, Granddaughters, L & M, 2004, with the bestest Santa ever.
Photo five, Moi and Santa, about 2002

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Advent Calendar, Christmas Cards

GeneaBloggers has a Advent Calendar event this year, 24 days of family history related subjects to challenge the researcher. The prompt/challenge for December 4th is:

Did your family send cards? Did your family display the ones they received? Do you still send Christmas cards? Do you have any cards from your ancestors?

Ok, caught me, I am one of those annoying friends that sends annual Christmas letters. I started this annual ritual when Man and I lived in Morocco in the early 1970's during his Naval days. I wanted to share our lives and news with so many friends and family, that I cooked up this idea to write one letter and duplicate it.

I have been writing them ever since, they have progressed from simple typed letters to letters with cutsie (well, I thought they were cute) graphics to letters with photos of family and yorkies (but of course).

Above, one of the early graphics.

The last few years I have taken to publishing these Christmas greetings in a PDF format and forwarding it via email. The first couple of years I tried this I expressed to friends and family the belief that it was not the format of delivery of our Christmas message and blessings that mattered, but the thought. If any were aggravated by my choice of delivery, they did not say so.

I have copies of most of my letters from 1984 to 2008. They are scanned and linked to my family history data base. Man tells me his mother has copies of every one I ever sent.

One thing about maintaining copies, your family events are duly recorded. Re-reading them is a great deal of fun. Much like reviewing old family photos.

Yes, there are still regular Christmas cards mailed out, many stuffed with the annual Christmas letter.

*Graphics are all from past Christmas letters, and were usually obtained from clip art software programs, long ago retired, source information long lost.

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Advent Calendar, Christmas Tree Ornaments

GeneaBloggers has a Advent Calendar event this year, 24 days of family history related subjects to challenge the researcher. The prompt/challenge for December 3rd is:

Did your family have heirloom or cherished ornaments? Did you ever string popcorn and cranberries? Did your family or ancestors make Christmas ornaments?

Have you every tried to string popcorn and cranberries?? I do not remember this as something my mother did, and, it is not something that I have done. So, why do I vaguely remember trying this?? The popcorn was brittle and broke, and the cranberries were hard as rocks, and hard to penetrate with a needle?? Maybe in another life I did this popcorn/cranberry thing and I remember trying this then?? Or maybe many moons ago as a young mother I tried this and one time was enough?? Not sure, but, nope, that is not something we do, nor do I care to ever do.

I don’t remember any specific heirloom or cherished ornaments from my childhood. My mother had a nice looking tree, but it is all a foggy memory. I do not personally own any heirloom ornaments, but I do have a number of my own that I do cherish. Many of the ornaments found on the little tree from the post on November 1st, are cherished, they were made by our sons in Cub Scouts, nursery school, grade school. They were so cherished that years ago they were gathered together and decorated what became known as the “Kids Tree”. No grown up decorations were allowed on the tree.

I have, over the years made any number of ornaments, many of which I still own. When I went to see about photos for this post, I realized I have not taken good photos of them, (note to Moi, take actions to fix this oversight). I have made beaded ornaments, little baskets with flowers, and others, but, my two favorite types of ornaments are stitched. About 1988 I cross stitched a bunch of ornaments with simple but charming designs, rocking horses, angels, Santa faces, Snowmen, and more. The ornaments were framed with gold colored round frames, then hung. The second type of ornament are felt, with sequins and embroidery, they came in kits, which were theme based, so I have Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, a Santa/Mrs Santa/Snowman/Mrs Snowman set, a set that includes Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Daffey Duck and Donald Duck - - well you get the idea.

The only photo I could find is of one of the sets of felt and sequins, The Three Little Kittens That Lost Their Mittens. It is out of focus, but, I think you can get the idea. There are also two of the round cross stitched ornaments in this photo, but, they are fairly hard to see.

Our tree in Tana is one of the smallest trees I have. It is less than a foot tall and is decorated with tiny lights, stars, white birds, and cross stitch decorations. It also has a cross stitched tree skirt, which I also made. The decorations on this tree are less than ½ inch in diameter, the fabric was a 22 count, enough to cause early onset blindness. Goodness, WHAT was I thinking??

Sitting beside Tana’s Christmas tree are some yorkie ornaments. You just KNOW I had to have some!

* You can see felt/sequin kits at Bucilla's web site. 
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Advent Calendar, The Christmas Tree

GeneaBloggers has a Advent Calendar event this year, 24 days of family history related subjects to challenge the researcher. The prompt/challenge for December 1st is:

Did you have a real tree or was it artificial? How big was the tree? Who decorated the tree? What types of Christmas trees did your ancestors have?

For the most part, our families had real trees, that is until Man and I married. First few trees were real till I discovered that I broke out in mini-hives from the pricks of the needles of the trees and Son # 1 was diagnosed with some icky allergies. Thus began the beginning of artificial trees for Man and I.

I have photos of some of our trees, with presents piled around the trunk. One year I cross stitched uncounted decorations, which I still have and use. Several years I had a tree in every room of the house, YES, even the powder rooms, some rooms had more than one, each tree decorated specifically for the room it resided in.

I have photos of the twins helping gramma and grampa decorate our tree.

I even found a photo of my grandmother and her sister, Rena in front of a Christmas tree.

But, I think my most favorite and humorous story about a Christmas tree is about my mother and the tree that was, well, a bit bare, her Charlee Brown tree. I don’t remember the year, I don’t remember how old I was, but, I do remember the story. My mother did an outstanding job of decorating the home for the holidays. We lived in an older home, had some great character, oak built in book cases between the front room and the large dining room. She would put the tree in one of the corners of the front room next to those book cases. I have photos of it in both corners. The tree was real of course, and usually fairly tall.

One year the tree she chose so carefully, when brought in and carefully mounted in its tree stand (maybe a bucket of sand??), well, it was, dare we say it, “thin”. I am gonna guess it was a white pine type, but, I am not sure. Anyway, it had “holes” that made the tree, sadly “ugly”. My mother, the creative one, decided she could fix this little situation, and she did! She went out somewhere, cut some pine limbs, brought them home and nailed them to the tree, filing the “thin” spots. The way I remember it, she even had to tie this tree to the book cases. (Of course, that could be another year’s story, morphed into one as time eases on.)

Now, Mom would have pulled off her little creative tree trimming, except that a holiday guest who was quite well versed in tree attributes noted that there was no way this tree was au-natural. He commented that he had never seen a tree of this type with SOOOOO many limbs! Mom had been caught with her branches nailed!

This might be the Charlee Brown tree, my brother and I and lots of presents.
 

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