Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Blog Caroling... A Favorite Time of year.

Every year footnoteMaven hosts a fun event called Blog Caroling, a favorite activity for me. If you want to join, then head on over to this blog post at fM's. 
There are many Christmas carols and hymns that touch my heart, but sometimes you just need to stop and have some fun. When the Hero and I would talk about Christmas plays and our children were in the Church party Manger scenes, he would always break out in song about "The Angel in the Christmas Play". This Christmas song was written in 1949 by Spike Lee.  The Hero would have been about 3 when it first came out. 
Wonder if our children remember the song... Good question.
[One year my daughter's church ward had a funny nativity scene at their church party.  I was almost falling off my seat laughing at the antics of the shepherds and angels. Somethings never change. ] 
This is a link to the song done by Karen Carpenter on YouTube. 
Have a wonderful Merry Christmas my friends.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Family Traditions of the Past: A Hero Story in the Making.


Little Bytes of Life was a life saver. Her Genealogy Blog Party, gave me the push I needed to get back to my blog. Without further a do... on with the story...

When the Hero and I were married, my parents lived in Oklahoma and his parents were 30 minutes away.  My mother-in-law sat down and talked with me and it was decided that the holidays would be split. Reminds me of how my daughter who is divorced has their holidays split. One year it would be Thanksgiving at Oklahoma one year and Christmas at Houston, then the next it would be reversed. This continued all the years of my children's growing up.
The trips to Oklahoma were always more that just a trip to see my parents. It would then be, on Thanksgiving day, a two hour trip from Edmond up to Pawnee. There we visited my two aunts and uncle. Fabulous memories. The Hero developed relationships with my dad's family which led to letters and sharing of memories. Things I didn't fully realize at the time would be so valuable now. I wish he were here with his fun mind to tell the stories. The gatherings were very informal. To my knowledge (note to self, as mom) no one assigned the side dishes, everyone brought what was their favorite. As they came in they would put their dish on the table with the rest of the spread of food. When the main meat dish was ready,  people filed in and loaded up their plates, then found a spot to sit and eat. The men loved the football games same as now, and there were hunting stories from their excursions earlier in the morning. There was one draw back. Due to a family spat, we would go and visit each of my dad's siblings separately.  When I was growing up, it was all his siblings together with their kids in tow. Now, those were really the unruly days.
A special love of his was my Uncle Ed. Oh my, they would out tell each other in how things were. I unfortunately followed the  trend and went in and sat with my mom and aunt and we would talk about who was where and doing what.

When we went to Houston, it was so different.  The Hero's mom had a beautiful table setting, and my father-in- law would carve the turkey or ham depending on the holiday. He had 3 siblings, later 4, a foster daughter, and included at first were his father's mom and uncle's family of  5. I was and only child. These gathering were somewhat overwhelming at first for me, because of the formality of the setting. She even would have settings later for card playing... Bridge. I do not play.
My mentor mother-in-law once sat with me and told me, it was her mother-in-law who was her mentor because she had grown up as I had, going and visiting a big unruly family and they did not do formal dining. One of my daughters took her grandmother's example to heart and when you attend her holiday dinner, it is one of formality. Others grabbed a page out of my history and they are much more informal.
Both family gatherings are wonderful. The most important part is the family coming together and the children of those family making connections. If allowed and nurtured, the relationships built will continue when the older generation is gone. That is what we are now working on in our family, hope it sticks. The second and very important thing coming from the gatherings are pictures.


Monday, January 25, 2016

The Hero and the Rottweiler ~ Sentimental Sunday (thought of then.)


The Hero did flooring jobs to supplement his day time job income. His primary workers were his family members.
This one job was for a doctor resurfacing a second floor patio above the first floor patio.  Everyone was excited and thought, this will be a fast easy job.
The doctor had a pet Rottweiler.  He looked like this dog.
 A beautiful healthy, happy, big dog.  The guys were apprehensive at first about how he would accept them, but soon found him to be friendly and funny, because he would run up the stairs to greet them then his claws would slip on the wood floor and he would end up in all sorts of positions, and gyrations trying to get in control.  No one minded his presence, until... they noticed tools would go missing.  He would come out get petted and when they turned back to work, he would pick up a tool, tape, what ever was sitting there unattended, and quietly slip back inside.  This started causing lost time because the guys would have to go looking for the item, and would find it with their friend the dog. It ended in him being banned from the area, and them keeping a watchful eye in case someone would forget to close the door.  He was then such a sad dog looking longingly out the door.
The Hero laughed telling the story and loved petting the Rottweiler when he was there. The guys would hoot and laugh talking about his antics.  All in all, the Rottweiler made the job a fun one that had good memories.

1. Image, Rottweiler3.jpg , https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rottweiler3.jpg