Sentimental Sunday The Hero on Christmas Day

It is Sunday, and it is Christmas Day.  What Christmas Day meant to the Hero  was two things, first, the celebration of the birth of Christ, and second family.
Until my parents moved to Texas, we altered going to either his parents or to mine mine in Oklahoma.  He had so much fun going to my family when we were first married, but as the older members of my dad's family passed away, the trip didn't seem necessary any longer as our parents were near us.
This what our Christmas day was like.  After reading the Christmas story, then opening presents, we would drive 2 hours to his parents to visit extended family that had come from places like Chicago, or Arizona.  As the scrapbook page shows, his family was a large group. The Hero would enjoy visiting with everyone and dining on yummy food.  He sometimes ended in the chair snoozing after all the "food" and activities.

Merry Christmas to all!

Today is the Third Year of Losing the Hero

The Hero with his family.

I wanted to thank all of my blogging friends and family on this night.  It was three years ago that the Lord mercifully took the Hero into his arms and gave him peace.  We did not want him to go, but it was at great sacrifice that the Hero stayed the extra month with us allowing us love and good byes that would not have happened if he had not given up freedom from pain for communication and hugs.  I am thankful to him that he desired to be with his family as much as possible during his last days.  We laughed, we cried, we said, "I love you."
He tried valiantly to make it to Christmas Eve to see his daughter that was driving through a snow storm to get home.  It was so hard to tell her he would not be home to greet her.  We were the only ones who knew she was on her way.  It was a surprise to the rest of her siblings.  We were thankful to have her with us.  My second daughter still doesn't want to be without family around at Christmas.
It has been a long three years, I know we will make it through, but not without some lingering tears.  I have had many around to shore me up when my knees were weak, for that I am truly grateful.
I will close tonight saying thank you again and thank you for listening to the Hero's stories.  He must be smiling at my being able to remember what he told me.  

Treasure Chest Thursday Christmas Decorations

Beaded tree made in 1965, by Lillian Ellsworth Sherman.
Her gr granddaughter inherited her box of beads. She was fascinated by the tree when she saw it while visiting her grandmother this month. Now, she wants to learn the craft.

So excited!  I found a blog in Czec, google chrome translated it for me, that give the instructions for making a Christmas Tree of Beads.. 

Sentimental Sunday. The Hero Was Protective

The twins. The Hero on the right.

 We stopped on the way from my son's graduation from college ("Big Yeah!") to visit with my mother-in-law.  We were discussing the different traits of family members and old stories about the Hero. When Hero's protective streek was mentioned, the Hero's mother declared, ""Oh yes he was!  He always been protective of his sisters and his twin brother! I put them in the same class in kindergarten... and the teacher left one of the mothers in charge for a minute. His twin got up and started running around and the mother said, 'If you don't sit down I'm going to tell the Sister' (it was a Catholic school). Hero stood up and shouted, 'No you're not! If you do I'll tell my Daddy. He's big and he'll come and whip you!'"  At this point in the story, Mom chuckled.  "Yes, he was always protective of his family.
It carried over to his own family as our children grew.  Good father and husband. : )

Sentimental Sunday The Hero Had Christmas Traditions

While the Hero was living, we always split our Christmas days. We spent early in the morning with my mother, the late in the afternoon with his mother...  Both mom's are now in Assisted Living, and the Hero is gone, things have changed.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2011 Forgotten Cookies

At a church Christmas activity for the youth, a young girl brought some meringue type cookies for refreshments. I fell in love with them and asked what the recipe was. This is the recipe she brought me. I love that you make them and leave them in the oven to cook. Tastes wonderful and leaves time for you to play with the cowboys and princesses in the family.

Created for John

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2011 Parties

This is probably the biggest party I have ever attended for Christmas: Thomas McEntee's Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories.  : )
Since we were a plain family not prone to partying, this is a stretch.
I haven't any pictures for this post, but I know many of you have Polish, Bohemian, or Czech backgrounds and will be able to visualize.  
The year 1959, my parents and I went to my aunt's house in Albuquerque for Christmas.  There, I had my first experience with a Wigilia Christmas Eve Party.  My Uncle Stan's family was Polish.  They were bigger than life. I had never been to a boisterous family gathering before. In my dad's family, it was relatively quiet other than chatter while working in the kitchen and children running around.  Uncle Stan's family had great discussions, and loud speaking...I think to overwhelm the person they were "talking" with.  If I had not know better, I might have thought there were a lot of disagreements going on.

The food was a traditional Wigilia Christmas Eve event.  What I remember the most is the two dishes, Uszka and Barszcz.  The taste was exotic to my mid-western fried foods taste buds. Not to mention the coloring. Beets were a side dish usually, sliced and/ or pickled for us.  The Barszcz was pink!  I had never had pink soup before.  The taste was great.

Picture from Wikimedia Commons.

52 years later, the Polish party at my Aunt's house stands out in my mind. Can't believe it is just now being written about.