* NOSTALGIC SUNDAY *

It's Time For Another Nostalgic Sunday

I'm sharing some photos I've posted during past Decembers.....

These are from 2011, but I baked the [same looking] cookies for a cookie exchange earlier this month. The difference between then and now is that these were made from a Betty Crocker sugar cookie package. The ones I made this year were made from scratch! Yes! I haven't done that in quite a few years, and I also used a recipe I'd never tried before. Pretty brave, daring, or just plain idiotic when participating in a cookie exchange....with people I didn't even know! (except for ONE woman!) Yikes! BUT, I did have a "back up plan," a package mix in the pantry, just in case! ☺

But, everything worked correctly and this year's batch was just as pretty and tasty as 2011. I keep saying I'm going to make more, so we'll have some to take to others, and still have some to hide share at home. I better start today, dont'cha think??

I also posted this in December of 2011. It's a Christmas card holder that I made. (Yep, another astonishing fact!) But, before you start applauding my "talent," let me say that it's a "no-sew" project, and I used my hot glue gun. When I was a little girl, my mother made a couple of these "boots," but they were more elaborate with rick-rack and were actually sewn together. (I mention these in my memoir.) She let me help with some of it and I loved them so much, I decided to make my own. The back material is green felt, and the pockets are light-weight, cotton fabric pieces. Then, just glittery glue for the names.

This is Vern from last year. I've taken new photos, but just haven't gotten them uploaded yet. When he and I were out early this morning, it began to flurry on us, which made us both Happy! (See that wad of peace signs behind him? That's one of his very own blankies!) 

"It's true, Christmas can feel like a lot of work, especially for mothers. But when you look back on all the Christmases in your life, you'll find you've created family traditions and lasting memories. Those memories, good and bad, are really what help to keep a family together over the long haul." -- Caroline Kennedy

* Nostalgic Sundays *

Since Nostalgic Sunday falls on Christmas Day,

 I'm posting this early, on Friday afternoon, the 23rd.

It's time again for Christmases Past!

I may have enough old photos to post one more on

New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.

(to be determined!)

My mother hasn't been in any of the other Christmas pictures. I guess she must have taken most of them. But I know, too, she didn't like getting her picture taken. She wasn't happy with the way she looked. (Hmmm, imagine that? A woman past 40 who doesn't like photos of herself??)

 

 

 

This was taken in 1964. From left to right: My brother, Mike. My mother, my sister Marian, her husband and their two little girls, and then me....wearing one of many-more-to-follow-pointy glasses. (How do you like my white knee-socks with my jumper?!) Other sister, Jo Ann, must have taken this one.

This was a house we rented for approximately seven years. (my age was from about 10 to 17 years old.) Whenever my dreams include a house, this is the one that's in 99% of them.....still....after all these years. Do you dream about certain houses? Friends' houses? Other family members' houses? 

 

 

 

Can you tell what those red things are, hanging on both sides of the wall mirror? They are Christmas card holders that look like stockings. My mother saw a pattern for them in a magazine when we lived in Lincoln, Nebraska. Sewing was involved and she could actually sew. (Not me. She tried and Jo Ann tried and Marian tried to teach me...That story will have to wait for a different blog post.) The "stockings" were made of felt, with pockets on them, to hold the cards. There's also gold, zig-zag ribbon along the sides. I remember so well, watching her make them on her Singer sewing machine. They also had little sequins all over them, and I was allowed to sew some of them because that was done by hand. I would've been 8 or 9 years old then.

Fast forward many years, and voile' here is a similar one I made. It's actually the second one I made within a few years. Our Christmas things were/are stored in the basement, and the first one became wet and ruined when we had water damage. Youngest son, Mark, helped me with both of them. (The more I think about it, I wonder if I made one of these when Scott was little....)They were done the Miss Becky Homecky Way -- with super glue and glitter glue!

 

I wish you all a very beautiful and blissful Christmas!

"Christmas - that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance--a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved." - Augusta E. Rundel