Saturday, December 7, 2013

Christmas Decorations - Memories

There are some special Christmas decorations that I put up every year that have special memories attached to them.
 This one reminds me of our Elk Meadows Condo. I bought the showman with skis for the condo.  It was fun having a Christmas tree and decorating the condo.  We loved to ski back in the day when we could, and we loved taking walks at night with snow glittering in the snow drifts.  It was fun to have a fire going, and watching the snow flakes fall in the light of a lamp post in front of our condo.  We miss our condo days, but there is a time and place for everything and our time at Elk Meadows came to an end because of aging and approaching retirement.


I made these Elves when I used to take care of my grandsons Shiloh and Shannon.  I wanted the house to look festive for them.  Now Shiloh and Shannon are grown young men and I miss those days of playing ball, putting the tent up, going to the park and many other fun times together.  I tell them that I was the one who taught them how to play base ball. One day when Mark, their Father, came to get them, I told Shiloh  "lets show your Dad how good you can hit the ball."  I had bought a plastic bat and ball and we played out in the front yard all the time.  So dummy me thought that since it was a plastic ball and bat no harm could be done, and well I wanted Dad to see how good Shiloh could hit the ball.  He hit it so hard that it hit a big vase with flowers that was by my front door.  Yep! smash went the ball right into the vase and broke it.


When Larry was still alive and we were a very young couple, I bought my first Christmas scene. It consisted of little cardboard, glitter covered houses. I put that scene up for many years. Then when Frank and I were married, he bought me a little porcelain set.  I added things to it for several years.  I loved to make my little snow village scene for a long time, but now I just don't have the energy to do it.  So last year will more than likely be the last year for the scenes.  The above picture was taken last year and the Christmas scene was very small compared to other years.

Larry and I loved Christmas and we always had an all blue light flocked tree.  He did all the work, putting the lights on first and then covering each one with tin foil, and then would flock it covering all the light cords.  I will never forget the year that Bret was watching Larry put the lights on our tree on the Patio.  Bret was talking to his Dad the whole time it took Larry to put the lights on the tree. Larry would nod his head and say things back to Bret.  That would be our last Christmas together.



Every year when I put this cute decoration up, I think of my dear friends Kay and Allen Lewis. Allen was our Bishop for several years. He was one of the influences of Bret going on a mission.  He died of a heart attack while attending General Conference in Salt Lake City.  Such a shock.  He was loved by all who knew him.  Kay has remarried and is now serving her third mission with her husband. Kay gave me this decoration a long time ago.


 The snow man and lady remind me of my good friend Kathy. We used to go shopping together all the time, and we spent a lot of time together in our younger days of raising kids.  One year a long time ago, when shopping at Christmas time, we saw the kits to make these cute snow people and decided we had to have them. We had a fun afternoon making these decorations together. Kathy got me through some real tough times, and I will always consider her a special friend. We had so many fun times together, going to basketball games, shopping, serving in primary, and later on both being Primary Presidents in different wards. We were always on the phone or at each other's homes.

My grand kids Merritt and Sierra gave this cute little tree to me.  There are little cards on the tree and each one has a special message to me from one or the other. When I put this little tree up, it is so much fun to read the messages and smile. I have many fond memories of time spent with them.  Sierra helped me decorate my home a couple of years.  I almost called her to come and help me this year.

The below Santa Claus is also a decoration that I bought for our Elk Meadows Condo, but the real memories of this one are the two stuffed characters Kermit, and whoops can't think of the other's name. A long time ago I was taking care of my grandsons Larry, Cortney, and Riley at their home in Kingman, Arizona.  I took them to McDonald's and bought them the kids meals.  These little stuffed characters were in the meal as it was Christmas time.  Cortney and Larry both gave me their gifts.  I am pretty sure they felt they were too old for them.  I remember so may fun times with them.  I miss them a lot. Wish I could go back in time and play with them again, and can't help but wish they were in my life now, so I could play with my great grand kids.  Oh how I wish things were different.

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Hi, thanks for dropping by my blog. It is a place for me to let my family and friends know what is happening in the daily lives of Frank and I. I appreciate your comments.