Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Slice of Life - Christmas Memories

I've been participating in Slice of Life, started by Two Writing Teachers. I love the challenge of composing a piece of writing at least once a week about life or teaching.
 
 
It's Christmas Eve, and fortunately, a little snow fell this morning.  Just a dusting, but it created some Christmas cheer.  All our snow from earlier in December melted away with our warm spell last week, so I was hoping for a little white refresher!  Of course, Christmas puts us in a reflective mood since part of Christmas is for making memories, so I'm going to do a little photographic trip through Christmases past.
 
 This was 1993, Libby's first Christmas.  That year we had no decorations on the bottom half of the Christmas tree because she was just starting to walk and pull herself up. 
 
 
Poor Katie's first Christmas found her with a fever.  She was not feeling well when she opened her first present.  You can tell by the rosy cheeks.  It was 1996.  She and Libby still managed to have a tea party later that morning.
 

 1997: Many gingerbread houses were made throughout the years.  Libby is on the right (looking a little slap-happy - it was late Christmas night), and she and her cousins were having a great time creating.  Katie was probably in bed by then.

 
1999:  We had moved to Pittsburgh, but came back to Ohio and spent Christmas morning with the cousins.  I loved their tradition of giving Christmas picture books and pajamas to the girls on Christmas Eve, so I adopted that tradition.  We also attended Edelweiss every year, my in-laws' German club.  The kids always looked forward to seeing Santa there.

 
One of our traditions was to attend "The Nutcracker."  The girls have a collection of nutcrackers from those shows.  This was 2001.  The girl between Libby and Katie was a good friend from Pittsburgh. Our dog, Maddie, was in that year's Christmas card picture.  She was 3 years old.
 


 
Christmas Eve 2003 - Holding up their Christmas picture books in new pajamas.
 
 
 
We moved back to Ohio in 2004.  In 2005, my aunt and parents spent Christmas with us.

 

We surprised Katie with a new puppy in 2009!  Ben has been a great addition to our family!


 All the cousins were together in 2012.
 
I'm excited to see what Christmas of 2013 brings.  You've seen our Christmas card from another post, but I'll post it again here.  We are all Miami University grads, so we had some fun teasing Katie about her chosen college, Ohio State. 
 
 
Merry Christmas everyone, and I pray that you will cherish all the memories you make this season!
 
 

7 comments:

  1. A great photo essay of Christmas past! So fun to see your girls grow up! Such beautiful young women!

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  2. Love this post. Time passes far too quickly. Enjoy your holiday with your family Holly!

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    1. It certainly does, doesn't it?! I'm definitely enjoying the holiday and hope you are, too, Gigi!

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  3. Thanks for posting the Christmas card - so cute (I missed your earlier post of it). I love seeing your girls grow up into lovely young women through this photo stroll. The cousin pic from last year is gorgeous. Merry Christmas, Holly!

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    1. I love when the cousins get together. They really enjoy each other's company, which is great. Unfortunately, they're not all together this year - growing up and going separate ways. I look forward to when they can gather together again. Thanks for stopping by, and happy holidays! They're flying by!

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  4. Pictures tell the story in so many ways. Thanks for sharing. We have tons of pics of our boys over the years, particularly with the brood of cousins and it is fascinating to go back and see them growing up again. I wonder how our shift to digital has changed those experiences? We don't have the pics in albums, open to random pages. Now we have to search in files. It seems different. What do you think?
    Kevin

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    1. Oh yay! Is this my #nerdlution post from you? ;-) I was hoping I'd get one! :-) Yes, I think the digital shift changes the landscape of memories, but I'm glad there are so many ways to share them that we didn't have before!

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