Christmas 1977

The first photo is actually of my birthday which is on the 21st. Mom made those Santa curtains. I got my Superstar Barbie and Mark got Ken that year. I'm wearing one of my favourite chilhood dresses. My dad's family would always come over for Christmas dinner. We would have a second Christmas at my mom's sister's house between that day and new year's day. I loved decorating for this holiday. Sometimes when I was a kid I would make my little people and small animals visit the baby Jesus at the manger set which we still have. Mom got a newer one that looks like Lenox in the early 90s but I don't like that one as much as I do the old one.

Christmas 1974

Mark and I loved playing with my dad's train that we put under the tree. I sometimes put my little people and small animals on it. The train actually makes noise and it looks like steam is coming out of it. Mom let us put the ornaments on and she did the garland and lights. This is the year that I got my first bike with the training wheels.Mark got his wagon and Lincoln logs - I liked playing with both. Mom liked getting us games every year - Uncle Wiggly this time. Our cousins are in the one photo - I'm also holding my favourite doll Teresa in it. That's our family friend Gail in the 2nd photo up top. I love her crocheted sweater vest.

Christmas Crafts

I got this Woman's Day magazine in the early 80's and made about 4 of the craft ideas from it, including this angel but of course mine didn't turn out so nice. It is in a couple of my holiday photos which I've either posted already or plan on posting. I used an oatmeal container for the body and styrofoam ball for the head. I threw away all the decorations that I made but am glad that I kept the mag. I guess that at the time I had fun making these things. Mom said that she liked them. She made some nice Christmas crafts like a few latch hook rugs and a big Santa picture with the Tri - Chem paints. It's in the background of a picture in my Christmas 1980 post. I liked the handmade ornaments on our tree the most. They were made by family and friends and others we got at our school's Christmas bazaar, including a reindeer made out of clothes pins.

Christmas 1979

My mom liked buying us games every Christmas and this year it was Battleship. We got a few Make It Bake It kits too - suncatchers or stained glass window ornaments, I guess either description applies to these. Mark got some Battlestar Galactica figures. I wish that we had some pictures of my gifts. Probably a Barbie was one of them. I loved our old stereo with the record player and 8 track on it, our Encyclopedia and yearbook set and the big stereo/tv cabinet that are also in these photos. This is the first year that we got a live tree. I meant to put the top photos below because these are after Christmas morning. We went over to my Aunt Sylvia's house later that day or maybe the next day. I'm wearing my favourite sweater, Mom made this for me and also ones in different colours for my 2 friends. I hadn't noticed the Kirby vaccum cleaner under the tree until recently, so now I know what year we got that.

Christmas Music

I always loved listening to my mom's Christmas albums. She has Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Doris Day, Mario Lanza, Kate Smith, Elvis and a few others. She got my brother and I The Chipmunks one which we liked when we were kids but after about 1981 we didn't care for anymore. I dubbed those albums onto tape and we have a few holiday cds like the 2 in the picture. For many years we did not listen to any of these but the last couple of years we got back into doing so. I'm still a bit depressed about not having our Buffy pup around anymore but I will try to get into the holiday spirit and listen to the Christmas tunes that I enjoyed so much when I was a kid. We only have one decoration up so far - the wreath on the door. Perhaps I should get some more of our decorations out.

Christmas 1985

This is the year that I got my Pound Puppy that I named Chip, a Cabbage Patch premie that actually had my name, a raccoon to add to my collection and a Peaches and Cream Barbie. I'm glad that my mom took that picture of my brother when the Yule Log was on TV. We enjoyed having that on. We had live trees from 1979 - 1989. I loved decorating for the holiday when I was a kid. The stockings in front of the tree were handmade by my Aunt Al.

My Final Buffy Photos

I know that this is starting to seem like a Buffy blog, but I just had to post a couple of my very last photos of Buffy. I only wish that I had taken alot more of them. I don't usually like being in pictures but I just had to have mom take a few of Buffy and I together. I should've posted the one of her looking up at the camera though. I took 198 photos of her in about 6 weeks. I sent them to the Walgreens site to be printed out. I keep thinking about cute shots that I could have taken over the years like her playing in the snow. She was such an adorable puppy but I only took 12 photos of her then. I haven't really looked at the video clips of her that I put onto the computer yet - I messed up a few of them by switching the angle during parts of it. I never took pictures of her from mid 2005 - December 2008 which I totally regret. I know, I should just be greatful for the photos that I do have which I am. And I will always cherish the good memories of her. It has been almost a month since she's been gone and it has felt like longer. We now have her ashes on the video cabinet in between 2 pictures of her. She was such a sweet sunshine spaniel.