Christmas Memories

Today is Christmas! 

Thanks to photographs, I'm reminded of so many special Christmases past...

Like the time my youngest son was a shepherd at a church Christmas pageant many years ago.

He's carrying a sheep "stuffy" that I made. (We still have it - somewhere, I think…)

I wonder if he remembers!

Going farther back in time to the mid-1950's, a few more Christmas memories thanks to these old photos... My grandmother (my mother's mother) must have been gifted a radio one Christmas. She's smiling - and someone is plugging it in to try it out. 

This Christmas dinner was held at our house in Red Deer, Alberta. My mother's parents and siblings had driven 100 miles to spend Christmas with us. My mother (wearing an apron in the photo below) looks preoccupied. The table extends from our kitchen into our dining room. My father is sitting at one end of the table, my grandfather, Hugo Bartz, is sitting at the other.

I wonder if that's the year 19 people slept over at our 2 bedroom house. I remember stepping over sleeping bodies - and counting them. Most had only a pillow and a blanket and slept on the floor!

As I scan those sitting around the table table, I can't see my grandmother or me. Was she busy in the kitchen? And was I the one who took these pictures with my newly gifted first camera - with a flash?! (The flash allowed us to take pictures indoors!) 

Exciting times for a child!