Monday's Memory--Christmas Eve dinner

For many years, the only way to have a sit-down Christmas  Eve dinner was to move everything out of the "den" and move the ping-pong table in.  It always seemed so cramped, but was worth it to all sit down together.  When I think of it now, there were only about 12 of us.  Several years after this picture was taken, we enlarged the dinning area to accommodate our table that extends to seat 12.  That fixed the problem for a while.  This year, though,  it wasn't enough!  We had 27 people for our dinner; our regular table and two big tables set up in the front room and computer room.  I love that our family has grown so much.  It still is pretty cramped, but so much fun!

Sea World--Christmas style

 Because we had season passes, we ended up going to Sea World several times this year.  Halloween was fun with all of the trick-or-treating...but Christmas was equally fun.

  The kids had a great time visiting with Santa...

 but really enjoyed "snow world".

Happy 65th, Milo

My older brother turned 65 this week and mom and I flew up to Sacramento to help him celebrate.  He had a party of family, friends, and neighbors.  It was fun to visit with him and be there to mark this milestone.  Happy birthday, Milo.

Monday's Memory--Slots

The other day, as I was visiting with a woman in a scrapbook store, I mentioned that I used to love to go to Las Vegas for a weekend.  She asked me if I gambled and I said no, I spent my time at a scrapbooking store, getting lots of good ideas.  But that wasn't always the case.  I used to love to play the slots!  I figured it wasn't gambling if I only played nickles and only spent $20 or so.  I would spend all evening finding that "lucky" machine and then see if I could win some money.  Most of the time the machine wasn't so lucky, and I came home with nothing.  But one time, I hit the jackpot, winning a a hundred dollars!  That is a lot of nickles!   I took that money home and used it to pay for a needlepoint class I had been wanting to take.

This is me in 1972, on our way home from a trip to Colorado.

Aunt Zandra

My Aunt Zandra passed away yesterday.  She was mom's baby sister and the last of mom's siblings alive.  In the  last year or so, mom and I have gone up to Seattle a couple of times to visit Aunt Zandra.  It always amazed me that they could talk for hours, nonstop, and never run out of things to say.

A scrapbook page I did of mom and her two sisters...Aunt Zandra and Aunt Lucile.

Monday's Memory--Helpful Todd

I love this picture... Todd feeding Amy.  They have always have an exceptionally close relationship.  I wonder if it can be traced back to moments like this.

Monday's Memory--Ironing

This past week found me doing some ironing and my mind wandered back to my childhood.  Not that I ironed back then...I usually don't even iron now!  But I remember my mom ironing.  She had a coke bottle with a sprinkler top on it that she would sprinkle dad's shirts to dampen them.  Then she would roll them up, put them in a plastic bag, and put them in the refrigerator until she was ready to do the ironing.  I remember that many times, they didn't get ironed for many days, started to mold, and had to be washed again.  The other thing I remember is dad complaining that his shirts always had a damp collar because mom got it ironed just before he needed to wear it.  I guess my dislike of ironing must be genetic and I get mine from my mom.  I usually buy things that don't need to be ironed or they go to the cleaners to be washed and pressed.