Fred and my first Christmas after we were married was spent in Idaho with Fred's parents. One day we drove up to West Yellowstone and found my favorite place. Oh my, it was buried under snow! I guess you don't need ice cream when the snow is that deep.
Maria's first Christmas--it is 1966 and we are in New Zealand in the middle of summer. Christmas trees were hard to even find. We decorated a round mirror as a Santa Claus face. His beard was a grass skirt. You can just see the "beard" in the background.
Laura was born the next year and we made the rocking horse for our two precious little girls. This rocking horse has been repainted several times and has brought please to many little ones. It now resides in our library, patiently waiting for great-grandchildren. 
Another year goes by and we see our two little "angels in the middle of their fellow angels in Temple View. Even at this young age, Maria was leading the music.
This was the year Tanya pulled over the Christmas tree. No damage done! The trees in New Zealand are really flobby. We had the limbs tied up with fishing line. It still wasn't very pretty but it smelled good.
By Christmas, 1972, David had joined our family. Aren't they the cutest kids ever.
A family tradition--making homemade chocolates--Martha Washingtons, nut clusters, turtles were among the favorites. Do you want one? Just in case you are wondering, the candies we gave to friends were made after the children went to bed!
Christmas in Sandy, Utah. Snow, what's that. These little Kiwis had never seen such a thing as snow much less known that it was cold.
Christmas of 1979 when Cheryl was a baby, Santa Claus came to our door on Christmas Eve. To this day we still don't know how he got there. What a sweet gift!
By Christmas of 1987, Maria and Stan were married, and a basketball game on Christmas day was part of the experience. What a blessing to live in Arizona where you can play ball outside in the winter but every once in a long while it will . . . .
SNOW! 1988 was perhaps the only time it snowed on Christmas Day in Safford, Arizona. Maybe it was special for our first grandchild's first Christmas. Isn't Courtney precious?!
By 1994 there were six grandchildren home for Christmas: (left to right) Samuel, Courtney, Miriam, Sierra, Seth and Christian. Then there were more and more and more grandchildren born over the years; twenty-two so far.
Christmas hats!? We three kings or maybe three kings and two queens--crowns?! Who knows.
Shepherds, yes, I suppose they could have been barefooted but most likely they wore sandels. 
Another generation making Christmas chocolates. Starting in 2006, we decided to have a Christmas Gathering of family several weekends prior to Christmas. During these gatherings we have done such things as. . .
Make gingerbread houses. Some real creations were made.
Built and shot off rockets. Boy, could they ever fly up high.
And we had car races. These spectators are getting ready to watch the "big race."
Christmas Past! What a blessing these years have been as we have celebrated the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
7 comments:
It was a lot of fun seeing those pictures mom! Thanks for sharing. We wish we could be there to spend Christmas with you.
Oh, those pictures bring back great memories. My favorite thing about Christmas is being with family! Love you Mom!!!
I'm so glad you did this post. It was fun to look at all the pictures. :) Looks like you guys have had a lot of fun Christmases!
Thanks for all the pix! It was fun seeing them all. Time goes by so quickly doesn't it?
Remind me how you put your old pix on the computer so you can pull them up like that. I remember your telling me it was quite the project.
Many of our Christmas' involved a visit to your house to see everyone. Oh what fun memories.
I remember a few of those Christmases. What memories. I don't remember the one in Sandy or remember seeing those pictures before - thanks! Spending Christmas with family makes it one of my favorite holidays.
I didn't know ya'll had a blog too! And that's a lot of snow covering the Dairy Queen!!!
Hope y'all had a Merry Christmas! Nicci and Johnny surprised us and came home. They came in about midnight and Tommy and his girlfriend were watching a movie and he said," What Nicci" as she wrapped herself around him. Jordan walked down the hall and ran into them then Johnny and Nicci ran in our bedroom and jumped on Bruce and me. All this commotion awoke Madisyn who then was Johnny and Nicci's shadow the rest of the holiday. It was a great surprise. We also had lots and lots of Snow, yea!!!
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