You Know Your Children Are Grown When . . . [Part VI]
Once again, during the holidays I noticed that my children are now adults, no longer requiring much (though still some) parenting. This year, I realized my children are grown when 1. I sent one of them on a midnight run to pick up the other one at the airport because I didn’t want to stay […]
Mary Poppins Returns!
I mentioned in a post a few years back that I saw the Mary Poppins movie in 1965, months after it came out, when it finally arrived in my hometown of Richland, Washington. I was in the fourth grade that year, and I went to the movie in the spring of 1965, around the time […]
Favorite Posts from Christmases Past
Today is Christmas Eve, and experience tells me that not many people will read my blog this week. So rather than write a new post for today, here are some links to my favorite (and, based on reader input, your favorite) Christmas-themed posts from earlier years: True Christmas Story: A Visit from St. Nicholas My […]
First Christmas Away from Home; First Christmas at Home
Christmas 1978 was the first Christmas I spent away from my parents’ home. My husband and I had been married just over a year, and it was my in-laws’ “turn” to have us. There’s an old Hallmark Cards television commercial about a young woman experiencing her first Christmas away from her parents. It first aired […]
My Husband’s Second Christmas, and a Reflection on Memory
One of the “treasures” I found last year when I was cleaning out a cupboard was this picture of my husband as a toddler. The photograph was taken at Christmas 1950, when he was about fourteen months old. At that time, he was the only grandchild on both sides of his family, so I imagine […]
The Twelve Days of Christmas: Silver Bells Where They Belong
I’ve written several posts about my grandfather’s clock, which my parents kept for many years and which I now have in my home. I forgot to wind the clock before I went on a weekend trip this summer, and it ground to a halt while I was away. The chimes stopped on a different hour […]
Breaking Ground: On Building New Homes and Novels
I wrote in an earlier post that my husband and I are building a new home, after thirty-four years in our current house. The builder broke ground on the new house at the end of November! Now there will be something to see after months of planning. Building a house seems to me to be […]
Napoleon Exhibit at the Nelson-Adkins Museum: Propaganda at Its Best
Last month my husband and I spent an hour or so at the Nelson-Adkins Museum in Kansas City viewing the special exhibit entitled “Napoleon: Power and Splendor.” The exhibit was a little unusual for an art museum, I thought, but very effective. Most of the artworks on display were not shown because they were great […]
A Possible Family Heirloom: The Advent Calendar My Mother Made
On that trip that my mother made to our home in late November or early December 1984, she brought my son a gift she had made herself—an Advent calendar in the shape of a wreath. For those who don’t know, an Advent calendar helps children count the days until Christmas to build their anticipation (as […]
Where Did the Emigrants Sleep as They Traveled the Oregon Trail?
I’ve been asked where the emigrants in wagon trains slept as they traveled the Oregon Trail. In old Western movies, families are often depicted as sleeping in their wagons, and single men as pillowed on their saddles around a campfire. In reality, where did they sleep? Many sleeping arrangements were used. Some pioneers did sleep […]