They're starting to arrive...
Today Andie and the mini-Marx's arrived. They arrived to an empty home. Claude and I gave Bonnie an early Christmas gift. We took her to Nonesuch, KY for lunch. This is where my Countryside Homemakers Club went for their Christmas lunch. I came home and told Claude, "We really need to take your mom here." So I made us reservations. In a little town called Nonesuch a family started an antique business in a barn. When the local school came up for sale the family purchased it and over a couple of years the father remodeled it. Today it is called 'Irish Acres' and the main and 2nd floors house the antiques. Every, and I do mean every, square inch if filled with wonderful things. We had about an hour to browse these two floors before heading to the basement which has been turned into the 'Glitz' restaurant. You must have reservations. The price is the same for everyone. You order from a menu that reminds me of the cruise ship menus. I had my first taste of Chestnut soup, Beef Wellington, and the house specialty dessert. Most excellent meal. We headed home after purchasing 3 bottles of their 'refresher' and a bottle of poppyseed dressing. The refresher is a mulled cider with spices that is cooled and has cranberry juice added. It is served really cold. We will share 2 bottles on Christmas day with the family and have the 3rd for New Year's Eve. It was a great outing and Bonnie had a wonderful time. The trip back was slower than expected because we got stuck on an icy I-75 where a wreck had happened and 2 cars were in the ditch on the side of the road. I did my cross-stitch, Claude worked the word find puzzle and Bonnie did Sudoku to pass the time. When we arrived home the mini-Marx's were very happy to have us there. I got the above-picture when Claude brought out his laptop to share clips he has saved. Andie said it is today's version of sitting on the porch swing, or around the fire, or something like that.
I thought I would share a few pictures from Claude and my 1st Christmas together. We were married on Friday the 13th of February 1970. By December I was 6 months pregnant and we were living in a little rented house by Barksdale Air Force Base. Claude and Papa went into the woods and cut down our 1st tree. This is the only real tree we have ever had for Christmas.
We had purchased a little puppy. Isn't Sir Doggie tiny and cute. Well...not for long...This puppy is half Great Dane and half Belgian Shepherd. Hence the name 'Sir Doggie'. Claude said he was going to have to call him Sir at some point so that should be his name. Claude built a dog house for him in the back yard that was 4 ft square. When we moved, we gave it to the neighbor lady and she used it for a tool shed. After Nissa was born, I would wash diapers (yes, we did that in those days) and hang them on the line to dry. Invariably I would come out and find Sir Doggie pulling them off the line. I would correct him and try again. It wasn't until later that I found out my dear hubby was taking and old rag and tying it to the clothesline and letting him run up and down with it for exercise. Obviously, Sir Doggie could not tell the difference between real laundry and the toy kind on the line. He loved to go for walks which was funny being hugely pregnant and trying to keep that small horse-like dog walking slow enough for me to keep up. After Nissa was born, I would put her in the stroller and she and I would walk the dog. Then the big problem was that he loved Nissa so much he wanted to look over in the stroller all the time and lick her face. There are all kinds of sanitary issue for me with that game. But Sir was a good dog and we loved him very much until we had to move to California.
The last picture is of the stocking I purchased for Claude our 1st Christmas. I was still working as a beautician and saved all my tips on Christmas Eve. On my way home I stopped at the Globe store (like a Walmart or K-Mart) and purchased a socket set for Claude and put it in this stocking for him. I can't remember what else I gave to Claude, but he gave me a jewelry box that I still have up in the top of my closet. The other item of note in this picture is the wall hanging of a Christmas tree over the curtain. These were the decorations for the cultural hall at Church for the party. I brought that one home. I enjoyed it so much that I eventually made one of fabric (the decoration one was made of wrapping paper, garland & sticky stars) and we hung it up each Christmas. While living in Maryland we knew a young couple with 2 little girls that were moving over Christmas and were not going to have a Christmas tree. I gave them our cloth tree to hang up for their Christmas tree during their move. The little girls loved having a tree. A few years ago I made several out of Christmas wrapping paper for decorations for our ward party here in Georgetown, KY. I kept them after the party just in case they were ever needed again. Our Relief Society president works at Kohl's and over Christmas she works horrid hours. She and Justin did not get their decorations up this year before the madness of the shoppers began. So I gave her one of the paper ones for their Christmas tree this year. Funny how a little thing just grows and grows.
Tomorrow afternoon I'll head into Georgetown to sing a Christmas program for the nursing home. After he gets off work, Michael will come here. Nissa, Todd, Katelyn, Paul and Aubrey will leave Muskegon and go to Chelsea and pick up Uncle Jake, then head to Kentucky. Christmas morning Papa will come and open presents. Then in the afternoon he will bring Mimi out and we'll all have a big dinner together. Then in the evening we'll begin making the traditional puzzle. I'm really looking forward to a happy home, full of family building more memories to bring back and enjoy for years to come.
Merry Christmas everyone!
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