Back in 1994, I compiled a keepsake ‘book’ for my mom, three brothers and uncle and their families. The cover shows the creche/manger scene that my grandfather Alan would put up every year. It’s in my possession, but I haven’t displayed it in a while as it’s so fragile. It means a lot to me! Of his 4 grandchildren, he only knew of 2 and I was about 7 weeks old when he passed on.

That’s me as a newlywed and my mom at Longwood Gardens! Little did I know I’d live 10 minutes away a few years later. The next photo is Brian holding little (actually big) 2 month old Sean. The teddy is as big as my baby boy! That year I let Bri go pick out the tree, and he got quite a huge one as you can see! The next year, my uncle got us a small tree from his former property in Delaware, and we put it up high so Sean wouldn’t play with it. Love my 80s, haircut! And Sean received Teddy Ruxpin, the talking bear, as his main gift that year.

Sean being mellow and hamming it up for the camera when he got his Micromachine tank.

Here’s some our growing up. That’s my maternal grandmom Ruth and my brother Ken. By the way, my mom still lives in this house. Then there’s my brother Don and me. I get very sad when I see these as we were so close. As you can see, I always loved cats, that’s my girl Smudgie. There’s Brian at 10 playing with a road race set. Look at that big tree! Do you like my green crushed velvet skirt set? And there I am being the big sister to Ken.

Are you dying to know what my favorite Christmas memories are from the book?

My brother Don and I are visible in all my remembrances of Christmas from childhood. I wish I could see Dave, but Kenny’s sweet face opening presents is there. Don and I were like two peas in a pod for 13 years. I can see us building with our Flintstone syrafoam blocks at our first Christmas in the Media house (about 1964). Actually, we both loved them so much, that we fought over them.
I can see us going in Mom’s closet to ‘preview’ our gifts. We did this when the temptation grew so strong that we couldn’t stand it anymore.
One year when I was about 14, we opened gifts on Christmas eve and took photos as well. The catch was at we had to have a surprised look on our faces. Those are some of the best photos we have.
Other flashes from the past-Mom didn’t wrap presents until we were older. With 4 kids, it saved her a lot of aggravation. After she started wrapping them, we were still spoiled, so she let us open our gifts on Christmas Eve. We just couldn’t wait!
Mom-mom taught me how to wrap gifts when I was about 10 or 11. The first few things I wrapped were pantyhose and an Andy Williams tape or record for my mom.
My favorite gifts-Always the stuff in my stocking. We couldn’t wait to see the bulging stockings on the stair railing.
Lite Brite and Spirograph-Don and I got them with our father’s approval, and played with them in the middle of the night for an hour or so. The Betty Crocker kid’s cookbook-for the budding chef. And my Easy Bake Oven, though I only got to use it a few times as my brother Don shorted it out by pouring V-8 juice on it! (as an adult, he bought me a new one and I may pass it on to our niece-he must have felt terrible guilty all these years).