West German Paper Mache Christmas Ball

When I was a kid, my Aunt Paula gave us a paper mache Christmas ball from West Germany exactly like the one pictured above when I was a kid. I found this one at an antique store recently and decided to buy it.

Christmas Eve 1968 - The Minneapolis Tribune

I obtained a facsimile of the 1968 Christmas Eve edition of the old Minneapolis Tribune at an exhibit at the Minnesota History Center. The exhibit was 1968 and covered a lot of the events that happened during that turbulent year in American history. It was fun to see what the headlines were. Mom and Dad and I were living in Minneapolis near the old Fairview and St. Mary's hospitals.

Christmas Season 2011 - Twelfth Night 2012

I did a little research online today and found out the following:

"Twelfth Night is a festival in some branches of Christianity marking the coming of the Epiphany and concluding the Twelve Days of Christmas."

"It is defined by the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as 'the evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking.' However, there is currently some confusion as to which night is Twelfth Night: some count the night of Epiphany itself (sixth of January) to be Twelfth Night. One source of this confusion is the Medieval custom of starting each new day at sunset, so that Twelfth Night precedes Twelfth Day."

Well, tonight is the eve of January 6th so we'll follow the Medieval custom and call this Twelfth Night.

Dale and I celebrated with drinks, steaks and chocolate cake (and Downton Abbey too). It was all very lovely.

Christmas Season 2011 - The Swedish Institute Part 2

As kids Mom used to read Sam, Pete and I The Tomten by Astrid Lindgren. I loved the story and was delighted when Mom visited my classroom this year and read it to the kids. The receiving room at the Swedish Institute was decked out with a bunch of Tomtens and you can see some in the above photo. Actually, if you look to the right of the picture you can see one of a couple that were in the fireplace. You can see me snapping the photo in the mirror above.

Christmas Season 2011 - The Swedish Institute Part 1

Mom and I went to the Swedish Institute today to look at their Christmas trees which are on display until January 8th. We found one tree that had the prickly silver ornaments pictured above. Mom said she used to make ornaments like these when she was a little girl. The pattern was from a Better-Homes-and-Gardens-type magazine. She said she took circles of aluminum foil and wrapped them around pencil tips and then somehow fashioned them all together. I seem to remember Grandma Jean having some ornaments like these.

Christmas Season 2011 - A Visit to St. Mary's Cemetery

I wanted to stop by Dad's burial site before the holiday season is over. The snow that fell on New Year's is still making everything look pretty. The mausoleum where he is buried can be seen in the center of the photo.