A Christmas Story - 100th Post

Way back in 1983 during Christmas break my brother Sam and I hiked over to the Boulevard Theater on Lyndale Avenue to go see A Christmas Story. The Boulevard was a second run theater and it only cost 99 cents to get in. I had seen a review for this movie on Siskal and Ebert and thought it looked intriguing. Sam and I roared with laughter through the movie but after this initial viewing I never heard about it again. During one Thanksgiving in the mid-90s ('94 or '95) Dale and I were visiting Brenda and Irv for Thanksgiving and I came across the movie on cable TV. Whatever channel was showing it was doing a 24 hour marathon. I called Dale's attention to it and he had never heard of it before. He fell in love with it so we purchased a copy and have been watching it every year since.

Christmas 1994 - Denver

For Christmas 1994 Dale's cousin Dianne flew us to Denver for Christmas Eve. It was wonderful to spend time with Dianne and Brenda and Irv. We also got to spend some time with Dale's aunt, Shirley. In this picture you can see Dale, Irv and me visiting with Shirley at her apartment. Brenda is, as is often the case, behind the camera. I'm glad we were able to make trip because, sadly, Shirley died the following year.

Christmas 1997 - Ericka As a Reindeer

Dale and I went to visit Dale's parents, Brenda & Irv, along with their friends, Kelly and his daughter Ericka, in Grand Junction, Colorado for Thanksgiving of 1997. Ericka was very excited to see us and wanted to show us something she had designed and made herself. She had a slight jump on the Christmas season and dressed up as an adorable little reindeer. Notice the hooves that are rubber banded to her hands and feet. Too cute...

Christmas 2003 Part 1

This is the year Dale's mom and dad, Brenda and Irv, came to Minneapolis to celebrate Christmas with me and Dale and also with my mom and dad. Oddly, there are no photos to be found of this visit. What's strange about this is that Brenda and I are both such shutterbugs when it comes to documenting visits and holidays. So is my mom for that matter. We'll all just have to keep looking because I'd think between the three of us something will have to turn up eventually. Regardless, it was a fun visit and so meaningful to be able to celebrate Christmas with Brenda and Irv. The following note showed up a year later for Christmas of 2004. I think it's safe to say Brenda and Irv had a fine time as well!

Christmas 2005 - Chicago Trip

Shown is a clip from Brenda's 2006 Christmas newsletter. Pictured is Mom, me, Dale, Brenda and Irv (Dale's mom and Dad). The photo shows the five of us at a Chicago pub on a trip we took to Chicago shortly after Christmas 2005.