Emma's Christmas Picture

Emma made this on my iPad (with a lot of support from me and Dale) during our Thanksgiving 2012 visit to Pete and his family in Arkansas.

Abby's Christmas Picture

Abby made this on my iPad (with minimal support) during a visit to Pete and his family in Arkansas for Thanksgiving 2012.

Xander's Christmas Picture

Xander made this on my iPad (with a moderate amount of support from me) the day after Thanksgiving 2012.

Christmas 1979 - Joe's Tree

I'm sure this tree was obtained from Grandpa Les and Grandma Jean's cabin outside Two Harbors. As part of our Thanksgiving visit we would usually cut down a big tree for our living room and one or two smaller trees for our bedrooms before we journeyed home. This tree displays many of the ornaments I got in my shoe on St. Nicholas Day. I like the goofy look on my face in the top picture. You can tell I'm trying to be precise about how that ornament is going to hang. I still do that now!

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...

Gifts - Colorful Pots and Pans

My earliest Christmases (late 1960's/early 1970's) were spent at my grandparent's houses in Two Harbors, Minnesota. Grandma Alice and Grandpa Louie owned a bakery there which they operated from the mid-1950's to 1981. Grandpa Les worked for the railroad but retired around this time and Grandma Jean stayed at home. Jean and Les also owned a cabin on 40 acres of land about eleven miles just outside of town. I loved going to two Harbors and visiting all of them at their houses but also loved spending time at the bakery and cabin.

It was about 1971 and Mom, Dad, Sam and I were up in Two Harbors for Thanksgiving. I remember sitting on a big unopened bucket of lard in the storage room by the back entrance of the bakery. My brother Sam and I were paging through Grandma Alice's Montgomery Ward Christmas catalog and looking at Christmas toys. What I decided I wanted most was something the catalog called Colorful Pots and Pans. They were big colorful plastic toys modeled after kitchen items but with faces on them. There was a skillet, coffee pot, saucepan, etc. I never got them and I don't remember feeling too disappointed. Once we got back to Minneapolis I'm sure I came up with something I wanted even more.

This past weekend my friend Noel and I were putzing around a Minneapolis antique store and I stumbled upon what is pictured here. If this isn't the actual product I saw in that Montgomery Ward catalog then it's eerily close!