Showing posts with label Sentimental Journey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sentimental Journey. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Christmas Past

These are some old Polaroids I have.
Christmas 1969.
 I would have been just about a month and a half shy of turning 4.
I was looking through these a while back when I was working on another post
 (that I never got finished, but I will!)

I was so excited to see this doll! She was my favorite doll...and I never knew that I had pictures of her!
She was very well loved. I don't know what happened to her. I do know that a couple of the neighbor girls floated her down the ditch once...but she was rescued. I'm sure I just outgrew her, and didn't know my adult self would wish I had her back!

 I loved the stroller/buggy too. Had it for a good many years as well. I think toys were a little sturdier back in the day.

Loved my kitchen set too. I think I must have gotten different pieces to it for a couple of years. I'll have to ask my mom. This is the stove. It was made out of metal. It probably came from Sears. I also had a sink set that really worked! It was awesome. And I had a cupboard that my Grandpa built for me (still have it, though it needs to be refinished).

It's fun to look at these pictures and remember playing with so many of my favorite toys.


This one is pretty washed out. But I loved this Mrs. Beasley doll! She had a pull string in her back & when I pulled the string she would say a different phrase. Wish I still had her too!
I must have been a very good girl in 1969! I got a lot of cool stuff that I had for a long, long time!  I was also the only child at this point...so I think I might have been a little spoiled.


We often had a flocked tree. I don't remember ever going to get the tree, but I do remember watching my dad flock the tree one year. I was a little older than this, but I remember sitting in the basement watching him turn the green tree into a beautiful white one! I loved flocked trees. I don't remember much about decorating our trees when I was a kid. I do remember a few ornaments.  And I do remember that we never did the decorating until around the 15th, which seemed like forever to me! I also remember my mom had these big plaster picture/plaque things. There were 3 of them, each one was one of the Wise Men. She always hung them up in the hallway. They were some of my favorites when I was a kid.


 After my grandpa passed away, my grandma would sometimes spend Christmas Eve at our house. We would always have tacos for dinner. We also used to drive around and look at the Christmas lights. Then, when we got home, we always would listen to Christmas music. My favorite was our Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer record. My brothers and I also each had a candle to burn. They were always those small, cheapo candles, that burned really fast. They are hard to find now~ Santa's, Snowmen, Christmas Trees...the idea was, once our candles were burned out, we had to go to bed.
Santa never wrapped the gifts he brought to us. I used to love to sneak out to the front room, as we called it, and try and get a peak at all the fun stuff he had left under the tree. One year, Grandma was sleeping over and she was in my room & my brothers and I were all in their bedroom. I would have been 10 or older probably. Slowly, stealthily, I crept to the bedroom door, then I got down on my stomach and painstakingly began inching my way ever so slowly past my bedroom door, past my sleeping Grandma. I was almost past the doorway when suddenly Grandma said in a clear voice; "Valerie! Get back in bed!" Try as I might, I could never get past her!

Was I stinkin' cute, or what?
 This was probably my Christmas dress~ made by my Grandma. And my hair is in ringlets. Man, those were painful! My mom could roll those curlers so dang tight! And if I didn't hold still, I might get smacked with the comb! OUCH! 

Merry Christmas
May your heart and home be filled with warm, wonderful memories of Christmas

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Gonna Take A Sentimental Journey

My aunt made this beautiful star quilt for me when I graduated from High School.





It was on my bed for a long while~ but now sits tucked inside my cedar chest. It was starting to wear thin, and I didn't want it to wear out.

My aunt pieced the quilt top, and then my grandma did all the quilting by hand.



My grandma was an excellent seamstress and quilter. She was able to take very tiny stitches. I tried my hand at a few stitches too, but couldn't do them as neat and tiny as grandma could.


She taught me that the size of the stitch didn't matter, so long as they were all uniform.

This week, I had a great opportunity to see family and friends that I haven't seen for a very, very long time! It was wonderful to see so many people that hold a special place in my heart. Many were old ward members from the ward I grew up in.

The occasion, however, was bittersweet as we were all gathered to pay honor and respect to my dear aunt who passed away the week before.

She was kind and loving~ She always greeted me with a hug and a kiss and always told me "I love you, honey."

When I was in Young Women, she was our camp leader one year. That was the year we all got giarrdia!!! (That's just a fancy word for diarrhea) It was quite the event trying to get home as we had to stop every couple of minutes so someone, or everyone, could run for the bushes!

My aunt and uncle came to visit us when Curtis was in the hospital, even though it was so hard for them. Years ago, my cousin was killed in an industrial accident just shortly after graduating from High School.
Their visit meant so much to me because I knew it took a lot for them to be there.

She was loved, and she will be missed.

This quilt holds many, wonderful memories for me~ of my aunt and my grandma! It's a double bonus! So glad I have it.



A CRAZY QUILT
They do not make them anymore,
For quilts are cheaper at the store
Than woman's labor, though a wife
Men think the cheapest thing in life.
But now and then, a quilt is spread
Upon quaint old walnut bed,
A crazy quilt of those days
That I am young enough to praise.
Some woman sewed these points and squares
Into a pattern, like life's cares.
Here is a velvet that was strong,
The poplin that she wore so long,
A fragment from her daughter's dress,
Like her, a vanished loveliness;
Old patches of such things as these,
Old garments and old memories.
And what is life? A crazy quilt;
Sorrow and joy, and grace and guilt,
With here and there a square of blue
For some old happiness we knew;
And so the hand of time will take
The fragments of our life and make,
Out of life's remnants, as they fall,
A thing of beauty, after all.
~Douglas Malloch