~CHRISTMAS PAST...Tied Up With Heartstrings~

~OUR DUTCH CHRISTMAS 1964~
Hacienda Heights, California
Me, My Sissy Linda, Cousins Cindy & Kathy

(Us Girls in December 2008)
Linda (My Sister), Cindy & Kathy (Cousins), Me

Today was a melancholy Sunday. If you haven't figured it out by now I'm hopelessly sentimental and I can truly get lost inside my own head if I"m not careful. Christmas does that to me. All the Fa-La-La-La-Lahhhhh's and trips down memory lane can really set my heart to wondering.

In 1964 "The Highlander", a local newspaper from my hometown of Hacienda Heights, California, came out to our modest (and tiny!) home on Sigman Street and photographed my sister, two cousins and I for a write up about celebrating our Dutch Heritage. I've shared with you before that my mother and her sister, my Auntie P, were always doing SOMETHING that got their daughters noticed.

I have NO IDEA what happened to my hair in this picture. The bangs are real. The braids are FAKE! :)

I spent the later part of the evening digging myself through a stack of old photos searching for the FEW pictures taken at Christmas when I was a child. My parents didn't take many photographs so you can imagine the ones we do have collectively mean the world to my family. My sister and I have pictures with our cousins but we have very, very few taken with our youngest sister and brother...like maybe two! It is the one thing I would change about my childhood if I could... I'd have more pictures.

How this clipping has survived is beyond me. It was damaged in a terrible house flood in 1977 and yet remains in one piece...

I blame the fact that I'm now a picture-taking-fool on the simple truth that my parents never owned a decent camera until I was grown and gone...

~CHRISTMAS AT GRANDMA'S 1962~
Hacienda Heights, California
Kathy (cousin), Me, Linda (sister), Cindy (cousin)

I may be wrong, I'd have to ask my sister, Linda, but I honestly believe this is the ONLY picture taken of me as little child at Christmastime. It was snapped in 1963 at my Grandmother's home when they lived on either Kennard or Flamstead Street. I was in Kindergarten and was 5 years old. All us little girls got Butterball Doll Babies that year and my sissy and cousin got gorgeous Bride Dolls... I remember wanting to know where mine was but I was told I was too young to have one. :(

(JUST A NOTE: MY BIG SISTER JUST WROTE AND TOLD ME I DID HAVE A BRIDE DOLL! SHE SAID THEY HUNG OVER OUR BEDS FOR A LONG TIME WHEN WE WERE CHILDREN. I DO DO DO REMEMBER THAT NOW! (ISN'T IT GREAT TO HAVE A BIG SISSY WHO REMEMBERS THINGS FOR YOU????XOXOXO THANK YOU, LIN!) WHAT I DIDN'T HAVE (AND DESPERATELY WANTED) WAS A CHATTY CATHY DOLL! MY AUNTIE P KNEW THIS AND GAVE ME ONE ABOUT 4 YEARS AGO! ALL THIS IS FURTHER EVIDENCE MY MIND IS SLIPPIN'!

~My Mother & Auntie~
Around 1963 or 1964

The picture above is of my mother and her younger sister, my Auntie P. They were heavily involved in PTA and worked hard to promote our local elementary school. This was a Polaroid picture and the original was so dark you could barely make out who was in it. I've learned enough about Photoshop to make me dangerous...at least I was able to lighten the heavily damaged picture enough to see just what it was. My mom or my grandfather painted the poster for the PTA DRIVE that year... My Gramps was always painting those sweet Santa's for the door of our classrooms. My mother did get really good at knocking off his work though so I can't be sure just who painted this one...

Seeing my beautiful Mother in this photo (she was about 29) lends me to believe time goes even faster than I think it does. She turned 75 this year...

Thanks for stopping in today. Like many of you I've been busy enjoying the season while breathing in all things Christmas and Christ-centered. Hoping and trusting your days have been as lovely as mine.

Blessings and love...Rebecca