When I was Your Age....

My sister sent me tons of digital photos, some she scanned and some she stole from my mom, for the big 40th anniversary photo book we made for our parents in August. A great result of that project is that I have a bunch of great old photos on my computer.

I really wanted this week's banner to have a Christmas theme and was thrilled when I found the photo of my mom with her cousins. I am so glad my mom wrote and gave more info:

I love your banner. The 4 cousins you see (Joe, Ed, Jeff and I) we born within a period of 1 year and 11 days. I don't know how old we were there, but I can go back to the box of slides and see if there is a date stamp on it. We were singing the mandatory Christmas carols which came after the dishes were washed and before the presents were opened on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve with my maternal grandmother's family was a tradition that continued well into my teen years. Every year our complaints about having to wait until dinner was cleaned up {which pretty much meant throwing away the paper plates and washing some pots and pans} before we could open presents would be met with the same sad tale of how when my mom was our age she and her cousins had to wait until the china was washed the dreaded Christmas Carols were sung before they could open presents. We didn't know how good we had it.