Christine's 50th

Christmas.  How we have always loved Christmas.  For our family it means a time of gathering.  We don't always get everyone in the same place at the same time anymore but those who cannot be with us are always in our hearts. Our first Christmas as a family was in Victoria in 1973.  Dad, Jason and I made the most of it even though Dad was at university and we didn't have much.  We loaded the VW up with the things we had and headed to Nanny's and Papa's in Cumberland.   This would be a family tradition for many, many years.  In those days Nanny and Papa waited for Dad and I to 'come home' to decorate the Christmas tree, even if it meant we didn't arrive until December 23rd.  The tree was waiting there to greet us.  In those days Papa went into the woods and cut a tree.  It would be set up in a large metal tub and held in place with big rocks.  Papa had already put the red nose on the deer head in the hallway and renamed it Rudolp...

I was lucky enough to get to travel to England twice as a kid. My Mom’s parents, Florence and Percy Howard, lived in Hastings in Sussex, England which was on the south coast of England about 2 hours from London. Nanny, Sherri and I went to England in May of 1962 and spent the whole summer there. We got picked up at the airport in London in a taxi by my grandparents as I don’t think either one of them drove.  They lived in a typical English row house with a kitchen, living room and sewing room downstairs and the bedrooms upstairs. They had a long, very narrow back yard that I believe had a gate at the back that led to some open fields.   Its funny the things that you remember. I remember my Nanny teaching me how to knit, and I actually knit about a two foot long, six inch wide thing that I called a scarf. While staying at their place, I learnt to drink my tea without milk or sugar and regularly had bread with real butter for a snack. It was on this visit that I had tradition...