Photographs and Memories

Well, I reckon this is my last post before Christmas and probably until sometime next week. We're spending Christmas with our granddaughter Ashton and her parents Missy and Matt (aka the M&Ms). It's been awhile since we spent Christmas with a 2-year old so it should be quite a time. Ashton told her Nana that Santa Claus is bringing her toys for Christmas and when asked what kind of toys, she replied confidently, "big toys." Norman Vincent Peale would be proud. Our son Chris will be there too so we'll all be together for Christmas.

When we were kids, my sister and I actually had two Christmases because Santa - what a great guy! - brought presents to our house a couple of days early so that he could get to my grandparents' house with even more presents before we got there for Christmas. This fond recollection suggests that I was a quantity kind of kid whereas Ashton seems more interested in volume.

Of course, it's easy to pooh-pooh quantity now after the birthday she had in October:

As for that being together stuff, I guess I just took it for granted back then because the usual suspects were always there. Now, so many years later, I wish that I had paid more attention to the "who" rather than only the "what." Such as they are, the memories are a little soft focus and also, despite it being such a colorful season, mainly in black and white. A lot of them are found a dozen at a time in little 3 1/2 inch square photo books called "FOTO-MEMORIES PRINTS" or "GENUINE SUPER PAK SNAPS." They look a lot like this:

That's my sister Sherri and me (on the left, smart guys). I'm 7 years old (maybe 8) and cute as ever, huh? Oh to be able to look at the back of it and see something printed like, "December 24, 1956, 07:54:22 PM" or something rather than having to guess at even the year! And yet, blurry or not, black-and-white or brilliant color, annotated or blank, whatever or whichever the pictures are, they are better than not having any at all. Usually when something is said to be better than nothing, it is said disparagingly but not in this case. "Like snowflakes, my Christmas memories gather and dance - each beautiful, unique and too soon gone." Photographs and memories...

Over the holidays, pay attention. Take some pictures. Smile.

Merry Christmas!

PS - Sparkle is sweating it out over in Uniontown. As of this morning, only $23,077 raised but, on the bright side, they still have another 23 hours or so to raise the other $16,923.