While decorating our Christmas tree earlier this month, I came across a box ornaments from when I was a child. This box had been at my parents’ house for decades, but Dad dug it out and gave it to us last year. I wasn’t quite sure which of my childhood ornaments were in that box (we had a lot). But I was hoping one special ornament was still there. And it was…my most valuable Christmas ornament.
#52Ancestors: Great Grandfather Patrick Thomas Flanagan Dies of TB Two Days Before Christmas 1928
Patrick Thomas Flanagan (abt. 1897-1928) died on 23 December 1928 from tuberculosis, just two days before Christmas, plunging his family into a series of events that would leave the children orphans. My grandfather, at just 1-1/2 years old, never knew his father.
#52Ancestors: Mom, Keeper of Grandma’s Awesome Pumpkin Pie & Pie Crust Recipes
Let me proclaim here and now that my Mom makes THE BEST pumpkin pie and THE BEST pie crust in the world. Hands down. Even people who don’t like pumpkin pie like hers. Mom learned how to make her perfect pumpkin pie and perfect pie crust from her mother, my grandmother Elsie Charlotte HAYES (1926-1992). Grandma was a terrible cook (terrible is an understatement)! But, the lady could bake…especially pie!
Laughing At Old Family Christmas Photos
While I am sure that our children will someday poke great fun at photos from this year’s Christmas, I can’t help but share a couple of my favorite funny Christmas photos from my own childhood. My grandma, with cigarette in hand, on Christmas or Christmas Eve. This photo must have been taken in the late1960s […]
Christmas Traditions: Betty Greene’s Christmas Treats
Christmas, 1974, in South Bend, Indiana. Dad, mom, me (front left) and Gregg. The 70’s were not a stylish time in Indiana. And how fortunate are we today to have instant digital cameras that immediately let you know the picture is off center and you need to re-take it? Growing up, my mom, brother and […]
Flanagan Memories: Providing Christmas Without Letting The Kids Know They Were Poor
Uncle sitting on his “new” Christmas bike, with Grandpa . I grew up with the best grandparents a kid could want. They spoiled us with little gifts, and they spoiled us even more with love and attention. I still miss them, especially around the holidays. During interviews with my mom over the years, about her […]
Christmas Traditions: Maria Nieto Robledo’s Tamales
Maria Nieto Robledo (1887-1974). Homemade tamales are a Christmas tradition in many Mexican families, and my family is no exception. I can’t remember a single childhood Christmas, and very few adulthood Christmases, without my dad making the wonderful savory tamales (with the world’s most perfect masa) that he learned how to make as a child […]
