Memory Lane - The Holidays Return (November and December 1987)

When I began my Memory Lane journey, I knew I would enjoy remembering and in a way reliving our family story. What I didn't expect was the transformation of so many of my memories from vague thoughts and images to very precise recollections. This change has been driven by my immersion into our family's well-organized photo library. The pictures frequently evoke detail I had forgotten. 

In addition to clarifying exactly what happened when, the photos provide a record of the subtle but constant changes in our daily lives - growing kids, changes in living environments and personal appearance, evolving social circles, and more. The photos also reveal that while our family enjoys many recurring activities, those activities never look or feel quite the same from year to year. 

Speaking of recurring activities, I'd like to return to Memory Lane in late November of 1987. Fresh off the marathon birthday season, we headed up to my parents' place for Thanksgiving. My mother put on the usual spread for the big meal. Here we are at the expanded table ready to dig in. That's my sister Cindy peaking out from behind my mother on the left.

It was a quiet weekend, as neither my brother Jeff's nor sister Wendy's families made the trip. We took the opportunity to just relax, catch up on hometown doings (for me) and recharge for the holiday foot race about to unfold. 

In this pic, Ted is explaining the finer points of his needlepoint project while I glaze over. Christine appears to be rapt with curiosity, as was her way.

Cathy spent her quiet time working on her blanket folding skills. It's trickier than it looks.

Back in the Pointes we were slowly gearing up for Christmas. First there were the Christmas dresses. A review of my 1986 Christmas photos indicates that these fancy green dresses were new this year. Nancy confirmed that they were courtesy of Grandma LeRoy.

Speaking of changes, when I look at the picture I see a white flagstone wood-burning fireplace, complete with tools and an oversized screen. And if you squint, you can just make out a sliver of our old white fleur-de-lis wallpaper above the mantel. Blasts from the way past. 

This next picture is an early example of a parental ploy we often used to persuade the kids to smile for the camera. If they cooperated on a good picture, we would take another picture with them making the fun/bad face of their choice. Ted and Christine were into it. Apparently Cathy didn't get the memo.

The first formal event of that Christmas season was an elementary school fund raiser known as Breakfast with Santa. In their later years at Ferry Elementary the girls would participate in the breakfast as Santa's helpers. But in '87, it was all about seeing the big guy in the red suit. And, of course, showing off the dresses.

Fresh from a successful Santa encounter, Christine celebrated with pancakes. Clean plate club.

I could find no pics of Cathy dining on pancakes at the breakfast. I'm guessing it may not have been pretty. Syrup, butter, sticky fingers in the hair. You get the idea.

However, I did find this picture taken at home a day or two after the Santa breakfast. In it Cathy appears to be claiming clean-plate status. But a close look at everything but her plate suggests that her technique needs a little work.

Another less formal pre-holiday event at our house is the baking of Christmas cookies. This critical skill has been passed down from mother to daughter in the LeRoy family for generations, and Nancy was committed to continuing the tradition. Her philosophy is that you can't start too young. Below is a shot of Cathy with what most likely was her first few moments with her hands on a rolling pin. You can just feel her baking genes coming alive.

In this pic big sister Christine, a veteran of earlier cookie-baking efforts, anxiously awaits her turn to sprinkle flour, mash dough and play with the cookie cutters. Fun.

We were so busy enjoying (eating) the results of this tutorial session that we forgot to take any pictures of the final products. Photographer's oversight. 

With all the preliminaries tended to, Christmas Eve finally arrived. Here are the girls jammed up and ready for bed, about to hang their stockings. 

And the final pic from Christmas Eve as the weary parents headed off to bed. 

That period between taking the above picture and taking the picture below is for me the eye of the storm. The perfect moment. The shopping, decorating, wrapping and often late-night assembly tasks are over. And the gifting frenzy, cleanup, hosting and cardboard crushing have not yet begun. Not to mention the undecorating. It's a few hours of peace and true relaxation.

The irony is that for kids, the time between hitting the sack Christmas Eve and hitting the floor Christmas morning drags on for ever. But for adults, it can't last long enough (for a full recitation of my views on the holidays, see the series of posts from 2019 beginning with The Holidays Part 1).

On to the big day. Step 1 - the obligatory opening shot. The little darlings waiting patiently. At two and a half, I'm not sure Cathy knew exactly what she was waiting for. But it didn't take long for her to figure things out.

Step 2 - the stockings. Note the concentration. To quote Old Man Parker from The Christmas Story, "There could be anything in there!"

Step 3 - everything else.

 

Even our loyal Schnauzer-Terrier mix Heidi got into the action. What's better than a brand new ball.

From the next couple of pictures it's evident that Nancy's parents had stayed with us over Christmas Eve that year. This was a rare occurrence as they only lived a few blocks away. Here's a shot of Rae deftly peeling back some fancy wrapping paper. 

Here we have Marge enjoying a post-gifting-frenzy recharging moment with the girls, while I gaze adoringly at my 1988 Star Trek calendar. 

Eventually we tidied up a bit and prepared for company. 

Mid-afternoon Nancy's brother Dave and his family arrived for the final phase of the day-long celebration. We had an extended happy hour and a big dinner. This picture is of marginal quality but it captures the moment for posterity.

From left to right we have Nancy, yours truly, Rae (coat and tie, of course), nephew Matthew, Christine, nephew Brian, Cathy, Dave, Marge (peeking out) and Dave's bride Barbara. An august group if there ever was one.

After all the visitors departed, we each recovered from the day's events in our own ways. Some of us relaxed with a favorite new possession. Others napped. And one crept back to tend to unfinished business.

The rest of the holiday vacation was pretty low key. There was some kitchen maintenance.

And some experiments in personal grooming.

And quite a bit of this. I think they were binging Saved by the Bell - The Lost Episodes, or something equally educational.

There was one other social event of note that last week of the year. Nancy and I hosted a quiet but entertaining New Years Eve get together with a few friends.  

From left to right are Linda C and her steady at the time Art, Kathy S and Tom Y in from Chicago, and your hosts. There was lively conversation, liquid encouragement, lots of sweaters and apparently for one of us a new hair style. It was a fun way to send off 1987.

See you next in 1988, at least blog-wise.

Grosse Pointe Charles