Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

from

Our House to Yours!

Blog Caroling

I'm happy to join in the blog caroling tradition started over at Footnote Maven. It's my first time "singing" on the blog.  What fun!

This is the time of year full of  high school choral concerts in our area.  There is a lot of talent in our area and it is a treat to hear the students sing.  

I am sharing Hark the Herald Angels Sing performed by a local high school choir a couple of years ago.  Enjoy!

Advent Calendar - Our Christmas Tree Tradition

I am participating in the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories this month. I'll be sharing Christmas memories throughout the season -- some old and some new. This is a re-posting of a post I did  December 2009. It's one of our favorite traditions!

We have a unusual Christmas tradition in our family. We name our Christmas tree every year. It started many years ago we as my husband and I got a Christmas tree that leaned. We spent a long time trying to get that tree straight in the stand only to realize the trunk of the tree was straight about 2/3 of the way up. Then the trunk went off at an angle. We had a leaning tree. (Thank goodness the cats did not try to climb it!) We dubbed the tree Eileen.

Believe or not the next Christmas we had "Eileen, Too." Yep, that tree leaned, too.

The next year? We had George Straight.

Ever since then, we've named our Christmas trees. The names are never planned in advance. We let the tree "speak to us". This year we have Homer (because we got it at Home Depot) with us for the month of December.

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS from our house to yours!

Advent Calendar - Christmas Cookies

Cookie dough + Lots of Flour + Lots of Red and Green Sprinkles = Delicious Christmas Cookies for Santa!

Advent Calendar - Santa Claus

Santa Claus....where do I begin? My earliest memory of Santa is one of fear. When I was little we would go to the annual holiday Christmas party put on by the company for which my dad worked. It was held at the local armory. I remember getting dressed up in my red dress and white tights. Christmas parties are fun, right? Something you look forward to? I was looking forward to the stocking filled with candy I would get. What I was not looking forward to was having to sit in the sleigh next to Santa Claus to get it. I was very afraid of that stranger who dressed funny, but to get the stocking with candy I did it. I climbed in the sleigh, got my picture taken, took the stocking and made a hasty retreat.

I am still not to crazy about the man (i.e. stranger) in red.

Advent Calendar - Christmas Cards

I thought I would share some of the Christmas cards my ancestors sent. All three postcards were sent to my great grandmother Esther Lee Richardson. The card above was sent to her from her cousin Atwood Gosney. The postmark is not readable, however, it would does date prior to Christmas 1915.


The second card was sent to Esther by J. H. The sender may have been her husband-to-be Bossy Talbott. Bossy was born Johnnie Hodias Talbott. No one in the family is quite sure when he decided to change his name to Boss Henry.

This last postcard was sent to Esther in 1914and is simply signed "Your friend".

Advent Calendar - Holiday Food

I daresay there are few other families who celebrate Christmas morning with this delicacy. After the presents are opened, we sit down to chocolate waffles with ice cream and chocolate syrup! We've even been known to add chocolate chips if we have any. You can imagine the sugar rush (and the "crash" that comes later!). Regardless, it is a delicious way to start the day.



I do not know how this tradition got started. We are generally a healthy eating family. Somewhere someone found a recipe that "looked good". We tried it once, and a tradition was born. It is quirky I know, but it's ours. Perhaps that's the most important thing.

Advent Calendar My Heritage Tree

*This is another re-posting from last December. Hope you enjoy it! (Okay, I confess. I'm a little behind in my writing. I'll catch up this weekend!)

Since I started genealogy a few years ago, I always thought having having a small Christmas tree decorated with homemade ornaments depicting my ancestors would be a nice touch. After all, I have more than enough ancestors' photos to fill a tree. Somehow in the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season this project never gets done.

Today, I'm taking a last look at this year's Christmas tree (also known as Homer) and realized that I do have my heritage tree. I've had it all along.



I inherited my grandmother's glass ornaments years ago when I had my first Christmas tree. You know the ones, the colored glass balls that are still popular today. These have a wonderful patina. Some even have the original hooks my grandmother used to hang them. In a pinch apparently, she fashioned ornament hooks out of bobby pins.


Also on our tree are ornaments representing events in our lives. We have an ornament with our wedding date engraved on it. There are ornaments given to our children as babies for their first Christmas. There are many paper and popsicle stick ornaments our children have made over the years. There are even styrofoam ornaments I made as a child. (No need to discuss how old those are!)








So yes....it is a heritage tree I've had all along.

Dear Genea-Santa

Dear Genea-Santa,

Christmas is fast approaching and I thought I'd better get my wish list in now. Christmas cookies and milk will be waiting for you when you come on Christmas Eve. Don't worry, the things on my list are not heavy and are easy to carry.

I'd like proof of where William Harward (Howard/Harwood) come from prior to buying land in Wake County, NC in 1767. I'd settle for just a clue if that's all you can find.

I'd like a birth record stating the parents of William Henry Haley (of Halifax County, VA). Just a reminder, William was born in 1861. His marriage record states his parents were SC Haley and Margaret. If it's not too much trouble, could you throw in the identity and parents of SC Haley? Just as a stocking stuffer?

I'd like the identity of my stash of "unknowns" among my photographs. I believe they are all from Halifax and Pittsylvania Counties in Virginia. That should narrow it down a least a little.

Genea Santa, if this is too much, could I just have a time machine? I can save you the research (I know you are very busy this time of year!) and zip back through time and check with my ancestors directly.

Lisa

Christmas 1923

This is an excerpt of a letter from Esther Lee Richardson Talbott of Halifax Co, VA to her mother Hattie Richardson of Pittsylvania Co, Va dated "Xmas 1923". Esther Lee was a prolific writer and I have tried to stay as true to her actual writing as possible. Some words were difficult to decipher and punctuation was virtually non-existent. I have added the punctuation in the transcript below to aid the reader.

Xmas 1923

Esther Talbott

Dear Mama and all

I will write you a few lines while everything is quiet and Garnett [her youngest son] is working on a bottle of milk. As usual as mean as ever.

This house is making it very well lots better than expected at Xmas time, but it has been so pretty and warm the children stay out of doors in the warm sun and play a lot. Charlie [Talbott] and family came Sun and [are] here now. The[Their] children and mine play together real good. I don't do much cooking and that ain't but twice a day so I ain't hurting myself at work.

You aught to have been here Xmas morning to seen the kids. Santa Claus brought Elma and R [Ruth] a doll with hair on its head and C [Crafton--my grandfather] a cap pistol, candy, nuts, apples, sugar plums, oranges, bananas, chewing gum. They got up at 3 o'clock. They had some time. E and R [Elma and Ruth] have done pulled their dolls to pieces. First thing they wanted to do was to comb there hair. Boss carried them up to the school house last night to the Sun school Xmas tree. Each scholar got 2 presents. E and R got a little suit case, a picture book , a sack full of sugar plums and candy and a large apple a piece. C [Crafton] got 2 sacks of candy suit case and drawing book and large apple. They are some proud kids. I wish you could have been here and seen Elma tell how Santa Claus looked. She would make a monkey laugh. M got a picture in a little frame and sack of candy and apple.....

Love to all. Hope you all will have a nice Xmas

Esther

I remember my grandfather telling me about getting the candy and fruits for Christmas. He told me he was always so excited to get an orange at Christmas since that's the only time of year he got one.

Dear Old Santa Claus

As Christmas approaches, I remembered several letters among my great-grandmother's things from the Christmas season. Over the next few posts, I will share transcripts of all or part of the letters. I hope you enjoy a glimpse into Christmases past.

This is the transcript of a letter written in 1919 to Santa Claus by nine year old Flemming Terry of South Boston, VA. Flemming was the daughter of Nannie Talbott and Henry Cleveland Terry.

South Boston, VA
december 1919

Dear old Santa Clause
I will write to you as it is Christmas. Well Santa Clause I am a little girl 9 years old and I want you to bring me a ______ suit and a pretty little vase and some apples and some ____ ____ , and oranges and candy.
Best wishes to old Santa Clause

Fleming Terry