Bucket of Bulbs

Yesterday’s cleaning chores morphed to today’s Christmas traditions. We hauled all the ornaments out of the basement and setup our traditional mantle display, nativity crèche in the center, augmented by African animals, Egyptian camels, Russian matryoshka dolls, Christmas toys and candles, lots of candles. With so many years together, Anne and I have collected quite the eclectic set of sentimental ornaments.

Later, we journeyed to Ted Drewes and bought concretes and a Scotch pine. It really was all about the Christmas tree, really. We got the tree setup in the living room and then turned around and went out again to do some more shopping. It turned out to be too busy a day to fit any biking into. Over the coming week, we’ll work by day and decorate the tree by night, working just a little bit each night.

This weekend’s combined two days of cleaning and holiday decorating stirred up a lot of dust and a lot of memories. Anne found old pictures, old letters and old report cards. Here is an example, Dan’s fourth grade Above and Beyond progress report, the teacher’s summary.

Dan does well meeting the challenges in the program. He is a very creative young man. His enthusiasm leads him to loud talking or outbursts at times. He enjoys working on the projects, especially science.

That’s my boy! Anne found the following photograph of Frank and me, both younger and thinner. My hair was still coal black and Frank still had his hair. What she was most excited about though, was a letter from Michigan State, announcing her winning of the Alumni Distinguished Scholarship. The envelope had on it, six stamps and six copies of the words, special delivery, one of them handwritten. Inside the envelope was the expected letter, but there was a telegram, both announcing the award. I joked that Harry probably first thought that the telegram meant that someone had died. I was right, but this telegram only had good news to tell, now one of many happy memories.