Christmas Past

Hopefully everyone had the kind of Christmas they had wanted and wished for. We spent Christmas Eve at my sister's house, the only ones missing from the family gathering were the youngest Kelly, in Florida, Marty's youngest daughter, who was home for Thanksgiving, who now lives in L.A., and Mike's daughters, home in Columbus with their families.

The rest of the old folks and kids were around.......ate well, some of us tossed down a couple of beers, glasses of wine, talked on the phone to those that were not there, and played some family board and card games.

Yesterday, mom was over for Christmas dinner at our house....we kept WTBS and 'A Christmas Story' on in the background and had a good time...the weather was nice, sunny and about 40....I even got out for a later afternoon walk with Patricia and Anissa, the first long walk since my Epidural Injection. The back still has some issues, but it is more mobile and with less pain....as I said before, I doubt it this is the catch-all for my back issue...but will see how it shakes out.

Having lost Dad on Christmas Eve of 1972 to a sudden heart attack, Christmas always is tempered for me and the rest of his immediate family....Dad was 55. On Christmas Eve we received word that a neighbor of mine in high school, and my two best friends younger brother had died on December 23rd....we don't know the cause yet, he was 54....Jim was the younger brother who was always under foot during our high school years....the Jones family and us lived side by side from 1963-1970 in Montezuma, on the south side of Grand Lake...Dad was 55 at the time of his death and at the time seemed "somewhat old", Jim was 54, as we grow older, he still seems like a kid.

The viewing is this afternoon, the funeral tomorrow.....I have not seen Jerry, who now lives in California, since 1984, brother Bob, since a chance meeting a few Christmas seasons ago in Lima. During our High School Years 1963 through 1967 for a time after, we were inseparable. Funerals and Weddings always seem the time to meet again.....sad as the former is.

{Photos of Christmas Pasts}--from top to bottom...(1) 1958 in Venice, Florida, Me, Mike, Marty, and my friend Al Foust, who's family were visiting us almost 50 years ago.(2) Hal with Santa on his first Christmas in 1984(3) Christmas season sunrise looking out mom's Condo at Ormond Beach, Florida(4)Patricia supervising the kids in 1994 unwrapping the take(5) The Houseworth and Hemmelgarn cousins in 1995(6)Reagan in 1999 checking out the tree(7)Me, the bearded one, with a glass of bubbly in 1979(8)Anissa and Grandpa Bill and Grandma Bev Callies in 1980(9)Patrica on our wedding day in 1976...one week before Christmas(10) the Kids in 1985, now one of the tree decorations.