The Letter C
When I think of the letter C, I hear the song "C is for Cookie" sung gruffly and energetically by Cookie Monster. I still remember the first time I ever heard that silly song - I was the nanny for a young child. This little boy used to watch Sesame Street every day like clock work. One day this song comes on--and it has been stuck in my head since. I thought I would share the joy/agony.
Excuse the tangent I just went off on, but honestly that's what I think of every time I think of the letter C, hahaha.
When it comes to family history, C is for Christmas. When my cousin and I were little girls we could always count on getting two types of gifts from my Great Great Aunt Ruth Teschner and my Great Great Aunts Meta Hammer (nee Teschner) and Gertrude Nisely (nee Teschner); clothes from Great Aunt Ruth and an embroidered pillow case from Great Great Aunt Meta and Gerty.
I guess I should back up... to me - family history isn't just genealogy, which many people see as trying to find old records of old ancestors.
To me family history is a combination of 1) genealogy: uncovering the past and where I come from and 2) relishing, preserving, and focusing on the family we have now: taking pictures/scrap-booking, family get togethers, etc -- and 3) preserving our day for future generations: through journals, scrapbooks, pictures, traditions, etc---so in essence I think of family history as the past, present, and future.
So today's post is about a tradition that happened every year as I was growing up, but didn't really appreciate until the season of that tradition was gone.
I didn't appreciate her thoughtful gifts of clothes so much until I got a little older - and actually cared about what I wore. Aunt Ruth had great taste, she always bought the clothes from JC Penny's which was a big deal back than. Christmas eve I was allowed to open one gift and in hopeful anticipation of getting P.J.s I always opened Aunt Ruth's.
Great Great Aunt Meta and Gerty always gave us hand embroidered pillow cases, many times our names were embroidered. They were so pretty, I wish I had kept them, but I was too young to really understand or appreciate the gift, but now I love to continue the tradition with my niece.
Kelly Hamon
Image
http://www.kimberlykalil.com/2011/05/me-letter-c.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonnetofthemoon/3729224173/
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye8mB6VsUHw
1 comment:
I have to sympathise with you about not realising the real value of the beautiful handcrafts that were made for us when we were young. Sadly I don't have a whole lot of those types of heirlooms either, but I do treasure those I do. And your combination definition of family history is so spot on!!
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