Flashback Friday

My dad, Christmas 1931, Chicago

Taking a deep breath. Mentioning that "new year's gifts!" come with just as much love and care as Christmas ones, since I know it will come to that for truly dear and wonderful people on my list. Planning to make a mad dash out this morning, along with the rest of New England, to hit a few stores before the blizzard hits. Wondering how I ever got myself in a hole this deep, but trying not to waste energy on that and instead focusing on what can be accomplished in the next 6 days.

I look at this picture of my dad and think about how much he was adored. There it was, during the Great Depression, and I see a carefully decorated tree and plenty of gifts (a watch! for a 3-year-old! how wonderful). He came from a family that didn't show a lot of affection openly, but these pictures tell a story of a boy well-loved. He certainly is a father dearly missed.

Wish us well with our storm; hope, along with me, that we don't lose power -- there are still tens of thousands of people in the area without power from an ice storm one week ago, so there's already much concern about how more outages can be handled. At least, Dean points out, it's looking good for a white Christmas....