Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Ghosts Of Christmas Past

Inspired by Jon's post over on A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts, here's some of my Christmas memories.


My first Christmas in 1967 was a joyous one.  I was decked out in a junior size Santa suit and was reveling in the festive occasion.


From what I'm told my enthusiasm continued as I was buried in wrapping paper, which I then ate in some quantity as little kids are prone to do.  The end result was not so pleasant.

Also found this picture of me and my neighborhood friends of grade school age.


I do remember that dragster, (and the turtleneck shirt for that matter).  My less fashionably fortunate friend Earl and his younger sister Lisa are flanked by my next door neighbors Cindy and Jennifer.  Not actually sure who's house we're in.

Moving up a decade or so, here is the only trading card related entry in this post.  I've been slacking on my Collector's Log posts, so I'll spoil this one by jumping ahead to October.


"October 30 - Went to the first dealer I ever shopped at (in his second venue)....Found a Palmer rookie for ten bucks (!) but Mom said she doesn't trust Steve and I should sell my cards."

That proved to be a total hoax when one of these showed up in December of '82:


Pretty much the only significant Christmas present cards I've had.  And I'm OK with that.  Because unless your family collects, or you teach them the finer details, you end up with things like 1992 Score factory sets.  (Happened to me).


But my best tradition started in 2007, when I got Paisley.  She was the star of my christmas greeting cards every year until her passing in 2016.  I photoshopped her into all kinds of silly situations.  The results were always well received.  People would ask me in the middle of the year what the theme of the next year's card was going to be.  I generally wouldn't know until a week or two before the holiday.  Here are some of the best images from those cards:

 


      

 

She was always a good sport during the photo shoots.  Since she passed, I haven't seen the point of sending greeting cards.  They'd just be so pedestrian.

Hope your holidays are happily spent with family and friends, and you get plenty of cardboard to post about in the coming weeks!  Merry Christmas!

5 comments:

  1. Merry Christmas!

    Poor doggie. They always put up with us.

    I posted a picture of myself as a wee-lad at Christmas several Christmases ago. I think I refrained from eating wrapping paper back then.

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  2. I truly miss those cards when they arrived in my mailbox. She truly was a little diva in her own right Merry Christmas good Buddy hoping that 2020 is the year of great finishing on sets for the both of us.

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  3. The momma doesn't trust Steve story is a classic. Glad it ended with you receiving the Palmer. Sorry to hear about Paisley. The holidays are funny, because it's a beautiful time to hang out with friends and family. But I'm learning that it's also a time to reminisce which can sometimes be sad and tough.

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  4. Whoa, I can't believe that I actually inspired somebody to do something... especially something as great as this was! I love your little Santa outfit, didn't realize that kids were prone to eating wrapping paper though, I'm kind of glad that I won't ever have to deal with that kind of aftermath. Those Christmas cards are really adorable too, that was one photogenic pup :)

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  5. Love the pup pics! Yeah, we didn't do Christmas Cards either this year now that our Annie passed away, removing any cute photo possibilities.

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