Category Archives: Family & Friends

When you live in Alaska with active little ones who can’t go outside every day, you have to get creative about helping them burn off their energy. This was the Buzzer’s Family Gift to Themselves. Mama says, “They aren’t making beautiful music, but they sure are having a good time!”

Mama and Bunny got the 2018 calendar ready.  Mama says, “She keeps reading different events and wanting me to write them in the new calendar, but she’s not understanding that I don’t know if/when we will go to a Halloween party in October, and so I don’t want to write one in, lol!”

As an adult, it seems your priorities change radically from what they are when you were a child. More work, more stress, more expense, but through it all you need little as far as material things. You just want your children to be as happy as you were at their age. All I need is to see my grandchildren smile and maybe coerce a hug or two to make me happy.

Among all the things you got for Christmas, there was always that one, special thing that made you the happiest and that you never forgot. That may be part of the reason why A Christmas Story, that holiday institution, is something that so many of that era can relate to. The trials and tribulations of a young boy’s quest for a BB gun. We all lobbied at some point for something we just knew we’d die if we didn’t get.

Granny had a big walk-in closet where she hid things until she wrapped them. It wasn’t much of a secret, though. In 1960,she got me this:
Whenever she’d leave in the car I’d go into the closet and play with it without taking it off the card and had to act surprised when I unwrapped it on Christmas morning.

We didn’t have a lot of money but we always got at least one toy.  There was a little store down the road from our farm that was run by two old sisters. It looked like something right out of a magazine. Wooden floors, a meat counter in the back, complete with sawdust on the floor and a cranky old man named Clyde Schlenk (never forget him), who would cut a piece of meat for you if you didn’t see what you wanted. Soda pop came in glass bottles and cost 10 cents.

Behind the counter were boxes of penny candy and nickel candy bars. A rack with 10-cent comics stood near the door with the Sunbeam Bread door pusher. When grandpa didn’t feel like getting up, he’d write a note and give me a dollar to ride my bicycle to the store to but him a pack of cigarettes. They sold them to me as long as I had the note. And he always wanted the change back from his dollar. He was a hard man when it came to his L&Ms.

They had a wooden shelf that went all the way around the store with some wonderful toys on it. Dolls, doll buggies, steel trucks, games, and, yes, a couple cap guns. (You KNEW that was coming, didn’t you?)  I don’t recall saying anything to anybody, but there was a two gun rig made by Daisy, the BB gun maker, that had a dark finish and fake wooden grips. I thought they were so cool.

Apparently, my lust was obvious. All I can think is that the ladies must have seen how I gazed at them every time I came in, which was often. They had to have told my grandmother because it caught me completely off guard when I opened the package on Christmas morning and there they were. I was about 8 at the time, so it had to have been around 1958.

My own set of Daisy Bullseye cap pistols.

I strapped on those brushed leather holsters and I was the fastest gun in the West. Looking back, I seem to remember the grin on Granny’s face when I opened the box. Now that I’m a grandfather, I know what she was feeling. There’s nothing like a child’s squeal with delight when she gets something she’s been wanting. Sadly, too many kids today want the latest electronic gizmo with the most storage and such. How sad.

I can’t imagine in 40 years them telling their children, ‘I remember the Christmas I got the new I-phone 8 with mega memory and fast download speeds. I cuddled with it every night and dreamed of texting the entire civilized world.’ Meh.

THESE ARE THE GIFTS GOD HAS GIVEN ME. THEY ARE MUCH MORE THAN I DESERVE. ALL I WANT IS FOR THEM TO ALWAYS LOVE GOD AND EACH OTHER. THEY ARE THE GREATSET GIFT I COULD POSSIBLY RECEIVE.

The Buzz family is having a portrait done for Christmas. 🙂

Excuse me while I rave about what a Great Mom my daughter is! Bunny’s kindergarten teacher sent home turkey coloring pages with instructions to have fun decorating them, then return them for a class project. Below is what they came up with. And get this … they wore tutus while crafting! LOLOL “Have to be properly attired!” she texted.

This article caught my eye because my grandson Tyler is also nine years old and has been battling cancer for the past two years. His Chemotherapy protocol is scheduled to end next month and if there are no signs of activity he may be able to stop. This young boy isn’t as lucky. Imagine knowing you won’t see Christmas this year. The heartbreak for his family must be unbearable.
HERE’S THE DEAL:
Cancer patient, 9, asks for holiday cards for his last Christmas

Christmas is coming just a little bit early this year for Jacob Thompson.

The 9-year-old has a passion for penguins, Legos and “Star Wars,” but he especially loves the holiday season, his stepmother, Tara Artinyan told WXYZ.

Jacob was diagnosed with Stage 4 high-risk nueroblastoma when he was 5 years old. He was admitted to Portland’s Barabara Bush Children’s Hospital for the “last time” on Oct. 11, when doctors told the family he likely wouldn’t make it to Christmas.

According to the American Cancer Society, only half of the children diagnosed with the disease survive past 5 years of age.

“Jacob loves the holiday season,” his mother, Michelle Thompson Simard told Good Housekeeping. “And we want him to know that Christmas wishes come true and that there are good people who care all around the world.”

The 9-year-old’s wish? That everyone send him Christmas cards so that he can celebrate his favorite holiday early.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/cancer-patient-9-asks-holiday-cards-christmas-article-1.3611054?cid=bitly

OK, FOLKS…. WE ALL HAVE CHRISTMAS CARDS AROUND AND WE HAVE A STAMP. I PROMISE YOU’LL FEEL BETTER ABOUT YOURSELF IF YOU TOOK 2 MINUTES TO SEND THIS YOUNG MAN A CARD. I’M SURE ONCE THE WORD GETS AROUND HE’LL GET A LOT, BUT I’M ASKING YOU AS A FAVOR TO REPRESENT OUR LITTLE GARDEN TO SHOW JACOB HE IS LOVED.

If you’re interested in sending in cards, address them to:

Jacob Thompson

C/O Maine Medical Center

22 Bramhall St.

Portland, ME 04102