Homecoming!!

Alice and Axel are here for a short visit.

 

Harry and Dawn came over to say hi!  (and enjoy some Clayton Chocolate Chip Cookies!)

 

Of course Mother and Donna joined in the fun.  It was a very nice evening!!

Our family is so large - one drawback is not being able to see everyone as much as you would like.  But we try to enjoy it when we do get to visit.

Happy Birthday Hester!!

I'm pretty sure I post this photo every year on Hester's birthday.  So you wouldn't want me to stop now, would you??

 

And we can't do a Kerksiek post without this precious photo!!  Gotta love the hair here!!

 

And I didn't have all night to find a more recent photo of Hester - so here she is with Ida as a newborn.

Hester has always been part of the Terrill family life it seems - and we are so glad for that.  She's a wonderful daughter, sister, aunt, wife, mother, niece, granddaughter and friend.

Happy day to you - and all year through!!

Upcoming events

I can't believe that it's been two years already!!  Axel comes home next month!  Where has the time gone?

I am pretty sure it's gone by at the rate of 60 minutes per hour, 24 hours per day, but it still seems fast.

The exciting thing is, Axel and Alice are coming to LA to visit my mom - and anyone else who wants to visit them I am sure.

I'm excited for them to come.  I remember another much-longer ago time when Alice, Dale and family - before Axel was born - before Hester, Hannah and Maddy were born too for that matter - came to LA in February.

It rained every day. Started the day they came, ended the day they left.

That could happen again.  But it won't matter.

Over the years we've learned what's important in a visit.

It's the visit!!

Advent - day seven

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love brought to me, seven certain suitcases, six singing souls, five Yulenissers, four Christmas stockings, three special wishes, 2 rollers skates, and one very large sea kelp.

If you were one of the Clayton girls, you could wish for Samsonite luggage for Christmas - and your wish would come true. Samsonite luggage was available in the S&H Green Stamp Catalog. And it was nice luggage. Below is a picture of the kind I had. It was "hard" sided - and they really don't make that kind of luggage anymore - although I see a piece now and then. I'm not even sure when I finally got rid of all mine - I believe it was after we moved back to California. For many years I stored fabric in it!


Mine was gray. You didn't get a whole set - you got a piece each year, usually starting with the "cosmetic case." I remember thinking when I got the first piece when would I ever take a trip that would use all this lovely luggage!! (The irony here is that by the time I took a trip of some magnitude - to France - the luggage was too heavy for international travel, so I had to borrow Lyn's suitcase from his mission!)

But it took me off to college - I'm not even sure how many pieces I had, but it might have been three - the cosmetic case, a large piece, and a medium sized piece. They were lined with a yellow silk-like fabric. They were quite deluxe. ("seven certain suitcases" was just for alliterative effect!)

Newer luggage came into vogue - soft-sided, much lighter, and more flexible. Like a lot of "must haves," "must have" luggage went the way of the Edsel!!

Note: Harry and I returned from Virginia recently and my large red suitcase was ruined - the handle wouldn't go down once we got it up. Harry took it apart and discovered that the metal tube that the handle went up and down in had been seriously bent.

That would never have happened with my gray Samsonite luggage!