When I began this I had not thought of past Christmas' for a very long time. We do not have any pictures of any Christmas of me as a child growing up after my mother remarried, only from when I was 2 and 3 years old before my parents divorced and I do not remember them at all. This really brought back memories for me and it was a good feeling this year to think of these things. Christmas Memories - d/o Mary Alice Puckett and Richard Warren Null, gd/o Mary Augusta Myers and Eddie Clarence Puckett, gt gd/o Sarah Ann Jobe and Simpson Myers, gg gd/o Edward Jobe and Isabelle Fincher http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~ajobebrown/jobe/letters_ch_copple_myers.html Christmas Through The Years (see photos) by Freida M. (Null) Wells December 8, 2004 I have several fond memories from Christmas� past. My Mom and Dad divorced when I was 4 years old and we moved first to Wichita, Kansas and then finally back to Sedan, Kansas where my grandparents lived and where my Mother grew up. In 1957 (before she remarried) she had bought me a doll for Christmas. She looked like a Barbie but cost much less. My mother was a nurse most of her adult life and she worked the 11 pm to 7 pm shift this particular year. Well she handmade all the clothes for my doll. I have a photo that one of the other nurses took of her working on them. I don�t remember what I named her, but I still have her and the clothes that Mom made. In facts I have all my dolls from when I was a child. After my Mom remarried money was tight and she would have my step-brother and I look through the Sears catalog and pick out three things that we liked and she would always try and get at least one of them. She always made my clothes and I always got something handmade from her. It was usually something I had found in the catalog that I really like and would keep me in style with all the girls at school. I was always into fashion and still am. Purses and shoes are my weakness. The next one I remember is when Robert �Robi� my son was little. We were living in Arkansas City, Kansas. Well this particular year he wanted a bicycle like all little boys, so we got one and Leon stayed up most of the night putting it together (this is when they came in a box) and then took it to the garage out back of our place to hide it. It just so happens that we got up before he did so Leon got the bicycle and brought it into the house and placed it by the tree and when Robi got up you should have seen his face! I have a wonderful photo of him with his first bike. It is a priceless picture of a 6 year old boy! A couple of years later we moved to the country and I loved living in the country. Wide open spaces, clean air and it is quiet. Leon drove for Groendyke Transport and hauled crude oil. This particular year I wanted to put up a cedar tree. So Leon started watching around the different fields and he would spot one out and watch it all thru the summer and fall and if it was still in good shape we would all get in the pickup and go out and he and Robi would cut the tree and we would take it back and Robi and I would decorate it. Those were fun times and I really miss them. The next Christmas was the first one we had with the family after moving to New Mexico in 1984. Now this is the year that got me started on genealogy. We had visited some good friends in our home town of Sedan, Kansas and he got his family history out and we were taking about families and when they arrived in the area. After we returned home I began to get interested and as the saying goes �The Rest is History� I finally found my calling in life and have enjoyed every minute it! Now that Robi is grown and we have no grandkids around close Christmas does not have the meaning it once did. Guess that is a sign that I am getting older. The greatest present that I have ever received was this year, and that is the story that my mother wrote and gave me about Past Christmas' in our Puckett family. I will cherish it for as long as I live and it will certainly be passed on to my son who I hope will treasure it as much as I do now. I have done a �Christmas Past� family newsletter this year and ask all my cousins to send me their favorite Christmas story and so I hope a new tradition has been started and will keep going. Merry Christmas to you and God Bless all of us!