The First Time

The first time I remember realizing that I was not a slim girl was in Mrs. Johnson’s third grade class at P.A. Walsh Elementary School in Morgan Hill, California.  I was EIGHT years old, for heaven’s sake.  For some reason… maybe we were learning how to measure things??… she weighed and measured everyone in the class.  AND she wrote the results on a L A R G E chart for all to see how they measured up.  Here we are in all of our 1974 glory.

That’s me in the back row…second tallest…with the tasteful mustard-yellow sweater dress …. without the glasses.  On the larger side of the scale is where I fell… heavily.  Pun intended.  The number 101 sticks out in my mind.  I weighed 101 pounds.  The only other kid in the WHOLE blinkin’ class that also had three digits on the chart was Raul.  He’s the kid in the back row on the far left…. we never said it aloud… but in our minds he was the fat kid in class…. the chart didn’t lie.  We all liked Raul and would never hurt his feelings, but kids do notice extremes and differences…. and triple digits on the chart. Raul weighed in at 103.  Slightly more than me.  Me and Raul…. the only kids over 100 pounds in Mrs. Johnson’s class. Did the other kids consider me the fat girl?  It never dawned on me until this moment. I don’t know. Hopefully they simply considered me “good German stock”… without a trace of German heritage.

Ok, but I WAS TALL for my age!  Height counts for more weight, right?  Right!  And our size didn’t dictate who are friends were at that age.  The girls I remember sharing tootsie-pops with while we swung on the bars were Johanna (pink shirt, top right), and Michelle (in a dress with white socks, front row).  If my fading memory serves me correct, the three of us enjoyed spending time with the three boys to the right of the teachers, Tony, Frankie and Jesse.  I could probably pick up each one of them and swing them around over my head.  I was tall AND strong.

The first time…. and sadly not the last time… I remember weighing more than everyone in the room.  Thankfully, that is over now.  Forever!

Christmas Favorites

Somewhere along this getting ready for Christmas journey I came across four questions to ask each family member.  Questions that make each of us stop and really THINK!  The point was to make sure we hit on a fav of each person to keep that memory alive for them.  Here are the questions I asked each of my kids, my husband and myself:  (OK, of course they couldn’t just answer the questions.  They had to ask me questions about why I’m asking questions.  Questions like: Are you going to use this in a talk?  Why do you want to know?  Are you asking the other kids?  What’s this for???  Sheesh, like I’m the gestapo or something.)

1.  What is your favorite Christmas food? This particular question brought on answers to make you salivate…. Nanaimo Bars, Grandma’s Spritz cookies, Auntie Julie’s sweet potatoes, stuffing and gravy, etc.  Pretty standard answers, if you ask me… and easy to duplicate (with just a few phone calls…. hint, hint, Grandma!)

2.  What is your favorite Christmas song?  Sadly, Elvis hit the list of 2 of 5 household members…. Blue Christmas.  Good grief.  That’s a sad song.  Thanks to my mother, we have a dancing Elvis statue in his gold  suit with Elvis strumming the guitar to “I’ll have a bluuuuue Christmas without yoooooou.”  I’m embarrassed to report that it was the first Christmas song Keeve could sing.  Not too many traditional songs made the list as we tend to listen to Christmas albums of contemporary artists, like Mariah Carey (All I Want for Christmas is You), Harry Connick Jr. (A Happy Ho Ho Ho to You), Steve Tyrell (Winter Wonderland), Go Fish (It’s About the Cross) and yes, Elvis.  Here is our favorite from Go Fish that includes a comedian:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAckfn8yiAQ . 

3.  What is your favorite Christmas activity?  This was a great idea to ask because I had no clue about a few of the things my kids came up with: watching It’s a Wonderful Life together as a family while drinking hot cocoa, carolling, playing games, seeing all the ornaments from our trips, baking goodies and sitting in the dark looking at the lit up tree.

4.  What is your favorite Christmas memory?  Of all my question asking surprises, this one won.  All five of us mentioned one or both of these times:  our family Christmas in Flagstaff and the Christmas we delivered gifts to a family in need.  The Flagstaff Christmas is worthy of its own blog… in the next few days, I promise.  And the gift giving one is here:  https://mysistersjar.wordpress.com/2008/02/11/5-from-my-sisters-jar/  

We spent this evening telling good-ol’-family-stories… that only THIS family could possibly laugh at.  Those including calls to 911, paramedics, trips to the hospital, surgeries, hallucinations after anesthesia, barfing from the top bunk, Great Grandma killing a bird, etc.  SEE! Only THIS family!   What fun!  Make some family memories this season of Jesus’ birth.

Twenty-One Years of Sweet Righteous Monogamy

Today is our 21st anniversary.  I thought I would take a few moments to reminisce about May 9, 1987. 

It was a sunny day in Sunnyvale, California and the wedding was set for 2:00.  Rick came knocking at my parent’s front door at 9:00 a.m. for his wedding day haircut from me.  I’m sure he was adding up all the haircut money that he would save over his lifetime by marrying a woman who runs with scissors.

The photographer arrived at the house to take pictures of me, my family and the bridesmaids: Christy, Connie, Jan, Kathy and Deidre.  Most of them were taken in the bricked courtyard on white wrought iron chairs.  Arriving next at my parent’s home was Rick’s family… we all just looked at each other for a while……. they were misinformed about where they were to be for pictures, so they rushed off to the church.

The wedding party gathered at the church before the ceremony for pictures, so as not to make the guests wait later on.   Our church at that time was also a school so we were married in the sanctuasium.  I was walked slowly down the aisle right over the volleyball and basketball court where I spent many an athletic hour during high school.  Lunch was basically forgotten in the photography/wedding schedule and we ended up eating McDonald’s burgers in the girl’s locker room right before the ceremony.

Finally 2:00 arrived, the gym filled with friends and family.  Right before my dad and I entered, he turned to me and said, “If there’s any reason that you need to leave, I’ll go with you right now.”  Wasn’t that nice?!  My last out, but I declined the offer.  Thanks anyway, Dad.

It was a Canadian/American wedding, so we signed the registry for the Canadians and later I smashed cake in Rick’s face for the Americans.  I never told Rick ahead of time about the USA cake-smashing-in-face tradition until after the wedding.  The only glitch the entire day was that the dry ice melted before it was to be added to the punch fountain.

We said “I do.”  We kissed.  We greeted everyone in attendance.  We ate cake and listened to a few good stories from our past.  We threw the bouquet, garter belt and were out of there by 5:00 in my brother’s blue Corvette.  When our guests started throwing bird seed at us, my brother took off his tux jacket and tried to cover the T-top of his car.  :o)  Sorry, Rob. 

I do remember that my face totally hurt because of smiling for an entire day.  I think I’ll dig out the 21 year old video and pop some popcorn for tonight’s family entertainment.

Thanks, Rickey, for being my knight in shining armor, brave and true.  I love you.  XOXO Lin

www.LindaCrosby.com