Christmas, 1992

The 1992 picture was taken in our living room with the tree as a backdrop.  Dan and Diane were 56 with Cindy (25), Lynn (26) and Kate (22).  Diane's diary follows. Neither the picture nor the words are in my book,  Pieces of a Life.

Dec. 26, 1992 - Saturday   "Yesterday was Christmas.  It went well after a tiring Christmas Eve  - ended up cooking til 11:30 PM - had a mishap with the salmon ball that caused a flare-up beween Dan and myself.  

Had the 3 boyfriends here - Tim, Jim and Bruce plus Vi.  Had an 18 lb. turkey and many dishes, mostly new ones.  

This was the first year that we broke our Christmas Eve ritual of putting out cookies & milk for Santa and coming in to see it all gone the next day (on film).  

Heather Reis and her boyfriend ,  Kip, dropped by.  Ended up talking health & vitamins to them because of an injury - twice - Kip had.  Snapped the Achilles' tendon.

Lynn & Jim left right after dinner to go to northern Wisconsin to use their new snowmobiles.  The other 4 were here all afternoon.  We drove Vi to Riccio's at 5:30.  Cindy & Tim stuck around til about 7 or 7:30 - then went to T-Ann's.    

Today Dan and I both did some Christmas errands first thing. Got bogged down in a long Ken phone call about Mom, $$, etc.  They only go well if one agrees with him, no matter how taxing it is to do that.

I think about Mom all the time.  She could live many years.  How sad that she doesn't know she has grandchildren or to be able to picture her own life other than from moment to moment...It's ironic.  She was so careful to diary her life, to keep everything in order."

At this point my mother, Ruth Meredith Kellogg (86), was in an Alzheimer's facility in FL. Her husband, John, had died in 1987 at age 87.  Brother Ken and his wife, Nellie, lived close by her in FL.

Heather Reis was a good friend of Lynn's.  The 3 boyfriends sorted out this way: Tim and Cindy, who dated several years and were living in Seattle,  Kate and Bruce, who dated a shorter time and Lynn and Jim Waldman, who dated 10 1/2 years and were married in 1995.  

Dan's sister, Vi, was 72.  Her husband, Chuck Saletta, who was 10 years older, had passed on.  She was in good health at this point, but that picture would darken later in her 70's.

Another important character in this story is Daisy, our yellow Labrador Retriever.  She had died on Aug. 22, 1992, just a few months before I wrote this page in my diary.  There are many mentions of her and how much I missed her, as did Dan and the girls.