Christmas Gifts
What were your favorite gifts both to receive and to give? Are there specific gift-giving traditions among your family or ancestors?
Addressing just the second question--I remember in my early 20s that my family of origin would have a AM Christmas and a PM Christmas.
On Christmas morning (above left, 1981), the tree would be loaded with gifts to and from my parents and siblings. When my maternal grandmother, maternal aunt, and sometimes maternal great aunt and maternal uncle and his family would arrive in the afternoon (above right, 1981, with our basset hound Barney in front), there'd be a whole 'nother load of presents put under the tree for all of us to open.
Below are family from my mother's side opening gifts on Christmas afternoon, 1982. From left are my aunt Mary Anne Sarmiento Guokas, great uncle Don Gould, grandmother Sara Wolfe Guokas Archibald, cousin Sophia Sarmiento, family friend Sister Cecilia, and great aunt Edith Wolfe Gould. You can see my aunt Sister Jean Marie Guokas' black veil (the back of her head) in the foreground, and my uncle Charles Guokas III is on the floor.
(Post #10 in the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories hosted by Geneabloggers.com. Originally published December 10, 2009; slight variations made in 2010.)© Amanda Pape - 2011 - click here to e-mail me.
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