Love, Mama - Early Years Part Two

After my mom and Jim were married, and he brought Mamie and Stephanie into our lives, I remember my mom searching for Anna, who was Jim's daughter that he had given up for open adoption when he was 16. My mom ended up finding Anna and she wanted to meet our family. I remember meeting her and thinking she was so cool. And so nice. She wanted to get to know Aaron and me as well as her "real" siblings Mamie and Stephannie. I was probably 6 or 7 at this time. At this time in my life, Jim's family was a big part of our lives. It seemed his entire family would always be together, and camp and hang out, and just do things together. I had gained a lot of new cousins, and some of them would become my best friends! Of course, Aaron and I were still seeing our Dad every other weekend and on holidays, and we were also very close with our Decker cousins. In fact, I remember the one Christmas that my Aunt Susan was pregnant with my cousin Danny, and she had to leave the festivities to go give birth! Or, it could have been Andy she was having, but I am pretty sure it was Danny.

Holiday were always a big thing in my family, on all sides. Before we moved from Blaine to Andover, Grandma Hilda and Grandpa Pops Jim would host Christmas Eve at their house in Fridley. Grandma always made Fattigman, yum! And we all always seemed to have a personalized item, such as a bath towel with our name on it, or one year she made us all our own individual afghans! I still have mine! I was fairly young, so remembering Christmas at Grandma Hilda's is sort of vague, because eventually it moved on to my Uncle Mike and Aunt Pat's house. And those were memorable times as well. Always a chow mien meal, and I always helped with dishes. Always the joke on the way there that those lights in the sky we saw were Santa and the Reindeer. After Grandma Hilda passed away, my mom began doing Christmas Eve at our house. I always remembered the salad bar spread she would put out, and the fun with the games we would play. And always opening presents for us kids on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day - for Aaron and I - were always reserved for our dad, John and his side of the family. Christmas was always, always at Grandma Louie's house. Grandpa George made spaghetti, and we would eat, read the Christmas poem that Grandpa wrote, and then do gifts!