Wednesday’s memory came from Huck. I loved all of the photos that were included. And I had planned this story for Hadi but then realized it was Huck’s birth, not Hadi’s. So here’s tonight’s family memory. I was headed in town with Andrew, Hailee and Brock to meet their youngest cousin. Our first mistake was asking my sister what hospital Huck and his parents and sister were in. We set out and found the hospital and headed to the 5th floor as instructed. Only to find out we were on the psych ward (it was a bit scary how easy it was to get there). We called and were told we were in the ‘wrong part of the hospital’ so we went and asked for the maternity area and found it. When we asked to go to Staci Poland’s room, we were told she wasn’t there. That’s when we were told we were in the wrong hospital. We eventually found them and met Huck!

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Tuesday’s picture was from Hadi with more memories-from Christmas last year and Thanksgiving this year. When I talked to the kids on Tuesday night, we had fun talking about some Poland Christmas/winter memories and thought I would share a few here (in no particular order)..

1. My mom’s decorations-the first several photos below show the many decorations Mom had in and out of the house. I don’t have an easily accessible photo of Santa’s Village that she painted but it used to be across the entire front yard every year. I did find the snowmen but I feel they were a later addition, after I was out of school. We also always had real candy canes on the tree and LOTS of ornaments. I can’t explain the underwear on the tree but several of the other ornaments are ones made by my mom or other family members. The photos of duck duck goose include Jamie’s mom Jolene but also show Mom’s collection of Santas in the front window. And then outside she made huge wooden ornaments for the Blue Spruce.
2. Pictures with Santa or at Santa’s Castle in the summertime! Can you spot my dad masquerading as Santa?
3. The snowmen-Hailee is convinced that her uncle Aaron knocked over her snowman when she was little and there is nothing anyone can say to make her think otherwise. I think Aaron may have even been out of town when the snowman melted but he still got blamed for it.
4. Building snowmen was a rare occurrence in Texas so I treasure that photo. When we were a bit older, it iced in Texas and Dad wanted to show us how to slide on the ice. So he sat in a lawn chair planning to slide down the front sidewalk. Instead, the legs of the chair slid out from under him and he went straight down.
5. We have lots of Christmas morning photos! Some of my favorites show our stockings that my Grandma made, our stuffed animals and blankets, and how we were getting along (at least for that day). You can also see the hobby horse that Aaron cut his eye on!