Archive for the 'Family Life' Category
CHRISTMAS 35 – 2005
Saturday, December 18th, 2010
My 35th Christmas on earth would come to represent many things. It was the last Christmas that Carolyn and I would spend together. It was the last Christmas that I would spend with my Grandma Murphy. It was the last Christmas that I would have without a nephew. And it was the only Christmas that I would spend with my purple furniture. Although Carolyn and I were going through a lot of problems, we managed to cope with the holiday quite well, decorating extensively complete with lighted garland hanging over our sliding door blinds. As we put up the tree and I looked at her under it, I wondered if this would be our last holiday season together. Read the rest of this entry »
The Holidays Before the Boy
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010
No matter how difficult it is to see just how, my parents did in fact have a short life together before I was born. In fact, they spent two Christmases together before I was even conceived: one as a newly dating couple who had only been together for a couple of months, and one as a married couple who had yet to set the wheels in motion of creating me and forming our family. There is a home movie that exists along with a small batch of photos showing my parents during this holiday. Read the rest of this entry »
CHRISTMAS 11 – 1981
Saturday, December 11th, 2010
The Christmas of 1981 was another one of the really, really good ones. I was inching my way out of childhood and toward adolescence. But whether I wanted to admit it or not, I was still a kid susceptible to the magic and allure of Christmas. Still full of excitement and anticipation of the moment that the gun would signal the opening of the gifts. This was a very pleasant time in my life. As a fourth grader, I was kept very active by my Mom, participating in several extra-curricular activities. December was a busy month, as it yielded the fruits of these many clubs. Read the rest of this entry »
The Murlin Cousins Reunion
Thursday, December 9th, 2010
When my Mom was a kid, her extended family was not quite as close as our Murphy clan is today, but they were pretty tight-knit. My great grandmother Henrietta Murlin (nee Dwyer) lived in my Mom’s household for the last years of her life, so her children and grandchildren (that is, my Mom’s aunts and uncles and cousins) were paying frequent visits to their house. So although they didn’t do the mass family gatherings that my generations of cousins have been used to, they got to see each other quite a bit. Read the rest of this entry »