Born in 1977!

Michelle, A Haiku

Born December 8th
Mom and Daddy brought her home
Said we must keep her

Just kidding! I’ve loved you from the first day! Happy birthday!

Love,
Andi

p.s. Click on the title (”Michelle”) for a bonus pictorial poem.

This poem was written for my Dad on June 16, 1983 in honor of his Dad, my Grandpa Frieden.

GRANDPA
Shoulders stooped—walking slow.
At the time I didn’t know
What strength—what character inside stood
Straight and tall—strong and good.

A child can’t see what’s gone before.
And, grandpa’s are always old and worn.
The days of joy and years of work
Had given him his “Grandpa Look”.

Thinking now, I see a man
Who’s motto was “I know I can”.
He lost a few but kept on goin’
The heritage he left is still a showin’.

Chicago, Muscatine, Miami, DeWitt
Burlington, Decatur, some places it has hit.
The Army, Navy, Air Force and Washington D.C.
Has felt the force of Grandpa—how proud he would be.

He left us truth and honesty and pride in all we do
The force of Grandpa Frieden lives on and on YOU!

Happy Father’s Day 1983

ALMOST FORGOTTEN—by Mary for our Dad, Floyd whose birthday is December 17th.
December–what a jolly good time of year.
Lots of good food, real laughter and cheer.
Planning and whispering—running about.
“What’s all the fuss?” some say with a shout.
This month is special in more ways than one,
And it holds lots of memories—most of them fun.

Christmas took all the attention it seemed…
Santa Claus, stockings, reindeer—we dreamed.
The excitement was too much—-we could hardly wait.
Could we ge good before ’twas too late?
That was the hardest, but we did our best.
And many times in December we were put to the test!

Santa always had problems—just our luck,
Why, one year he even managed to get stuck!
It was a good thing our Dad was about,
‘Cause he and a neighbor pulled Santa right out!
It was always a mystery to me as a kid
Why we never saw Santa, but Dad always did.

The thoughts of Santa and Christmas fun
Took all our attention from December one.
Another important date ‘most slipped by
In all our excitement for December to fly.
But, we wouldn’t have a Christmas each year
If it wasn’t for someone we hold dear.
The seventeenth is special too
‘Cause none of this could have happened without “you know who”.

Happy Birthday, Dad, before we forget.
We love you much and owe you a debt.
Thanks for the memories you gave us each year,
And though some be far, those memories keep us near.
We can’t all be there, but your day will be great.
Happy Birthday to you in 1978!

Yea for the first weekend in December. This is my fifth Christmas season in Houston, but it was still pretty weird when Michelle and I went down to the Christmas tree lot to pick out our tree Saturday morning. As we tried to decide between tall ones and skinny ones and fat ones, and ones with bald spots, firs, and blue spruce… beads of sweat dripped down our confused faces. Just another hot humid Houston December morning. We brought the tree home and took turns sitting on/ wrestling it while the other sawed on the end a little. Eventually we got it drug in the house, stood up, and watered. Sure it is the spitting image of a very Christmassy Leaning Tower of Pisa. But it is upright. Mostly. Joe was at the Big 12 Championship game. And that’s the last time we give in to a wild hair to get the tree while he is out of pocket. Probably. The tree is undecorated. We are pretending this is because we believe the branches will fall into place if we let it sit for a while. In reality we could let it “sit for a while” (like 12 weeks) and you could still place little presents like Hummers or Swing Sets in the holes between the branches. Joe’s parents came over today to grill out for lunch and Joe’s mom kindly said “I love it when you can see through the branches of the trees like that.” Yeah, you can see through them all right. Almost like they aren’t even there. I ’spose I’ll convince Joe to crawl up in the attic to gather the decorations at some point, but we took a family vote and Joe & Michelle won — there will be no hanging of the lights on the house this year. In fairness it is a two day affair that succeeds only in keeping us up all night with the blinking and glaring of the lights into our bedroom window… but still, it’s hard to complain when you string lights in 70 degree weather. Unless you are Michelle & Joe. Because they do the actual “stringing” while I, very importantly, direct the stringing activities. Ah well, maybe next year. We kicked of the first festive weekend with the firm’s Christmas do. A good time was had by all. And now, I’m off to finish up the back of the Christmas quilt so that I can start the actual quilting this week. Yes, I know, you are jealous of my rock star life style. I can hardly blame you.

Hi All,
Virg and I have had our 2nd cup of coffee on this snowy winter morning as we prepare to hustle and bustle in preparation of the next family event…..
Early Christmas With Chad, Missy, and Riley on the weekend of the 17th.

I thoroughly enjoy all the preparations for shared family time. Mom and Dad involved us not only in the fun of the day but also the preparing for the day. We have to clean, cook, decorate, shop, wrap presents, do cards (or not), bake, and ……… all so that we can make more memories with our family. Doris asked if I could use her help in getting ready for the kids, so I quickly accepted. She will go with me to my company party next Friday night and then spend the whole weekend helping with baking and cleaning and anything else that needs done. Sisters are the best! I will quickly add that it is great to have brothers too. One year when I was newly married but was sick before Christmas my brother John brought me my first store-bought Christmas tree as he knew I wasn’t able to go cut my own in the woods as I had in the past.

Preparation for Christmas reminds me of preparing for Heaven. Each of us must choose to follow Christ so that we are in His family… and then make our earthly preparations for joining Him in Heaven some day.

May all of you enjoy December as you prepare to be with family to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Many years ago Robin introduced a birthday cake for Jesus at our Christmas. Mom always read the Christmas story from the Bible and Dad prayed before gifts could be opened. They are all celebrating in Heaven this year together. We are so thankful for the wonderful times we all have spent together.

Happy preparations.
Donna

Sounds like everyone had a pretty good Thanksgiving. So glad to hear it. Hope everyone got a chance to do that all embarrassing circle around the table where everyone has to say what they are thankful for. Joe’s family made me do it. Hope somebody made you do it too. If you live in a world where someone doesn’t shame you into saying Thanks on Thanksgiving, I’m sorry. But here’s your chance. I gave my embarrassed head hung word of thanks in front of the whole in-laws family. It’s tradition, and my mom made lots of people do it over the years at our house, so it was my turn. But now that I’ve had a week to think about all the things I have to be thankful for this year, I figured I’d send it out into cyberspace, without everyone hungrily waiting for me to do it, ready to pounce on the Turkey and Cran, wondering if I’ll do the Huge No-No “skip me”. I really am very thankful this year. Maybe more than ever. Maybe because I’m older. Maybe because I now know better how important it is to remember how good life really is and how blessed we are to have it. I’m thankful for my parents. For loving me, for teaching me, for working together first, and for us second. I’m thankful God — and my parents — gave me built in best friends. For Michelle and her caring kind loving selfless bold sensitive tenacious protective loyal and giving way. For Jonathan my big little brother my roommate my friend my confidant and protector when times seemed too tough to go alone and someone who looks up to me and takes care of me at the very same time. For Robert and his good nature and hilarious dark humor his good taste in wives and his ability to act like he is doing nothing at all while silently carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. For Kristin who holds us all together without a complaint for loving us all like she’s known us forever and being one of us even when that is not a fun thing to be. For baby girl Frieden who I already love and who reminds me that we have so much good life ahead. For Liz. Sweet Liz. Heart of gold, spirit of fire, voice of an angel. My little Liz. My grown up friend. With a grown up life, helping me through grown up problems who is still just my sweet little Lizzie. For Benn, a rock, who would come over and wake up a brother and drive him where he needs to be and for loving Liz and letting her grow up into a beautiful independent woman… because I would keep her eight years old if I could. For Daniel. Dan the man, our baby boy with the ancient soul. genious. silent and strong. And for Isaac, our reminder that God does not make mistakes. I am thankful I get to work at the job I’ve wanted since I was 8, that I have been blessed to abundance, for so many friends and family, for the two spiral bound cookbooks in my cupboard holding the memories and reminders of my heritage (and keeping my family from starving to boot), for my puppies to love, for Joe’s family, for DVR (I can’t help it, DVR is fab). For my God and his sacrifice and the blessings of answered prayers every day in every thing I ask (whether I always know it right away or not, I know it always works). I’m so thankful for the promise that I don’t have to understand everything, because He does. And all things work together for good. For things so numerous I can barely count. And for my husband, my best friend, my enough.