Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa Hagadorn

Hi, this is Lizzie aka; Mom, Nannie, Grandma, Great Grandma (GG) and this is my first blog.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did, as it brought back great memories.  It is the Hagadorn Christmas, starting with my Henrys’ home in Menands, NY up to our house in Apalachin.

This is Henry’s  parents’  house (where he grew up) and where he started putting up outside lights. He was only 10 years old (65 years ago). At the time, there were very few outside lights in Menands and Albany.  The green strip was called princess pine rope and was hand made by a neighbor. The lights were wrapped around the pine.  The Santa face over the front door we still have and put it out every year. You will see it in other pictures.

 

 

 

These are two pictures from our first and only apartment

Now we (including Henry at 2 weeks old) moved into our first house.  Look closely at the bookcase. There are 3 stockings, Henry – Betty (name used in Albany) and little Henry. However, we wound up with 4 kids and 6 stockings!!

The next two pictures are of our second house in Latham.  I couldn’t find any pictures of the outside, so maybe we didn’t put them up…although I doubt that!!

Well we are now at our house in Apalachin.  Over the years,   I have talked (nagged and bribed) Henry into more and more outdoor lights and decorations.  But, a few years ago he said he was too old and decrepit to continue with all we had.  At that time, it would take him 12 hours on Saturday and another 12 on Sunday to do all the outdoor lights and two Christmas trees and a train. Then another couple of days to finish up all the lights in the windows and around all the doors and under the kitchen cabinets.  By then he had enough and I would finish up putting the balls and such on the trees and arrange the city by the trains (which had lights in them).  I even covered all the doors and some pictures with wrapping paper. I emptied all the bookcases and tables and put Christmas things in their place.  The fireplace mantle was totally transformed into Christmas (you will see a church there and that was Henry’s when he was little so it is probably 70 years old and still plays silent night. Son Henry always loved that so he will inherit that someday.  

After Christmas we had to reverse the whole procedure and put everything back. No wonder he doesn’t want to do it anymore!! There are two pictures of the garage doors and in the middle is the original Santa face from 65 years ago. Also note, we are back to two stockings and as Henry would say, Thank God!!  My favorite is my manger and every year after Christmas Eve mass and dinner, one of the kids and later on grandkids, would take a turn putting the Baby Jesus in the manger.  A lot of the Christmas pieces I made at Donna’s ceramic shop. I also got some flak from Henry as I always decorate the bathrooms too.   Thrills him to pieces...NOT!! 

 

Now for the notorious MOOSE!!  Henry had been complaining for years about all the work he had to do for Christmas.  Then Donna and Mike bought us the MOOSE. Well that put Henry over the edge and he told everyone who mentioned said MOOSE how he felt about it and where he really wanted to put it and truthfully it was not on the front lawn. That went on for many years and a couple of incidents where neighbor kids even put our beloved MOOSE up in our tree. By the way, this MOOSE had many many lights on it and they always seemed to have to be replaced every year. This went on for a long time until one morning the MOOSE was gone!! Henry was ecstatic with joy. When asked what happened to Lizzie’s beloved MOOSE, all he would say was it was money well invested.  The kids live under a threat of losing their inheritance if anyone replaces it.

 

 

Now, moving on to Jared and Santa.   As you can see, Jared  was not happy at all and no one could shut him up. As a result, Santa gave up and left.   At least that is my story and I am sticking to it!!!

 

Well I hope you enjoy a look at the Hagadorn s Christmas’s over the years as much as I did doing it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE