Christmas 1977 and 78

Many things happened during 1977 including our move to our new home in February. In fact, almost everything in our lives changed with that move. Tammy and Jennifer went to a new school, and we moved our church membership to a new church. We made new friends in our community and at church. Eva and our girls got involved in more activities and got to know the teachers much better. The teachers lived in the Village, went to the same church, and shopped at the same stores.

I was still traveling often for work, and we did not close on the sale of our first house until late September, so I was very busy taking care of both houses for several months. We had moved further away from where our parents lived so it was more difficult to visit them as often as we had before the move. Our visits to see our parents would be shorter so that we could visit both sets of parents on the same day, usually Saturdays. Our family was involved at church, more than before our move. Those family visits became less frequent while dealing with day-to-day issues.

When it was time for Christmas, we wanted to have our Christmas at our house, and we invited Mom and Dad to come to our house to exchange presents and share a Christmas meal that Eva had cooked. It was quieter than normal with fewer people than normal for Christmas, but it was time that Tammy and Jennifer had with Mom and Dad with fewer distractions.

That would be Dad’s last Christmas and I am so glad that I have pictures of Mom and Dad from the time they shared with us. Dad passed away in July 1978 and Christmas would be different without him. The other picture is from 1978 Christmas at Mom’s house and Momma and Daddy Jones were there. Both were incredibly special in their own way.