Merry Christmas 2022 from the Gichards!
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Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Sunday, December 4, 2022
Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Friday, December 18, 2020
Sunday, December 22, 2019
Merry Christmas 2019
Merry Christmas 2019 from the Gichards! We did some traveling this year, had some wonderful experiences in our home state and had wonderful times with family and friends.
We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year!
We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year!
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| Clockwise, starting top right: we visited D.C. in July when we were back East for the Gobbo Family Reunion, we day tripped to Homer in August, and we took a helicopter flight to Yanert Glacier during our Labor Day weekend road trip to Denali (bottom two) |
Saturday, December 8, 2018
Friday, December 22, 2017
Friday, December 9, 2016
Remembering Gobbo Christmases
One of my favorite memories of Christmases past is spending them at my grandparents house in New York.
The beginning of such memories always began with one of my favorite pasttimes - the road trip there. Said road trip always culminated with turning the corner into my grandparents neighborhood. You knew you were getting close when we passed the neighbor electrician's house and his National Lampoon-style Christmas light display. I often remember dozing in the car and the brightness of the lights waking me up!
Depending on the year and who else was staying at the house I would occasionally sleep in one of the upstairs bedrooms, and sometimes in the downstairs room that led up to the kitchen. I remember waking up to the sounds of everyone having breakfast in the kitchen through the slatted doors. For Christmas trips we never slept in the back rec room that were our most slept-in sleeping quarters, since that was where the Christmas tree was and were Santa Claus left the presents. Which reminds me of the year they agreed to leave a video camera in the rec room to catch Santa - the next morning we discovered that it had been set up next to his plate of cookies and we got to see his arm reach in for his cookies in his red suit.
Christmas Eve day was always a great day of hanging out with the grandparents and often watching old Christmas movies on TV (while Dad and Grandpa watched various sporting events in the living room). In the evening, we'd get dressed up and head to mass at their local church. One thing that stands out is trying to find a parking space since the church is in the center of the town - and that part of town had cobbled streets (not sure if it still does). This sticks in my head, because at this age I was a tomboy and was usually wearing small-heeled shoes which were already a challenge for me to walk in, let alone on cobbles. Additionally, going to New York this time of year often meant ice, and even snow - which was odd for us since we lived in North Carolina and Virginia during my youth. This was often a time of year we would get to build actually snowmen and play in the snow - and for Christmas to boot! On the way to Christmas Eve mass we would discuss whether or not the local priest would be giving the homily or if it was a visiting priest - as the New Yorkers often talked faster making for a shorter mass :) Once we got back to the house my dad continued our annual tradition of reading Twas the Night Before Christmas to us. I remember one year it got a bit out of hand in altering the original words and Mom had to come in to get us to quiet down (Dad was definitely the instigator, and this added to the tradition each year of making up the best new words).
Christmas morning was of course fantastic. Grandma always gave the best boxed presents that matched a theme of whatever we were into that year. Grandma's dinner were always fantastic - regardless of it being a holiday. Often the day after Christmas we would go to another relative's house, they would come to us, and one year we even went into New York City! I remember after big family dinners all the cousins and aunts and grandma would gather at the dining room table and play Michigan Rummy.
Other random memories from Christmas was working on puzzles (always at Grandma's!), their silver (or white) fake Christmas tree, and enjoying their fireplace (seeing as how we did not have one in our house until we moved to Alaska). Growing up moving around so much, their home always felt like home even when new locations did not.
Christmas to me, is my grandparents.
The beginning of such memories always began with one of my favorite pasttimes - the road trip there. Said road trip always culminated with turning the corner into my grandparents neighborhood. You knew you were getting close when we passed the neighbor electrician's house and his National Lampoon-style Christmas light display. I often remember dozing in the car and the brightness of the lights waking me up!
Depending on the year and who else was staying at the house I would occasionally sleep in one of the upstairs bedrooms, and sometimes in the downstairs room that led up to the kitchen. I remember waking up to the sounds of everyone having breakfast in the kitchen through the slatted doors. For Christmas trips we never slept in the back rec room that were our most slept-in sleeping quarters, since that was where the Christmas tree was and were Santa Claus left the presents. Which reminds me of the year they agreed to leave a video camera in the rec room to catch Santa - the next morning we discovered that it had been set up next to his plate of cookies and we got to see his arm reach in for his cookies in his red suit.
Christmas Eve day was always a great day of hanging out with the grandparents and often watching old Christmas movies on TV (while Dad and Grandpa watched various sporting events in the living room). In the evening, we'd get dressed up and head to mass at their local church. One thing that stands out is trying to find a parking space since the church is in the center of the town - and that part of town had cobbled streets (not sure if it still does). This sticks in my head, because at this age I was a tomboy and was usually wearing small-heeled shoes which were already a challenge for me to walk in, let alone on cobbles. Additionally, going to New York this time of year often meant ice, and even snow - which was odd for us since we lived in North Carolina and Virginia during my youth. This was often a time of year we would get to build actually snowmen and play in the snow - and for Christmas to boot! On the way to Christmas Eve mass we would discuss whether or not the local priest would be giving the homily or if it was a visiting priest - as the New Yorkers often talked faster making for a shorter mass :) Once we got back to the house my dad continued our annual tradition of reading Twas the Night Before Christmas to us. I remember one year it got a bit out of hand in altering the original words and Mom had to come in to get us to quiet down (Dad was definitely the instigator, and this added to the tradition each year of making up the best new words).
Christmas morning was of course fantastic. Grandma always gave the best boxed presents that matched a theme of whatever we were into that year. Grandma's dinner were always fantastic - regardless of it being a holiday. Often the day after Christmas we would go to another relative's house, they would come to us, and one year we even went into New York City! I remember after big family dinners all the cousins and aunts and grandma would gather at the dining room table and play Michigan Rummy.
Other random memories from Christmas was working on puzzles (always at Grandma's!), their silver (or white) fake Christmas tree, and enjoying their fireplace (seeing as how we did not have one in our house until we moved to Alaska). Growing up moving around so much, their home always felt like home even when new locations did not.
Christmas to me, is my grandparents.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Christmas in Our New House
This year we hosted the family Christmas dinner at our new house. I had fun decorating the new house this year - we even got a new PRELIT Christmas tree!
After dinner we opened presents (and put together a puzzle).
Five years ago, to the day, we hosted Christmas dinner at our first home out in Chugiak:
What a difference five years makes!
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| "It sounds like Legos!" |
We hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Merry Christmas 2014 from the Gichards!
Merry Christmas 2014 from the Gichards! We had a very memorable year spanning from Amber losing her Grandpa and Andrew losing his Grandma, to Andrew's dream of seeing the Atlanta Braves play, to buying a new home, to graduating! We are so blessed with wonderful family, friends, and church to be with us in the good times and bad.
We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and wonderful new year!
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| Clockwise, starting top left: Flying in the Misty Fjords in Southeast Alaska, at the Braves game in Seattle, at the airshow with our friends, in front of our new house in Eagle River, on the beach in Destin, Florida for the Anderson reunion. |
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Holly Jolly Christmas Season 2013
Wow! What a great and busy Christmas season! This is a picture-loaded post with just a quick view of the goings-on that we participated in this past month - so enjoy and we hope you had a blessed Christmas season!
Our life group had an epic Christmas party with a white elephant gift exchange that involved some very bizarre gifts.
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| Tami and her new garden gnome, Figgaro |
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| Andrew and his new Duck Dynasty beard |
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| Livy was not too sure of Andrew's beard |
The weekend before Christmas we went caroling as a life group - it was not too chilly and we had a blast... even though we could not make it through a single song without giggling...
Finally Christmas Eve was spent helping out on the church's production team for ACF Church's 3 services. It was an amazing service, Christmas Light. One of my favorite Christmas Eve!
The church had a photo booth out again, so we got some shots done in between services.
Christmas day we headed to the Woodleys for dinner and opening presents with family.
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| Abby and Connor, a.k.a. Sully & Mike |
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| Abby making me a rainbow loom bracelet |
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| She likes her new mug! |
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| Connor and his new light-up watch |
The day after Christmas our life group hit the slopes - to go sledding. The same park we go to for baseball games also has a great sledding hill, with lights even! It was a long hike up, but was so so worth it!
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| Us girls doing a "train" |
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| The train derailed... |
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| Livy was tired when they got there |
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| Beautiful view from the top |
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| Andrew ready to head down the hill |
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| He made it to the bottom - that's him laying down next to the orange sled... |
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