ADVENT DAY 18: DOROTHY’S FINAL ENTRY

Just before Christmas in 1947 Vance Dobson and I were married, and he began decorating outside. And that grew, too. Others were decorating, too, and various organizations encouraged lighting and this, too, grew. Vance made shapes, wreaths, and cut different pictures out of plywood. Once there was a horse and sleigh, once a Madonna and child. There were many star shapes at various times. The wreaths changed through the years, too, and the lights that he put up were never in the same pattern. I still did all inside decorating with lights in the windows and the two trees. [The photo of Mother and Daddy was taken in the early '50s.]

Now [that Vance is gone], the children and grandchildren come to help [decorate] and it gets done when they can do it. So we get decorated one way or another.

We draw names for gifts now and I am grateful that most of the children still come for Christmas Eve. Some stay and some go home but we still hang seventeen stockings.

Dorothy's Family
Harriet, Joni, Charles
Kathy and Nina
c. 1953