![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/song-sparrow-2154-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"song-sparrow-2154-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nMy chance to wish a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season to all of my readers. And to express some of what the season means to me at this stage in my life.<\/p>\n
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I don’t have many photos that express the flavor of the holiday season very well but this one of a Song Sparrow on a sparkly, icy perch comes close. It was taken in January at Farmington Bay WMA on a magical morning when the entire universe seemed to be covered in thick hoarfrost that sparkled in the sunlight. The puffed up sparrow was picking seeds out of the encrusted ice and ‘he’ was just as content as he could be as he warmed up in the morning sun while he was eating.<\/p>\n
On this Christmas morning I hope each and every one of my readers is as happy and content as this bird seemed to be. But I hope you’re a little warmer than he was.<\/p>\n
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At my age, when not much of my family is left and those who are still with us live out of state, Christmas is as much about memories as is it is about anything. As I often do on Christmas Eve I spent part of last night going through old family photos – many of them taken during the holiday season. The following photos are two of them that I reminisced about as they related to Christmas.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ronnie-and-mona-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"ronnie-and-mona-ron-dudley\\"")
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When we were little kids, Christmas was a huge deal for me and my younger sisters, Mona and Sheila. I was a bit of a hellion about trying to find my Christmas presents early that weren’t even wrapped yet that my parents had stashed away somewhere in the house. And sometimes I succeeded, including the year before this photo was taken when I found my Lone Ranger outfit, complete with cowboy hat, vest, mask, holster, cap pistol and ‘silver’ bullets that my parents had hidden deep within a back closet. To say that Mona, Sheila and I were excited about approaching Christmas is an understatement.<\/p>\n
One of the things mom used to do with us to keep our Christmas excitement under control was let us look at old family photos that my parents always stored in old Roi-Tan cigar boxes. We thought that was great fun, something special because mom was very protective of those family photos so we weren’t allowed to go through them very often.<\/p>\n
I have a clear memory of this particular photo. Mom was kneeling in front of us with the camera aimed our way and trying to get us both to smile. Finally she resorted to singing the old Christmas song “All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” and given the fact that my two front teeth were missing Mona and I (Sheila was just a baby) thought that song was hilarious so we broke out laughing. And mom snapped the photo.<\/p>\n
So many warm memories in this photo, not all of them related to Christmas – including that old green sofa that was in our family for years and the iron-on patches on the knees of my jeans that mom continually had to replace. And of course Mona, who we lost to cancer when she was still a relatively young woman.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/moms-note-on-the-back-of-the-photo-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"moms-note-on-the-back-of-the-photo\\"")
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This is what my mom wrote on the back of the photo.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/img042.jpg\" "\\"tommy")
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Our family tried to be together for most Christmases of my adult life, whether it be in Montana, California, Utah or Colorado. And it was always our tradition for me and my dad to wrap our presents for the rest of the family on Christmas Eve in his wood shop or mine or Mona’s or Sheila’s garage. My parents lived with me for the last five years of their lives and this photo was taken on Christmas Eve in my garage\/wood shop while we were doing exactly that.<\/p>\n
Dad took the photo. My dog Tommy (not my choice of name, he was already named when I got him) was so excited he wouldn’t stay up on my paint\/gluing table so I had to resort to devious methods. I had him trained to “stay” even when I’d put food in front of him until I said “get it” so for this photo I’d put a treat next to the green bow on the package in front of him. As you can see he was absolutely ‘glued’ to that biscuit until dad took the photo and I said ‘get it’.<\/p>\n
Oh, and by the way – see that old, very old, air compressor tank at the lower right? I rescued it from the Montana farm years after we sold it. It belonged to my dad and before that possibly to my grandfather who originally bought the farm in 1930.\u00a0 Not a Christmas memory but certainly a meaningful one for me.<\/p>\n
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Sorry, I’ve rattled on for too long, much longer than I intended to. But as you can see my Christmas memories mean a lot to me. I hope that you have as many of those memories as I do and that you’re building on them this holiday season.<\/p>\n
Merry Christmas everyone!<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My chance to wish a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday Season to all of my readers. And to express some of what the season means to me at this stage in my life.<\/p>\n