Christmas Memories: A Memoir of our Christmas Traditions and Most Memorable Christmases During our First Fifty Years of Marriage.

This book is a memoir of the Christmas traditions plus a collection of short stories embodying the most memorable Christmases of Edmund and Virginia Hansen during their first fifty years of marriage. The short stories include: Christmas 1956 Our first Christmas together and we baked the Christmas Tree. Christmas 1959 We knew we weren't in Kansas anymore when our plane landed in a raging blizzard in Chicago. What happened next was a traveler's worst nightmare. Christmas 1963 Family Christmas activities are always planned to the minutest detail. Having a baby on Christmas day wasn't planned, but it happened. Christmas 1979 Suddenly, right after Thanksgiving, a family of Southeast Asian refugees arrived at our airport without sponsors. The five little girls with ages between 3 and 11 stole our hearts and our family increased by seven. Christmas 1987 The Christmas wedding of our youngest son was planned but thieves almost ruined the occasion. It was rescued by the magic-of-Christmas. Christmas 1992 How do you spend Christmas 1992 with your sick son knowing he will not live to see Christmas 1993? We faced this dilemma and see how is was handled. Christmas 1993 One son dead and another critically wounded in combat. How do you survive all this and still celebrate Christmas? Christmas in July 2005 The occasion was the wedding of an Asian granddaughter. As patriarch of the family my toast speech was: Remembrances, Dreams and the Fourth of July. Christmas in June 2006 Our 50th wedding celebrations, all of them.