A Sad Christmas for my sister Carole!

While looking for Family Histories to add to Linda's new Blog I found an article in a Larson Family newsletter from 1982. My sister Carole, who is six years younger than I, had written about "A Christmas I Remember". If I had known about this, I had certainly forgotten, and it could be that since I was a teenager at the time whose life revolved around my friends and current new boyfriend I may not have even been aware of it.

This is the story. I was a junior in high school. Carole would have been in 5th or 6th grade. While she was doing her early Christmas snooping she found a beautiful doll hidden underneath Mom's bed. She said, "It had real hair, eyes that open and shut and a very "fussy" white dress and bonnet. I was so excited as I knew it had to be for me, even though I was getting a little old myself.  Indeed it made for a memorable Christmas when the doll went to Janet (as "her last doll to sit upon her bed").

I always liked dolls and I remember this one well. I named her Becky Ann (after my boyfriend whose last name was Becker and my last name Anderson). On Christmas Eve I remember taking her with me to show my friends as my boyfriend and I went to meet them for Midnight Mass. She was a beautiful "last doll".

I called my sister Carole yesterday to ask her about this. I remember very well asking my mother for a doll that year as my "last doll" but Carole must have been unaware of this. She said when she saw it and just "knew" it was hers she began to ask for a doll from Mom just so Mom would know she really wanted it. Alas, we lived in a small town and when Mother realized she needed to get another doll, there was just "left overs" on the shelves and she could not replicate the beautiful doll she had purchased for me.

So here Carole was remembering that disappointing Christmas 30 years later!!! Not unlike my not getting the Shirley Temple doll I wanted for Christmas. I wonder if Mom knew about our Christmas disappointments???? It is hard to forget those kind of moments. So sorry, Carole, I never knew!