Sunday Special: More pictures of Brandywine WV Church

Max and Ray often took Spring Break trips.  One trip included a visit to the Brandywine WV church the EA Brueggeman first preached at.  I came across these pictures today and wanted to share them.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY

This picture was labeled by Selma as1915.  By the pattern of the stars it appears to be a 45 star flag, in use from 1896-1908.

Given how old EAB appears and the age of the daughters, 1915 does look right.  Selma didn't identify the three girls.  Maybe  Selma in the middle?

Mom and Dad's neighborhood has a parade every year.  This picture is from the Bicentennial.  Ray was part of the Kazoo Band and I am in the convertible in the background.  Judy was on a float as the Statue of Liberty, can't find the picture.  The tradition continues and when my boys were small they were in the parade too.

 This was from 1992 (500th Anniversary --1492 Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue.  They were Montezuma and Cortez  (makes sense because their father is an Anthropologist who studies Mexico).

Happy 21st Birthday Max

Today is the 21st birthday of my youngest son, Maxwell King.


One of our family traditions was to tell each boy their "being born" story on his birthday.  I imagine once you are 21, it is probably time to stop telling the story.  The short version is that we got to the hospital about 11 PM and he was born about an hour later.  We had the nurses and doctors moving fast.  They didn't believe I was so close and made me walk a long way to the labor and delivery department.


Max weighed 10 pounds, 7 ounces and was about 24 inches long.  A big baby, but not the biggest of the Riley Grandchildren.  Judy had one over 11 pounds.  Part of Max's story is that he peed all over the floor on the way to the scale and he was always sure he would have weighed more if that didn't happen.


Happy Birthday Dear Max.  We are certainly proud of the man you are becoming.

The Riley/King/Raymer Christmas Picture

We resolved the technical issues we had with our family picture.  Here it is!

Documenting Christmas Traditions

I saw on another blog the importance of documenting your family's Christmas Traditions.  We can spend so much time and energy documenting the lives of our ancestors that we forget to document our own family.  I am sure there are many elaborate traditions but some simple ones as well.

I am sure many families do what we did as children and what we did with our children, New Jammies on Christmas Eve.  Trust me, it is much harder to do with boys.

Lynne 1960

Max 1995

Think about your traditions and how they started.  One of our "little" traditions has to do with Captain Crunch.  Wouldn't Quaker Oats be thrilled?  When the kids were little Mom and Dad would have them all over to spend the night before Christmas to unwrap Mom's Santas.  It became known as Santa Slumber Party.  They would give them Christmas Captain Crunch for breakfast.  The Captain Crunch morphed into what they wanted for Christmas Dinner.  Every year Dad still looks for it and my boys, now in their 20's, still want it if it can be found.