Christmas time is a big deal in the Kleiber family, it always had been. This year the entire basement was decorated for Christmas with about 50 animatronic carolers, angels, and elves. A full size nativity scene in a wooden manger was one of the main scenes, along with a holiday train display, a trio of angels over a nativity scene, a workshop complete with many elves, and a woodland of decorated Christmas trees with many Christmas figures gracing the landscape.

Blue tarp all around the basement set the backdrop for this Christmas adventure which was certainly inspired by Bronners display. The items that were usually in the basement were placed up against the wall and covered with Christmas lights. On top of the Christmas lights cotton snow was placed, then dozens of small Christmas trees with animatronic characters completed the scene.

Dinner rotated each year between Ham and Roast Beef. Grandma Loretta did not want to use turkey since everyone had some already at Thanksgiving.

Continue reading “1994 Christmas” →

This year we focused on adding Santas workshop and more elves. We had three already but we added a couple from Bronners which were by far the most expensive things in the display. They don’t even call the elves but they call them sprites. Anyhow they look good in the display.

We also went to a store called Kaufmanns and bought some of the Dicken Village houses from them. This is making our little Christmas village look a little more respectable as we know some collectors do this for decades.

We found a Marley and Scrooge house in the Dickens village and bought the characters including the three ghosts from the story. This is my favorite of the village houses even though it probably is the least Christmas looking of the bunch, it would be more appropriate for a haunted village but I don’t think those exist…yet.

Continue reading “Christmas 1993” →

Myself and several of my friends just joined the Knights of Columbus and the Grand Knight approached us afterwards and asked if we would like to do a Halloween Party for kids. We agreed and The Knights Dungeon was born. We named it Knights Dungeon instead of a haunted house so as to protect ourselves for insurance purposes. Turns out if you host a haunted house your insurance rates go up, but since no one ever heard of a Knights Dungeon, the K of C insurance rates were not affected.

We hosted games for the kids upstairs and every kid was a winner. We also had people dressed up as characters (IE Scooby Doo and Barney) so that people could get their pictures taken with the characters. That evening we had a Halloween Party for the adults in the basement which was “so so” attended. We hired a disk jockey and the party went well and made a little money for the council. They have already asked us if we would like to do it again next year and we thought “why not”.

In the lower lounge we set up the haunted displays, shown here was our big hit for the year, the Phantom of the Opera complete with candles and sounds.

Charles T (James Grandpa) had a male home nurse come and draw blood once a month or so and he really hated it. He said the guy was rough and always left his arm bruised.

I told him the blood tests and other tests were necessary and that the guy was not that hard on him (there was always someone in the house while this was going on), but I told him I would set up some Halloween guys (even though it was springtime) if he liked and put signs on them saying “be nice to Charles” and maybe the guy would get the message in a humorous way.

I set the props up in the living around Charles T the day of his exam and left for work. A few hours later I got a call from the hospital regarding the nurse. The hospital complained that when he went to draw blood that there were a bunch of “artificial monsters” in the room and Charles was shaking his cane at him and yelling at him that he wasn’t going to “draw any blood today”.

I apologized to the hospital and told them I would remove the monsters and rescheduled Charles T appointment for next week with a different nurse. I guess in a way it worked since he got a different nurse but I would have really loved to have seen the look on the guys face with all those monsters and Charles shaking his cane at him.

We started a third wall, about half, giving us a staple looking display this year. More decorations were added including more full size Christmas Trees. The Christmas trees hanging down from the ceiling are a pain to set up but really look nice. We have to remove the light cover, tie the Christmas tree up, power it from the lightbulb socket using an adapter, then staple the first row of branches to the ceiling. The procedure is reversed after the new year to take them down, also a tedious procedure.

The rest of the display sets up quickly again with the boxes as foundation and blue tarp as background sky. Where we do not have boxes we have to use full size trees or decorations. As the display grows it is getting more difficult to find room for the life size nativity scene, which is really what Christmas is all about. We may end up moving it outside which is really where it belongs since it is an outside blowmold decoration.

Again a very successful party and my mothers idea for a Christmas party at the house is slowly turning into a family tradition.

Continue reading “Christmas 1992” →

Renee Graduated from Trenton High School on a beautiful day in 1992, following in the footsteps of her brother and father.

The current school complex was constructed in 1953 on a plot bounded by West, Westfield and Charlton roads and Edsel Drive. The school was built to handle a surge in students following World War II and the expansion of western Trenton, which was quickly expanding. The building was known as West Road Elementary School and housed elementary school students until Hedke, Anderson, Foley and Owen elementary schools opened in the 1950s.

Continue reading “Renee Graduation 1992” →

The third Christmas Party once again was at our house and this year we bought even more decorations. Once again we hung tarp up for the background. Anything that was in the basement before was packed up and placed into boxes. These boxes were placed up against the tarp and lights were put over the boxes. The lights were all plugged into power strips placed strategically around the display.

Once again snow was placed on top of the lights and thus we had a complete foundation for the Christmas display. The storage boxes were completely hidden by the lit up snow and looked great against the blue tarp background. From here it was just a matter of adding the animatronics and small Christmas Trees.

The first year we decorated like this we only did one wall of the basement, second year a wall and a half, this year we did that wall and finished the second wall completely which made it into an L shape that really captured a small part of a Bronners look to the display.

Continue reading “Christmas 1991” →

When Mark Joseph Dunberger was born on November 15, 1946, his father, Harry, was 31 and his mother, Louise, was 25. He had two children with Kathy Thomas and one child with Pat. He died in May 1991 in Trenton, Michigan, at the age of 44, and was buried in Flat Rock, Michigan.

The thing I remember most about Mark was how much fun it was to be with him. He was one of those rare personalities that would liven up any party or event. He never let his injuries from the war get in his way of having fun with life, in fact, you would not ever know that he was injured unless you saw the scars on his arms from the scrapnel. Whether it was boating, camping, hunting, fishing, baseball or playing Mario Brothers on Nintendo Mark had more fun with life than anyone else I know. Mark was also the biggest Star Trek fan I remember in the family and had a huge self made video collection of some of the worst sci fi movies you can imagine.

Continue reading “Remembering Mark Dunberger 1946 – 1991” →

Once again we had the Christmas party in the basement and Loretta enjoyed cooking a massive feast for everyone.

This year Mark came and we did not know at the time it would be his last Christmas with us. He had a great time and what I remember most was him playing with Pepper, our dog.

Pepper did not get along with everyone, well to be honest she didn’t get along with anyone. She was part schnauzer and part poodle, a mix known as a schnoodle. She would not hesitate to bite someone, although her bite never really hurt. However she got along great with Mark, giving him her paw and doing tricks for him. Mark was always good with animals but getting along with Pepper was rare.

Once again the party was a big success and everyone had a great time. Gifts were exchanged and we also added a couple more animations to the display. We also hung white Christmas trees upside down for the lights, an idea we got from a Christmas store up north near Cadillac MI.

Continue reading “Christmas 1990” →

Loretta wanted to have Christmas at the house this year so I went out and bought a couple small animations to help decorate the basement. Since my father pretty much was living in the living room due to medical complications we had no choice but to work on the basement.

We went out and bought a couple of blue tarps that would act as a background and a few small trees. We then took strands of lights and laid them on top of boxes, then covered them with “snow” (actually cotton rolls that you can buy at Christmas time). The lights beneath the snow gave it a soft glow that looked really cool.

The party was a big success and we decided to do it again the next year.

Continue reading “Christmas 1989” →