This Christmas was a little different because Kathy was going to sing in the Christmas Choir this year, so after everyone opened gifts and had a super Christmas dinner, there was a journey to hear Kathy and the choir singing at St Tim’s Church. The choir sounded great and everyone was proud to have a family member in the choir. Once the service was over the card games began, pinocle of course.

Aunt Terese showed up along with Sandy and Little Joe which added to the festivities. Criss and Danny were also there so it was a full house in Trenton this Christmas.

Gifts were plentiful as one might expect, without a doubt the toy phone Renee was using was one of the highlights of the day as she took plenty of incoming calls from various people.

Continue reading “Christmas 1978” →

I remember this Christmas very well because in the summer someone stole my bicycle. Now you might say to yourself what does a stolen bicycle in summer have to do with Christmas Eve at Grandmas? Well after my bike was stolen I was really dejected. When you are ten years old your bike is your main transportation to anything away from home, even if it was just next door. On this particular day my Mom (Loretta) was doing work at the Altar Society and asked me to stop by to help her take some measurements (hold the tape measure basically). Well I stopped in, held the tape measure, then went outside the Church to find someone had stolen my bike…from a Church.

Needless to say my faith in humanity was gone and even my faith in God was in question. How could God let someone steal my bike while I was inside the Church helping his altar get the right measurements?

Well God works in mysterious ways, I got a phone call that evening from Grandma who said she was sorry to hear about my bike and wanted to buy me a new one. I was really surprised since I knew they lived on a fixed income pension and could not really afford to spend too much extra on things, but yet they were willing to spend what money they did have on me to get a new bike. I thanked her very much but said I was ok without the bike but that I really appreciated the offer…and I did.

I was so touched by her offer that the pain of the bike was completely gone and I hoped that someday I would be like her. Up until now as a ten year old I was very selfish and my allowance went to baseball cards, candy, and pop. That changed that summer as I actually saved up my allowance to get Grandma something really nice for Christmas. I think it was the first time I actually bought a gift for someone that was out of my own money and when I gave it to Grandma I felt great, much better than I felt receiving a gift.

This was also the last time I would see my grandma as she died in spring of the next year, but she passed along a huge lesson in humanity to a very selfish ten year old boy (probably not the easiest thing to do).

Continue reading “Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Kleibers 1971” →

Every Christmas eve we would go to Grandma and Grandpa Kleibers and celebrate Christmas Eve. Aunt Ginny was always there (she was sort of the caretaker of the two) and usually we would see Uncle Dons family (Uncle Don, Aunt Maryann, Mike, Bruce, and Sandy) along with Cousin Barbara and her family (Barb, husband Joe, and the twins, and sometimes Aunt Dorothy). From our family we had Criss, Peg, Chuckie, Loretta and Charles.

Each year we would get pizza and it was always awesome. I think the pizza was better in the sixties and seventies because they heaped on the grease and butter without health concerns. After the pizza we would open gifts and everyone had a great time.

Sometimes this was the only time we would get this side of the family all together, but it was always an annual event and at least we got together once a year.

Each Christmas at the Kleiber household Aunt Peg would set up a Christmas train display to celebrate the holiday. This consisted of either a figure 8 or even the more elaborate three ring design. Aunt Peg loved Tressalls to elevate the train and this year was no different as she used the tressalls so that the train would be elevated as it passed over its own track.

The tradition of the train display is also continued in Trenton with both Uncle Joe and Cousin Mark who also do elaborate train setups for Christmas.

I think the tradition began with Pappy Graf who would carve and make his own homes from scratch and were so good that the newspapers would come out and take pictures of his display.

Continue reading “Christmas Train Display 1967” →