Scattering My Parents' Ashes (San Diego, CA, Dec 2009)

Double-click for high-res full-screen version (after the video starts). The hills in the background are in Baja California, Mexico.

Scattering Ashes from Josh Fisher on Vimeo.

The Manger (Bethlehem, West Bank, Nov 1999)

In 1999, Elizabeth and I went to Israel, where I had a conference. We toured a lot, especially in West Bank, where most of the historically interesting spots were. Here we're in the Church of the Nativity, in the traditional exact spot of the manger where Jesus was born.

Christmas at Jessica and Gordon's (NY, NY, Dec 1979)

We visited Jessica and Gordon in their apartment in Murray Hill.


My parents came with us.



Note the little upright piano (it was a Baldwin Spinet), before Gordon and Jessica gave it to us.





I guess this is when I scored the blue bathrobe I'm seen in elsewhere in this blog.

Santa (Unknown place, mid 1980s)

I haven't a clue here. From Dave & Dora's ages, this could also be from the 1986 visit to Rochester, but I'm totally guessing.

Hanukkah (West Henrietta, NY, Dec 1986)

We interrupt this Christmas marathon to bring you Hanukkah.

We celebrated Hanukkah a little at our house, but not much. Here are the kids at my parents' house. I'm dating this 1986 (which meshes with the kids' apparent ages), because that's the year Elizabeth and I went to the Yucatan, and the kids stayed with my parents. Hanukkah was on December 27th that year.



Dora made the wood menorah on the left at nursery school. Dave made the construction paper one in the back.

Christmas 1982 - Part 3 of 3 (Darien, CT, Dec 1982)

(Elizabeth said, "These Christmases don't seem a little the same to you?" I replied, "If these don't bore everybody, I don't know what would bore them.")







Two stockings now.

Christmas 1982 - Part 2 of 3 (Darien, CT, Dec 1982)

Christmas Dinner:





And the after-party (or maybe the before-party):

Christmas 1982 - Part 1 of 3 (Darien, CT, Dec 1982)

Our last Christmas in the house in Darien.

What's that peeking out from behind the presents??


It's "Dorrie's" first Christmas. Notice that the tree has moved back to being on top of the toy chest. Another baby to knock it over!


We had to move the tree in any case because the piano is there. Gordon and Jessica closed up the apartment in NY, and kindly gave us that piano.

Christmas 1980-81 (Darien, CT, Dec 1980 or 1981)

I am sure that these four pictures were from 1980 or 81, probably all from the same year, but have no way to get closer than that. I'm convinced that the three with the tree are from the same year (which I'm guessing is 1981, but who knows).

The stocking was hung from the banister with care. These stockings came from Kaye. In later years you'll see three of them when Dave, Dora and Dan were all in the same place for Christmas.


I really love this picture. This was not a common expression on Dave's face, and I can't imagine what brought it on. It's obviously from his birthday, but the tree is there, so it goes here. The little girl is Tara, daughter of Diane, who did childcare in her home for both our kids. Dave and Tara were inseparable playmates.


Insert all the jokes about who the train set is really for.

Christmas 1979 - Part 2 of 2 (Darien, CT, Dec 1979)

I'm just deducing from Davey's age and haircut that this first picture is Christmas 1979. Both our kids were a little leery of this Santa thing when he was in the flesh. And they hadn't even seen Bad Santa.



This has to be Dan. He would have been a little over 3 months old at Christmas, 1979, and that's when this tree is from.

Christmas 1979 - Part 1 of 2 (Darien, CT, Dec 1979)

The Christmases in Darien, where we lived from Summer 1979 to Summer 1983, are a little hard to sort out, but I think I have them figured correctly (careful inspection of tree and ornament placement, etc.).

Our house in Darien was broken into not long after we moved in, and our TVs (and a few other things) were stolen. You can see a small b&w TV, that I think had been decommissioned, on the TV stand, replacing the color TV that we inherited from Elizabeth's grandmother when she died a few years before.





The first appearance of the red cardinal tree-topper!

Christmas 1978 - Part 3 of 3 (Teaneck, NJ, Dec 1978)

Note the similarity of the first picture to the baking picture from Christmas 1976. Different haircut, though. And a different TV.

Turkey before...

...turkey after. Paul, with his surgical experience, usually got saddled with the carving, which he was way better at than anyone else.

One more shot of the loot.




I posted this picture before (on Mother's Day), but this is where it came from. See that front door? You can see that there's a storm door with a glass panel behind it. Once, carrying Davey in the car seat in front of me on our way to the car, I walked right into that panel as if it weren't there, shattering glass violently in all directions. Good thing he was in a car seat. (Yes, some of us used car seats even then.)