I've noticed that the majority of pictures from family gatherings come from my/Jen's camera. For Christmas 1998, I was pregnant with Callahan and wasn't feeling great. It was a little earlier in December when I'd passed out in Sacrament meeting. Grayson was shifting jobs (had quit K&B, went Pentalon, but then got the Hamlet Homes offer) - so life was a little crazy and I didn't get pictures of Christmas Eve ... or at least I thought I hadn't, as I didn't find the usual ones at the Havenmoor Home. I was keeping a journal at this time (the memories from above and some of the dates below) but didn't mention much about Christmas Eve ... except to say that we were late (as usual). Wendy consulted her journals and was able to add some details. We'll have to check out Dad's journals to see if he has more memories from December 1998.
At the end of November, Jensens were in town, and stayed at the Blackham's. On November 28, we had a belated Westra Thanksgiving at the Havenmoor House. There were several pictures of the grandkids with gifts in December Dropbox that were labeled "Christmas 1998", but you can see the corner (bottom left), and the tree isn't there. Some years though, the tree was at the base of the stairs instead of in the corner. Landon and McKenna are holding gifts, so it would be easy to think it was Christmas ...but this was the dinner and "December" birthday celebration (photos of Jase, with a second pink cake for Janika).
Thanks to Wendy's journal entry, we now know that Christmas Eve 1998 was actually held at Scott and Amy's house (on Rosewood Park Lane in Draper). Note the different decor and couches in the three photos (Christmas Eve 2012 would also be hosted by Scott&Amy). At the Westra home, I'm sure another little stocking was added to Scott&Amy's with the addition of little Kemery this year.
The picture of the Jensen family (bottom center) is back at the Havenmoor House right around Christmas. You can see the card holder decoration there in the background. The group of grandkids on the stairs? Another journal entry indicates a belated Christmas dinner at the folks on December 28, so maybe it was from then (found footage ... video from this event below), or another time before when everyone was together (different outfits than any of the other photos).
THIS video was uncovered after this post went up. All the indications (ages, # of stockings, placement on the video between 1997 and 1999) are that this is Christmas 1998, but if Christmas Eve was held elsewhere, perhaps this is from the post-Christmas party on December 28th.
https://youtu.be/PVj_ZGX1UcQ
Lots of detective work required for this year. What have we learned?
Keep journals. Take photos & label photos. Add personal pictures to the family Dropbox.
I couldn't find any Westra Easter pictures from 1997, but it looks like there was a group gathering in 1998 again. Added a few grandkids from just two years ago (Kemery coming in August). Gathering up all the grandkids for a photo op on the stairs would be a tradition repeated in many years to come. Sitting kids ON the stair rail in the house also happens again in future years!
Compare and contrast these early Easter celebrations to the later ones! Lots of littles this year, all wanting to look for eggs. It was up to the adults to hide them. In future years, the older kids (too cool for the hunt) would help hide the eggs.
This would have been Shane's first Easter back home from his mission (June 1997).
Before the Westra party, Janny and Landon had a little Easter Egg hunt at the Deaf Center.
1997 ... it was the year Pokemon was introduced, Dolly the sheep was cloned, Titanic opened and set box office records, and Princess Diana was killed in a car crash. This was the year most of the family started using EMAIL ... remember dial-up internet and Juno for a free service provider? While the annual Christmas Newsletter gives a quick rundown of what everyone was up to this year, here is a longer list of the family information and activities from this year ...
Ages -
LaMar turned 60 on May 28, 1997. Margie turned 55 on Nov. 7, 1997
Scott turned 34 on Dec. 16, 1997. Amy: 29. McKenna 4, Alyssa 2, Kellen 1.
Chris turned 31 on Sept. 5, 1997. Sandy: 30. Conner: 5, Kadan 3, Corin 0.
Wendy turned 29 on April 29, 1997. Rick 30. Janika 2, Jase 0.
Shane turned 21 years old on May 3, 1997, while he was on his mission.
Derek turned 15 years old on May 5, 1997.
Activities -
0118 – Surprise party for Lorrie’s 50th at the Lion House
0126 – Clayton Blackham farewell. Mom/Dad, Rick/Wendy attended. Jen sang/Wendy accompanied on the piano.
0209 – Merrill and Lorrie's house for Anderson’s birthday. Grandma Norman didn’t make it as she’d fallen and twisted her ankle.
0309 -Mom/Dad host birthday dinner for Aunt Diane (her two kids). Adults only.
0504 – Family party (Wendy/Shane/Derek birthdays) at Blackham’s house.
0517 - Fayette Family Party. Derek and Dad went in the truck, and Margie and Wendy and Janika came in another vehicle (Rick had to work). Jen and Gray and Landon came also but Scott and Amy couldn’t make it as McKenna had a recital.
May. Grandpa Norman had back surgery
0606 - Corin Born
0625- Shane returns home from his mission.
0628- Scott and Amy hosted a big barbecue. It was the first time we had everyone together since Shane left on his mission two years before.
0629- Shane's Homecoming. Jen sang, Wendy signed.
0630- Wendy and Rick move to Ivins, Utah
0708- New computer (Star West, installed by Shane)
0810- Corin's blessing in Fayette. Marge/Lamar, Scott and Jen and their families.
0907- Birthday party for Landon at Blackham’s house
10/20- Mom/Dad/Derek, Jen/Landon to St. George to visit Jensens. (Gray and Jen had also gone in July).
1109 - Birthday dinner for Mom at Old Salt City Jail (Grandparents, Merrill&Lorrie, Scott&Amy, Wendy, Jen&Gray). Gray "went to the bathroom" and Grandpa was so confused when the waitress said the bill had been taken care of. Gray never admitted to paying ...
1127- Thanksgiving hosted by Scott and Amy (Jen&Gray had a "day after" Thanksgiving for the folks/Shane/Derek too)
This past year, 1997, has been a good year here at the Westra household. Here’s a short update on our family members:
SCOTT: and his wife Amy and their family are enjoying their new home in Draper. McKenna will be 5 in Feb., Alyssa will be 3 in Feb., and little Kellen just turned 1 this past October.
CHRISTOPHER: and his wife Sandy and their 3 boys are still living in Fayette, Utah. Conner will be 6 in May, Kadan will be 4 in June, and they were blessed with a new baby boy, Corin, this past June.
WENDY: and her husband Rick (Jensen) have experienced some changes this past year. Rick was hired as a full-time Seminary teacher and was assigned to St. George. He is teaching at Pineview High School in Washington and loves it. Wendy is teaching sign-language at Dixie College 2 evenings a week, plus doing some free-lance interpreting. They just had a new little baby boy on Dec. 2. They are naming him Jase. Big sister Janika just turned 2 years old on Dec. 8.
JENI: and her husband Grayson (Blackham) are enjoying their new home in West Jordan. Grayson is still very busy building homes and Jeni uses her creativity in filling a booth at the Quilted Bear Boutique. Their little boy Landon turned 2 years old in Sept.
SHANE: returned home from his mission to Belem, Brazil, the end of June. He has been working hard trying to finish part of our basement for us. He returned to school at the U. of Utah in Sept. He is in the architectural program. He is the Webelos leader in our ward and a computer specialist for the stake Family History program. He is busy dating too, of course!
DEREK: is 15 and a sophomore at Cottonwood High School. He is very much looking forward to his 16th birthday in May, so that he may DRIVE and DATE!!!!!!
LAMAR is still working at Unisys and is the Stake Family Search Leader. MARGIE is a ward Family History Consultant and does volunteer work in the Surgical Center at Cottonwood Hospital. We just bought a new computer system this summer and are enjoying learning e-mail and the internet. You can drop us a line at : westra2@juno.com We hope this year has been a good one for all of you also and that 1998 will be even better! We wish you blessings of health and happiness.
1997 ... Corin and Jase were a new additions, and Shane was back from his mission. Wendy and Rick moved to St. George, but came back for Christmas, although they were with the Jensen family for Christmas Eve. Based on a journal entry, the party was shifted a bit earlier this year as Chris's crew needed time to get back to Fayette to celebrate Christmas morning there. There was the Christmas Day gathering at Merrill and Lorrie's on Christmas Day, and Jensens were able to make that, and so the cousins got to meet baby Jase for the first time.
Here's a bit of video ... Jen starts it off, then Dad/Lamar takes over. Dad mentions that their camcorder died, so this one was taken on Jen's machine. The Christmas Tree wasn't captured on camera, but it's there in the video tour. Another Home Depot tree ($17). A look at the lights and the opening of gifts.
Rick and I "interviewed" Grandma and Grandpa Norman in December of 1997. We had so much fun doing this and learned so much about them! Scroll down to click on the youtube links!
Note: I think there are some duplicates and overlap between some of these. Rick added music to some of them, which is a nice touch, but it is a little too loud in a couple of them and makes it difficult to hear the dialogue. I don't know if that can be fixed or not. It would be nice to add captions (and/or a transcript) some time. There are some lines and squares through some of them because they were on our hard-drive that crashed several years ago. We ended up having to send the hard-drive to a specialty place and they were able to recover most of the data from the hard-drive -- for a hefty price! We are grateful it was successful though!
