Saturday, December 23, 2023

3rd grade art and long time memories {december 23, 2023}


The treasures you find while cleaning out a Christmas bin...

My son was in 3rd grade, studying Christmas traditions from around the world. In this drawing he incorporated Christmas in France, a Christmas carol, his anticipation of Christmas morning, and what is most touching for me is the train under the Christmas tree. My dad collected Lionel trains when he was a boy. As we grew up, the trains were always around our Christmas trees. This tradition continued with his grandchildren: Dad would bring his trains up from the basement, set them up around the tree, and let the kids be the engineers. He taught them about putting the smoke pellets in the engine smokestack, dumping the barrels at the right place in the tracks, accelerating on the straight tracks and slowing down at the curves, and the favorite - making the whistle blow. Andrew loved those trains and I love that they were and are an unforgettable tradition in his Christmas memories.

2 comments:

  1. Wow, this brought back a lot of memories for me. My dad was also a Lionel train man. I remember those milk barrels that got popped out at the right station and the wonderful whistle.

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