The Christmas Story

(as determined over hot chocolate and Scrabble on December 24, 2001)

1968 - Floyd & Mary attend mass in Doylestown, PA. Floyd proposes marriage to Mary. Mary says she'll think about it and get back to him.

1969 - Floyd & Mary, now married, attend Benner Christmas Party, Mary's brother Jim drives the Corvair. Floyd & Mary announce that Mary is pregnant.

1970 - Obraje, Mexico. a small village outside of Mexico City. Peter has arrived. The three ride out of town in the back of a pickup to a hacienda renovated by the Mennonite Central Committee. Upon arrival they mistakenly interrupt a Christmas Eve celebration. The streets of the village are filled with people carrying candles.

1971 - Puebla, Mexico. Church service in the Voluntary Service building at 1901 13th Street South in Puebla. Floyd gets a special red tie that he still wears today.

1972 - Hopewell, Oregon (near Salem). Nisely's house. Grandparents Styer travel to Oregon with Mary's brothers John & Alan and sister Lois.

1973 - Hopewell, Oregon. The house on the Zellerbach christmas tree farm. This Christmas is memorable for the giant red lights on the tiny artificial tree. UPS brings gifts from afar (namely Pennsylvania). UPS receives status nearing deity, definitely up there with the Portland Trailblazers and the JCPenney Christmas catalog.

1974 - Mary is pregnant with Susan. We can't remember much else. We spend many hours this winter reading the Chronicles of Narnia and the Little House On The Prairie books.

1975 - The family is now four. Susan is 10 months old. We move into Grandma's house. She moves next door. Uncle Alan spends several months visiting. Peter decides that everything Uncle Alan likes is cool.

1976 - We have no idea what happened here.

1977 - Nor here. Maybe aliens. Except for the fact that there is a little bean inside my mom that we will all eventually know as Jonathan Schrock

1978 - Franconia, Pennsylvania (near Philadelphia). Chicken pox for Christmas. Susan remembers wearing a nurse's outfit. Didn't make those pox itch any less. The bean has grown to a chicken pox carrying infant.

1979 - This would have been Pennsylvania too. Don't remember.

1980 - I remember this one well. This is that holy day we will always remember as the Pellet Gun Christmas. I think I took it to bed with me that night. Jonathan, a two year old at the time, enters the family mythology by giving me the fine Christmas gift of a small 15 cent rubber Superball carefully wrapped in green and red paper.

1981 - No Christmas Eve. We decide to go to bed early that night and wake up to a Christmas morning instead. It snows outside. The gifts take up residence beneath the library table on really bad blue and black shag carpet. This is the only time in our history that we try this. Christmas morning just isn't as effective for some reason.

Research is continuing...