Little Brad and Little Grace at Christmas

Some very old Christmas pictures from the Stevens album.

Bradley checks his stocking.

Ooh! Train set!

Oh the burden of being the first born. Having browsed through many pictures of the large Stevens clan gathering for Christmas, I feel sorry for Little Brad made to carry the holiday all alone on his tiny shoulders.

The xylophone and tinker toys seem like harbingers of creative projects to come, but the proudly displayed shovel? Oh well, I'm pretty sure I'm getting a lawn mower for my birthday in a few weeks--probably part of the same hallowed tradition.

Lucky for Brad, he now has little sister Grace to share in the merriment, though its still looking like more siblings are required to make the celebration more exciting. Stay tuned...

Bluppy

I've just recently discovered that Mom is dog-obsessed. For some reason I always thought that she just tolerated the family dogs, but no, she's been attached to the creatures for much longer than I thought. Here we find her with "Bluppy" -- her toddler name for puppy. She confesses that she doesn't know whether perhaps big brother Brad might have had a different name for the mutt or whether the entire family embraced her bastardization.