December 29, 1995 - January 2, 1996: Judy Visits Dallas
	November 18, 1995: My 49th Birthday Party
	Return to the Index for 1995

This year, since my time was my own, I took the opportunity to head home to North Carolina for Christmas. Fred would be at his own Mother's for Christmas and then with his brother Troy and his family, including Fred's stepmother, Nina, and so I took the opportunity to see my own family. I suspect that, the way things seem to be going with Fred, we will soon have our own Holiday traditions to share, so this may be the last time we're far apart at Christmas.

On Tuesday, December 19, I headed home for Christmas, doing the drive in a day, as usual.

On the 20th and 21st, Mom and I caught up on things and played some bridge, and on Friday the 22nd I took a trip up to Judy's to spend the night.

I have only one picture from my two-day stay with my sister, and I didn't take it. It was given to me by Judy, and is a picture of Murphy, Judy's corgi dog, at her house in Elon, NC.

You may wonder why, if this is my own photo album, I would include pictures and I, myself, didn't take. Actually, I wasn't even around when Judy took this photo; it was taken earlier in the week. Up until now, there have been only a few times I have included pictures taken by others when I was not even present, and almost all of those have been pictures given me by Fred in the last few years.

So what happened?

It turned out to be something that has happened to me once before, although when it happened previously, I discovered the problem fairly quickly. This time, I didn't realize the problem until over a week later. I had indeed taken my camera home with me, and did take at least twenty pictures, but other than the two on this page from Judy, they are all gone.

I am, as you may know, using a Canon SLR camera, and standard 36-exposure rolls of film. The camera, of course, tells me when the film needs to be changed, and I thought I had done so a day or two after my birthday party in November. Once you close the camera back after putting in a new roll of film, the counter begins to increment as you trip the shutter. But a design flaw of these cameras, or at least mine, is that the counter will advance whether or not there is film in the camera. Yes, it is slightly harder to turn the film advance when there is actually film on the sprocket inside, but the difference is not really noticeable.

As it turned out, I had not put a new roll of film in the camera when I took the previous roll out to be developed. Whether that was because I didn't have a new roll on hand, or because I just forgot makes little difference. The result was that I thought I was taking pictures throughout the Christmas holiday in North Carolina and through almost all of my sister's visit to Dallas through New Year's, but it was only when the counter advanced well beyond the most exposures I have ever gotten on a 36-exposure roll that I realized something might be wrong. So when I went ahead and rewound the film and opened the back of the camera, I found no film in it.

I was pretty mad at myself for being so neglectful, for I took some pictures of events that turned out to be significant that I wish now I had the photographic record for. But these things happen, I suppose.

I had given Jeffie a Christmas gift of a plane ticket home, but she could only leave Dallas on Christmas Day. So I got her a ticket to Raleigh where we could go get her on Christmas Day and then do the Christmas thing at Judy's. Mom and I drove up to Judy's early Christmas Eve, and so we were there on Christmas Day when Bob and Ted went to pick Jeffie up in Raleigh. We had a pleasant couple of days up there, although there seemed to be a lot of tension between Judy and Bob. Judy and I worked on the computer some, but I could tell that Judy's mind was elsewhere. There was a point where I thought things were getting out of hand, but by the time we left late on Christmas Day, I thought things were back to normal.

At right is the only other picture I have from my visit home this time- Jennifer, Mom and Ted at my Mom's condo. Judy took this picture of the three of them together a couple of days after Christmas when Judy came down to Charlotte for a visit.

Jeffie and I had planned to drive back to Dallas together after Christmas, and since Judy was to be off from school until the 2nd of January, I half-jokingly suggested that she ride back with us and fly home after New Year's. I really didn't expect her to take me up on the offer, but she did. I arranged for her air travel home, and on Friday, December 29th, the three of us drove from Charlotte to Dallas. Ted had brought Judy down to Charlotte very early that morning, so she and Jeffie dozed a good part of the way home. All their stuff just fit in the little Honda, and it was a pleasant trip. We got home about nine-thirty, and Fred was already at my place. He and Judy met for the first time, and we went to the Alamo for a late dinner.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	December 29, 1995 - January 2, 1996: Judy Visits Dallas
	November 18, 1995: My 49th Birthday Party
	Return to the Index for 1995