Way Back Wednesday

When I looked at this picture my first thought was that it was much too recent to be my Way Back Wednesday photo, but then it dawned on me that this picture was taken at my last Christmas as a Garrity. The next Christmas I was a Garrity-Rasmussen. Which means that this picture is nearly 20 years old! I know! I look EXACTLY the same!!

So, for those keeping score, this picture is of our my dad, my mom, Beanie and T.A. in 1993 in the living room of the house in New York. The tree is one in a long line of artificial Christmas trees. One year when I was in high school we BEGGED my father to get a real tree, which he did. Then when we were putting the tree in the stand it poked him in the eye and he spent Christmas in pain and looking like a pirate. So that was the last year of a real tree.

I was a brunette this year (I have pictures from the year before when I was a redhead -- and I mean a Howdy Doody Doll Redhead!) which is how I know that this is 1993. In good conscience I don't think Rob would have asked me to marry him if I hadn't changed my hair color back to brown. I changed it shortly before we started dating. So, this picture was taken about three days after I got engaged, which explains the sort of stunned look on my face (because I never thought I'd get married) and the sort of grimace on my dad's face (because he never thought he have to pay for my wedding...)

Of course this picture holds an extra special place in my heart now because it's one of only a few where I'm pictured with my mom.  Usually I'm the photographer but I obviously set this on timer and ran around to sit between Bean and Mom before the shutter tripped. Every time I happen upon a picture like this (and so far I have found four out of the thousands of photos I've taken and stored in various boxes and on disks), it feels like a gift!