1987 in New Mexico on vacation with Joanne Lohr. Joanne was the one who snapped this pic. On this trip I realized Joanne was the woman I wanted to marry and spend my life with.
It didn’t start out this way. Our first Christmas/holiday greeting card was meant to be a simple way of keeping in touch with family and friends. It was accompanied by a one page letter updating folks on our highlights and some low lights during the past year. Joanne and I started the greeting in 1987, the year I began dating my wife Joanne.
Ireland in 1988, the year I proposed to Joanne.
The next year I proposed to Joanne in Ireland. We were married in 1989. We welcomed our first daughter Emily into this world in 1990, followed by our second daughter, Marian in 1994.
Since 1989, I use a camera timer to get our annual holiday shot. I’ve propped the camera on rocks, chairs, tables and railings, but mostly used a tripod to get the photos.
Time captures the changes in our family each year. Our babies became girls and are now young women. Joanne is still as beautiful inside and out as the first time I fell in love with her.
You can click on the photos below to see them in full-size renderings. We began with film and have been digital for several years now.
These past two years, our son-in-law Dan Glover, Emily’s husband, joined the annual greeting card tradition. We couldn’t dream of a better son-in-law. Pets are also a regular part of the McCoy holiday photo show. Each photo brings back memories of the places we have lived, jobs we worked, schools we attended, friends we have known, family and friends we miss or have lost, heartache and joy. What I remember best are the friends and family we have spent time with all these years. These memories are most enduring of all.
Joanne and I honeymooned on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State in 1989.
What began as a whimsy, has turned into a family tradition. I’m the grouchy (I just want it to be perfect and eventually resign myself to admitting it is what it is.) one who sets the camera shot and timer before racing to stand with the family as the photo is snapped.
To Joanne, Emily, Marian and Dan,
I apologize for being a grouch. I hope it’s worth putting up with me so that we can keep the tradition alive. One of these years I hope you girls will take over this tradition.
And friends- We have two questions as we look back over the past 25 years.
- Where did the time go?
- How have we been so blessed by so many wonderful, wonderful friends and family?
Merry Christmas and happy holidays wherever you are.
Emily Louise McCoy brightened our holiday in 1990 in Beverly Hills, Michigan.
1991 Beverly Hills, Michigan
1992 Beverly Hills, Michigan
1993 Beverly Hills, Michigan
1994, We moved to Haslett, Michigan and welcomed Marian McCoy into the world.
1995 Haslett, Michigan
1996 Haslett, Michigan. We lived in a beautiful neighborhood surrounded by forests, wetlands and Lake Lansing.
1997 Haslett, Michigan
1998 Haslett, Michigan
1999 Haslett, Michigan
2000 Gahanna, Ohio with our first dog Magger.
2001 Gahanna, Ohio
2002 Gahanna, Ohio with our new cat Mesa. Those are real snow flakes.
2003 Gahanna, Ohio. It’s tricky getting pets to sit still for family photos. How do you like that lawn chair stuck in the tree behind us?
2004 Gahanna, Ohio. Emily is 13 years old and taller than Joanne.
2005 Gahanna, Ohio. Packing up and preparing to move to Nebraska.
2006 Lincoln, Nebraska where I began teaching journalism at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Joanne began working as a Realtor at Woods Bros. Realty.
2007 Lincoln, Nebraska
2008 Lincoln, Nebraska. I look so stern.
2009 Lincoln, Nebraska. Emily is a freshman in college. Marian is a freshman in high school.
2012 Lincoln, Nebraska. We said farewell to our beloved dog Magger this year.
2012, Joanne, Marian and I live in Lincoln, Nebraska. Emily is wrapping up college at the University of Kansas. We welcomed Dan Glover, our new son-in-law into the family with pride and love. This was taken at Dan’s parent’s home near Baldwin, Kansas.
2012- Joanne and Barney are empty nesters in Lincoln with cat Mesa and new dog Makai. Marian is a freshman at KU from which Emily graduated last May with a Journalism degree. Son-in-law Dan is finishing his Pharmacy degree at KU.
What great memories. I am so grateful you and mom started this tradition 25 years ago. Although a few of those pictures were more stressful than our smiles let on, it’s all worth it to look back on. Love you!
What great memories! I am so thankful you and mom began this tradition 25 years ago. Although some of those pictures were more stressful events than our smiles let on, I am so thankful to have the images to look back on now. Love you!