How's this for an iconic photograph? If not the cutest image I have come across while working on the Archive Family Project, then I have not a clue which one that would be.

My Aunt Dian Marcella Erickson looking happier that one can imagine. She's celebrating Christmas with her mother Clara and father Frank at her Aunt Klavdia and Uncle Andy's home at 618 Rosser Avenue in Bismarck, North Dakota.

At four years old, Dian's ideal gift not present at the time, but in spirit, was her wish for a safe return home from the war of her big brother Ernest Anders.

Ernest Anders had been flying combat with the 95th Bomb Group, piloting a B-17 out of Horham, England. He had completed 35 missions over Nazi controlled Europe in September of 1944 and was at the time of this photograph a flight instructor at Randolph Field in Texas.

Dian's big brother would return home permanently in the Summer of 1945 to smiling faces all around.

Also below three other photographs of Dian:

First image is of Dian wearing her brother Ernest Anders silver Air Corps wings with her grandmother Christine Brita (Olson) Erickson. Second photo of Dian at 12 years old and lastly a more recent photograph of the lovely Dian.