Genealogy Forum NEWS
December, 1998
HOW WE SPEND OUR HOLIDAYS III
Two Christmas's - Santa's Gift to Mom
Submitted by GFS Tracy@AOL.com
Coming from one of today's broken homes, Christmas always proved to be a difficult day around our house. That is, until, Santa found a way around our little problem. You see, my mother often had to spend Christmas Day all alone. She would read to us from "The Night Before Christmas" every Christmas Eve. My mom was always very convincing as a story teller. We wanted to stay up to catch Santa Clause in the act and see him for ourselves. We didn't want to go to sleep, but convinced by mom's cautions about Santa skipping those houses where the children weren't sleeping, we were eventually coerced to our beds where we fell asleep dreaming about the following day.
When we woke up in the morning we were ready and raring to go. Had Santa come during the night? Did he know we had been good? We were always rewarded with a load of gifts under the Christmas tree. We would whip through our gifts in no time flat. Opening them two at a time, until there were none left to open. Often we attached ourselves to one particular toy or game, and played with it for a little bit while mom made us breakfast.
After breakfast, mom had the distinct pleasure of bathing and dressing us in time for our father to come and pick us up for a jaunt over to grandma's house. My mother stood in the doorway waving to us, telling us to have fun, and to give my grandmother her love. I never gave a thought as to what she would do for the day, Christmas Day, all by herself, while my "holiday father" came to take us to our grandparents' house. Until recently, I hadn't realized how lonely it must have been for her. She raised us, spent time with us, played with us, scolded us when we needed it. And yet, on Christmas Day, she was left alone, in a house without the sounds of children playing and making messes.
When I was about 8, my mother remarried, and my step dad... he was the best. We called him "Dad" before they had even married. That year, Santa had a surprise for us!! Christmas Eve came, and my "dad" took my sister and I for a little trip to the store. Mom needed some things for her baking, and dad needed helpers to run through the aisles and find the things mom needed, so that we could get back to her quickly. When we got home, we entered through the back door and helped put the groceries away. Mom asked us to help her set the dining room table for dinner, and said that the plates and things were already on the table. So we went into the dining room, uttering "awe Mom"'s as we went.
Once in the dining room, my sister glanced toward the tree, and let out a squeal of excitement!! "Santa was here!!! Santa was here!!!" He had come to our house early! Wow, we were really special kids if Santa came to our house before he went to any other. Looking back, I can recall my parents coming into the room... Dad glancing at Mom, and winking at her as tears fell from her eyes. We didn't know it at the time, but Santa (and "Dad") had given my mother the best Christmas gift a mother could have received... Christmas with her children!! She was overjoyed. We spent that evening opening our Christmas presents one by one as Mom and Dad took turns snapping pictures. We sang Christmas carols and watched "It's A Wonderful Life"... as a family.
To this day, Christmas is celebrated at my Mom and Dad's house on Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day is spent with my Father's family. As my sister and I grew older, and my Mom and Dad had two more daughter's, us older girls got to participate more. When I got my driver's license, it was my "duty" to take the 4 of us to the movies on Christmas Eve. When we got home, 'lo and behold!! Santa Clause had been to our house a day early!! What a special gift Santa had given my mother. :-)
Christmas As A Child
Submitted byGFS Nance@AOL.com
When I was little girl, we always went to one of my mothers sisters house for Christmas dinner. My mom always made the fruit salad for it, but I always liked her German beans which I had thought it was Grandma Garners dish, but mom said it was her moms. What a misconception I had for 50 years. Just found that out a couple weeks ago. Well anyway, Everyone was there. My Moms twin sister Evelyn and Uncle Rex SHAW, and their kids, Skip, Kenny, Billy and Barb, (twins). Aunt Mary the oldest sister, and Uncle Walt BRIMMER, and their four, Dorothy Ann, Bob, David, Carolyn. Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Carroll ALEXANDER, and their daughter Carol Sue. and my mom and dad Eleanor and Donald GARNER. And my brother Donald Jr. then my Grandmother Lulu and step grandfather Mickey (otto) RODEMICH. Nana first husband and father of Mary K, Dorothy K, Eleanor K. and Evelyn K. was Louis CRIPLIVER/KREPLEEVER. I never met him, he died when I was one year old. Anyway, Mom, Dad, and my grandparents and aunts and uncles sat at the big table and my brother and cousins and I sat at the little table. Aunt Mary always cooked the turkey and she had the best dressing, (sorry, but I never got that recipe).
Then we all got married but we never graduated to the BIG Table, we got the medium table, our kids got the little table down in the basement at cousin Davids. It was always decorated nicely.
Then Mickey died, and five years later in 1976 when we were celebrating our 200 years of Independence, my Nana died. We never met as a whole family, we all had our own family dinners. And now Aunt Marys family is split up after she died in 71 and he remarried then he died.
My family alone has 14 people in it, with Greg and his wife Julie in Michigan, Lee, and Dana and their two kids, Glen, my computer tech, and Angie and their two other has three children, Mark and Linda, Dirk and Karen and Mitch, and Pam and her new husband and her son in Sweden. Duke has just retired from his civilian engineer job in Ga. to my moms home in Michigan and he has not been with family so long he wants Christmas at Moms this year. (my dad, as most folks know, died last summer while I was on my trip to China to visit my exchange son Wang Meng)
How I spend the Holidays!
Submitted by GFS AnnE@AOL.com
Thanksgiving kicks off my daily "joyous holiday." Making cookies, candies, casseroles, jams/jellies, cakes, pies, attending church, floral decorations, holiday decorations to give to someone, sometime during the holidays. Cookies are made, arranged on plates, wrapped for freezing or mailing. One year, I made over 3,000 cookies for gifts. The worst part of it was I twelve timed the Chocolate Chip recipe one year, they took days to bake. They were stored in glass mayonnaise jars. Cookies are hand formed, dropped, pressed, rolled, cut. The dried fruit/nut cake soaked in brandy is one of the most popular items.
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