Well, yesterday we hadn’t planned to take Baby out — just from her house to ours — but Papa got to telling me about Menard’s where he went to get the kerosene. He told me about all the Christmas things they had out. So I said, “Well, I will call Tiff and ask her to dress Baby really warm and then we could take her to Menard’s (Big Hardware Store) to see the Christmas lights.” So we ended up taking Baby to see the Christmas lights on the way home.

Oh, Papa is just a kid himself and loved showing Baby Girl all the dancing Santas and all the battery run toys that jingled and sang. We had a ball walking up and down the aisles. Our only purpose was to delight Baby. And, of course, she loved it all and is such a good little girl. She is just pure dessert to me and Jim.

Wild Man, of course, loves to sing, and he and I sang Christmas songs to Baby Rose in the car as we traveled back home. Jim loves all the old songs and knows all the words. He sings “Frosty the Snow Man” and Jingle Bells and “Ya better watch out Santa Claus is coming to town.” And Jim is a master at singing the old time Christmas carols.

We taught our children all the old Christmas songs in homeschool, as we never wanted them to forget them. What with our country trying to forget Christmas. How sad! We sang songs like “Noel” and “Little Town of Bethlehem” and “Oh Come Let Us Adore Him.” We love all the old time Christmas Carols. And Baby from the back seat makes requests. She will call out “Ten Monkeys on the Bed.” Or “MacDonald’s Farm” — Jim and I sing that and go through about 10 different farm animals.

Mary, our girl of 20 years old, tells me, “Mom, I am the only girl my age who knows all the classic shows like Meet Me in St Louis, Annie get Your Gun”, and the other old-time Broadway shows that were made into movies.” Jim has a wonderful voice to sing and loves to dance. We especially love the song “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”

When the children were little, we all sang these songs. I have a tape of them singing with Jim and me. I know where the tape is but my heart would bleed if I were to listen to it. We had so many happy days. But now the Lord has given me and Jim Baby Rose to sing Christmas to. And we have little Romeo who don’t like kisses but loves us just as much as Rose does. We have a new generation to teach Jesus to. What a blessing to have a new little boy and girl to love, and especially at Christmas.

When I was a little slip of a girl, my dad loved Christmas. His folks had a big tape recorder. Now, this was back in the 50’s. The tape recorder had the big round reels. Anyway, Dad’s stepdad recorded me and Dad singing “Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer.” Even at 4 years old, I was looking for truth and told my dad on the record that Rudolf’s nose was brown, not red. Granpa Babe made a tape of the recording into a record. I think I still have the record someplace. But my Dad used to say, “Christmas is for kids.”

I think the love we show our children at Christmas is so important. We really felt it was so important to teach our children the old time Christmas songs about Jesus. “Angels From the Realms of Glory” is such a lovely song. I taught my children to play this on the piano in homeschool. I play so much by ear that it was hard for me to learn notes on the piano. But I learned enough to teach my children to play simple songs. We had a children’s book of Christmas carols and I taught them out of this book. They could play “Silent Night” and many Christmas songs. And we would recite Christmas poetry. My children always had good literature to read. And I raised my children to know the Lord.

Oh, gosh, mothers what a journey of faith so many of us are on. We did our dang best and it seems it wasn’t good enough. So many writers quit writing when the kids get old enough to move out of the house. The Mothers’ hearts are so broken sometimes. But we just have to keep on goin’.

Oh, Wild Man and me had a ball at the Salvation Army yesterday. I found these darling crystal cups. For the Recipe? I got 8 glass cups for $2.49. The little cups hold maybe 3 ounces. Then I got a quart glass Christmas jar with a lid. I have one already, and this and the new jar will hold the Recipe. I will just strain the Christmas Cordial and put it in 2 one quart jars with lids. Then I can just keep it in the fridge instead of hiding it on the porch. Well, Papa don’t drink it, anyway.

I want to find an old-fashioned Christmas tray to put the little crystal cups on with one bottle of the Cordial. Then I can get all fancy when Christmas Travelers come to my door on a cold and snowy night. I shall bring out the Cordial to warm the bones of my old Christmas friends. I doubt seriously if Grandma Walton will come, or Olivia. But, I dunno, they might, all depending upon my wild Christmas imaginations.

As I write, I am baking a big peanut squash. When it’s done and cool, I will just smash it up and use a pumpkin pie recipe to make a pie with the squash. Like 2 cups of squash instead of the canned pumpkin. This squash really makes a better pie {I think} than the pumpkin does. If I have enough squash, I will make bread with it. Just like ya make pumpkin bread but you use the squash. This squash sorta tastes like a nutty pumpkin when ya use it for pie or bread. The peanut squash looks like a giant tan circus peanut? The kind in the shell? Anyway, it has such a thin peeling and lots of good squash inside.

Well, Jim is up to shovel the walk, so I better get to makin’ breakfast.

Good Morning Christmas Mothers,

It’s raining and warm here in Iowa. Then tonight it will get cold. Then we will be slippin’ and slidin. Jim is off work today and we will get the Christmas tree.

I have started potato soup in the crock pot. Will need to make some bread rolls. I had made potatoes and ham with cheese in the crock a few days ago. So now I am making the potato soup from the leftovers.

I have been so out of groceries. Last night, Wild Man made a lot in tips, so we are going to the store today. Gonna buy some kerosene. Yeah! And have it for tonight when the weather gets cold. Wild man and me will stay warm and drink hot coffee and stay close around the burner.

This morning, I made some nice Spiced Cherry Cordial for Christmas. It will be done brewing about a week before Christmas. It has wild cherries in it and orange slices. Also cinnamon pieces, whole cloves, and whole allspice. If I can find some nice lemons today at the store, I will buy one and slice it up for the cordial. I just make it up in a gallon jar and set it to brew in a warm place.

Now you be quiet, Annie, I need something to warm my old winter bones. Kerosene burners can only go so far, ya know. And, no, this Christmas Cordial ain’t for kids! It’s for the adults to drink for a toast at Christmas — after the kids go to bed. Sometimes, after your dear relatives insult ya over the holidays? Ya gotta keep a straight face, wait till they go home, get out the cordial, and laugh it off. Naw, just kiddin’ ya.

Anyway, when Wild Man gets up this morning, we will go do some serious grocery shopping. Jim was up in the night and couldn’t sleep so he decided to clean out my chest freezer. I will be eternally grateful to him for that. Because it wouldn’t have maybe gotten done until after I died. Sad but true. If it wasn’t for Jim, I would never know what was in my freezer. So today, some of the kids will drop by later this afternoon. I will have the soup on and they will eat some.

Ya know, in the wintertime, when the children were little and at home, I would buy lemon drops and keep them in a jar. Our family used these for cough drops. Our cold winters in Iowa cause the house to get so dry from having so much heat going all the time. So your throat at night will just get dry as a bone. The lemon drops are cheap and work good like a cough drop. Well, don’t give it to a child who would choke on the hard candy. But for older children, the lemon drops are good.

Well, I had better get to my Christmas grocery list and check it twice.

I am up early this morning makin’ sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. We will have our Thanksgiving at my mom’s and all the kids and their families will be there except for Christian Joy and Jimmy our oldest son. Christian Joy has flown to California to spend the day with her boyfriend’s family. Then Jimmy and his wife Alecks are staying home, as Alecksondra is pregnant and sorta sick yet. She is due in May and we are excited about that.

Romeo, my little grand boy, is 3 and we are really getting to know him better as his family just moved here from Missouri. When asked lately by Rose’s mom, “So how do you like Grandma Connie?” he said he liked her.

And his mom said, “Well, I thought you told me you thought she was pretty, didn’t ya?”

He said “No, I didn’t say she was pretty. I said she was cool.” Oh, Jim and I get such a kick out of Romeo. He is all boy. No kisses and hugs from him unless ya steal ‘em. And he runs by ya so fast, ya hardly can even steal a kiss. But Jim and I had mostly boys — 4 boys and 2 girls. So we are used to little boys. And we know they are pretty stingy with their kisses. So if you are good at tackling little boys, you can get a kiss from Romeo. Christine, his mother, (John’s wife) dresses Romeo so nice. She shops at the Salvation Army and Goodwill and garage sales in the summer. Never worldly clothes, just nice big boy clothes. I can’t say enough about how good of mother and dad that John and Christine are to Romeo Paul.

Also, today I will see Lil Rose. Oh, Jim and I miss her so much. Her Mom and Dad take care of apts now so I don’t have Lil Rose regular as I did. Papa and me go get her for the day sometimes. The day doesn’t seem long enough, though. We miss her again as soon as we have to drop her off at her home. But the kids are doing good and Baby is bonding with Mom and Dad. That is good.

My children are doing well this Thanksgiving. “All of my children are taught of the Lord and great is their peace.” I have much to be thankful for. We are all well and holding our own.

Ya know, when I was a little girl, Mom used to say to me. “You have to make your own happiness.” And I think that is true. I mean, we could worry over our families as Grandparents until we are blue in the face. But I want some happiness, don’t you? I mean, I guess when ya get older and you feel like you are home free in your marriage, ya look for something else to worry over. You can just worry all your life and it gets to be a habit. But we can make a habit of being joyful just as well. We CAN lay our burdens down. No rule says we have to worry all the time.

If our kids are married, then it is now their spouses’ responsibility to care for them. As mothers, we are always there as mothers. I guess we are mothers forever. But the Lord wants us to let our children grow up and into their own families. My mentor MaryL always says, “Connie, let loose of those kids. Let ‘em go to Jesus. You have done your job and now they are on their own. Jesus knows how to take care of them. When you have the burden, then Jesus can’t take it.”

Well, ya know, about the time I learn how to let Mary, my sixth child, go, then she has a way of not letting me and Jim go. She is the baby of the family and a girl, at that. We were so close! She has had the flu and I have worried like mad over her. But she will be OK. She WILL be OK. They have health insurance so she can go to the doctor if she needs to.

Shoot, we never went to doctors when we were raising the last 3 children after Jim was saved. We always used home remedies and prayed. This is how I learned that Jesus was the Healer. He is, ya know. Prayer is a way of healing, too. I mean, yes, we use doctors, too. But prayer is a way of healing, too. Jim told me that when it was his time to go, he just wanted to die here and not to call an ambulance if he needed one. I told him, “Wild man, do you know how much time I would get for that?”

Oh, it is very cold and crisp outside on this Iowa Thanksgiving morning. Reminds me of the old time Thanksgivings at my uncle’s farm.

We children loved to be outside playing, no matter how cold it was. My cousins were mostly boys. I was a fast runner at school but, mercy, when I got to the farm to run and chase with the farm kids, they could always out run me. Russ, my cousin who was a year older than me, would chase me when we played tag. He ran so fast, he would run into me and when I fell down, he would run right over me. He was big and healthy as all get out.

And this was back in the early 1950’s when polio was going around. Russ contracted polio but wouldn’t stand for it. The doctors tried to make him stay in bed. He was probably 7 years old. But as soon as the doctor left his bedroom, he would get up and jump on the bed. (This was when country doctors made house calls.) Russ was such a rascal, nothing could keep him down. I mean, I was the fastest runner in my school, of the girls, anyway. And only one boy could run faster than me. But Russ could way out run me. He was so fast. But, anyway, no one could keep him in bed, even if he had polio. And the doctor later said that this is what saved him, as he was so rambunctious. And his muscles never had time to lock from the polio, as he was always on the move. He still has a bit of trouble with his joints because of the polio, as he is about 60 now. He is still very robust.

But, ya know, back in the 50’s, we didn’t have immunizations for whooping cough or mumps or 3 day measles or chicken pox. We just got all those diseases, as we thought it was just a part of the sufferings of being a kid. We did all have polio shots, though, as you didn’t want that. And we had other shots, too, for something — I have forgotten now. Russ got polio before the shots were available. But, ya know, when the kids in the neighborhood got the 3 day measles, they just stayed inside for 3 days until they got better.

The Mothers were stay at home moms, and all the mothers had the good sense to keep the child inside and cared for. Mothers didn’t purposely infect the whole neighborhood. Same with the mumps and chicken pox. Whooping cough was no fun. I don’t think I ever had that but some of the kids I knew did. Their mothers just stayed up at night with them and made sure they were safe when they coughed. I mean, Mothers were always up in the night checking on the children. Always making sure they were covered up and warm.

Now days, if it were not for immunizations, the children would get sick and most of their mothers wouldn’t care for them. I mean, sad to say this, but it’s true. And I mean chicken pox and mumps, etc. would be serious if the child isn’t cared for. But the old time mothers knew that and knew how to nurse their children through these childhood diseases. All of my children had chicken pox. They didn’t start immunizing against that until later.

But I personally think that this is why some of the children get this weird stuff no one can put their finger on. Because I think some of those diseases like chicken pox was a cleanser for the body. I mean, it ain’t that big of a deal to have the chicken pox. Well, it is if you are a working mother and have a career to look after. It is a serious interruption in your life.

Well, I guess I better get back to my dinner preparations. Have a happy Thanksgiving. How I got off talking about diseases on Thanksgiving, I will never know.

Good Morning, Thanksgiving Mothers. Is everyone gettin’ ready for Turkey Day? Today Mary and Jim and I will go to my Mom’s to help her get the house ready for the family to gather on Thursday. My mom is 82 and will bake the turkey and have the celebration at her house. Of course, everyone helps and brings food. I will bring candied sweet potatoes and pies. Then each of the families will bring vegetable casseroles and salads.

I am having a sort of vision of an old time Thanksgiving. It must have been a Thanksgiving I went to as a child. I was about 3 yrs old. I remember the floor being covered with the old time carpet rugs. I see a warm fire as it glows. The floor is not even and and you walk up and over the sagging floor. I can feel the humps under my feet as I write. And yet the Mother there in charge keeps a warm home.

The old carpet is pieced and tacked down. Ya know, the old timers would just patch a floor. Sometimes they would take a tin can and flatten it with a hammer. Usually it was a tobacco can, as they were flat. They split it apart and then would hammer it flat. Then they would put it over a hole in the floor and nail it down. Then the carpet went over that. The patches kept the critters out, too. Well, at least in the winter, they used carpet. Folks, ya know, just made do. They patched their carpet, just like they would their clothing, and they would just nail the pieces down with carpet tacks.

Anyway, as I walk on this floor with the patched carpet, I can feel the tin can patches under the carpet. They kinda squeak up and down under my feet. The house is sealed shut and a warm fire is blazing. It is evening and we just got there the day before Thanksgiving. We were expected earlier in the day but the snow storm kept us behind in time. So when we got to the farmhouse, the fire in the fireplace had been made and remade, and the fire was an even heat now in the house, and such a joyful fire it was.

All of us children laughed and teased each other until it was time to go to bed. I remember the uncles kidding us children, and the aunts were always more sober with the business of Thanksgiving at hand. The men would tease the women about being so worried about Thanksgiving and having everything just right.

I must be seeing an old farmhouse in the 40’s. Because the carpet I see is about that era. And on the door is this heavy brown paper tacked over the whole door. The house is snug with much of the plastic paper on the outside windows and doors. As the wind whips in the cold, the sound of the brown paper on the kitchen door claps for the winter wind.

The country folks back in the early days were always less sophisticated than the city folks. They worried more about a warm home than the latest city styles. I used to hear them answer their city relatives with, “Oh, that’s just for city folks.” The simple folks out on the land were more common sense people who lived close to home. They named all of their animals and saw more of animals than of people.

Last night as I prayed, I said “Oh, Lord, who was supposed to be the older Titus mother in my life?” I longed for her to come to me and to just sit with me. I longed to see her face. Just once to see her face. I wrestled in prayer to see her face and I never did. And the Lord said to me, “Connie, just sense her presence.”

I feel so bare boned and cold lately. So alone and not comforted. I have felt that this adventure of writing a book takes me to a place of cold loneliness and a panic and fear. And yet wouldn’t this go with the territory? Been here and done that. I may feel alone and, yet, the Lord shows me a country farmhouse with a patched floor and a warm fire to sit by. The wind howls outside, but inside the Lord’s heart and place for me, it is warm and all of my needs are met there.

Old-Time Thanksgivings

As a child growin’ up in the 1950’s — oh, we had the most wonderful Thanksgivings. The baked turkeys and hams, sliced thinly and so tempting. The children were always trying to steal a piece of meat before it was put on the table. The dinner was promised to be served at noon. But we were always waiting for some relative that was late. The women would look out the window and worry about “Aunt Whoever.” And wonder and worry over them being late. No one made a long distance phone call to see if someone was on their way. I mean, you didn’t call long distance unless someone died. Well, almost. And everyone yelled into the phone because it was long distance.

I remember as a child being in bed in the early morning and Mom calling her brother Clarence. Everyone called early in the morning, as it was cheaper to call. So Mom woke me up yelling “Clarence” into the phone. We children would scramble out of bed to see what disaster had happened as it was a long distance call! And ya only talked a minute as it was such a big deal and no one would dare talk loooong. So us kids knew something was really up and the call would be short. So we leaped out of bed to hear what our Mother was gonna say to Clarence. Sometimes it was just a friendly call about family. But always an emergency.

Sometimes the dinner would be heated again and again until everyone arrived around 2:00 in the afternoon. Finally we children would hear the cars rollin’ in and we would announce, as we looked out the front window, “They’re here! They’re here!” Then we would yell who it was. “Can we eat now?” we would ask.

“Now, you kids just wait until everyone gets in and gets their coats off and gets settled, and then we will eat,” our mothers always had to get after us.

Often Mother worried she didn’t make enough food and then all the relatives brought food galore. “Oh, you brought a pumpkin pie?” Mom would say, as she helped the aunts off with their coats. “Oh, I was afraid we wouldn’t have enough pie.” And, oh, what glorious dinners the women made. Oh, mercy! Several kinds of stuffings. Aunt Lilly wouldn’t eat a thing with an onion in it. So Mom always made Lilly’s dressing separate. But, oh, the fruit salads with the whipped cream were heavenly. My Dad had to have the old-fashioned cooked cranberry sauce. Nothing with oranges in it. No new recipes for cranberry sauce made him happy. My one aunt always made a salad with a secret salad dressing on it. She never gave us the recipe and, the whole dinner, the ladies would taste this dressing and try to guess what was in it. It tasted like the Dorthy Lynch dressing. But, oh, we would have loads of mashed potatoes and gravy and many vegetable casseroles.

And everyone was welcome. If someone didn’t have a place to go for Thanksgiving, then they were welcome to ours.

One thing the women never made in my extended family was bread. None of the women ever brought bread of any kind to a Thanksgiving dinner. The women said they didn’t need it with all the other good food. But, anyway, the standing joke with Dad was, when we were already to eat this wonderful feast, Dad would say,. “Velma, where’s the bread?” And Mom would get out her little bread plate and put it on the table and put a stack of white store bread on it.

And, oh, everyone would eat this heavenly food until they would burst. And after everyone left, just before supper around 5:00, my dad would say, “Velma, when is supper?”

And Mom would say, “Fran, how can you be hungry? We just ate all that food!”

I mean, we would eat desserts galore, too. Everyone was stuffed to the gillards.

But, too, when my family would arrive home and around 5:00 in the evening, Jim and the kids would ask me if we were gonna have supper. My family was always thin too but always ate at regular times. Back then, you didn’t eat a lot of snacks. You just ate 3 meals a day. I mean, except on Thanksgiving, and you ate at dinner and then steady until you went back home.

Men Love Pie

And, oh, back at the old time Thanksgivings, the men couldn’t wait to get a piece of pie. The cakes and apple crisps were passed over. The pies were the crowning glories of the Thanksgiving feasts. Pumpkin pie was the favorite but other pies would do. And when the pies were gone, then the other desserts were eaten.

And Mother was so giving and told folks to take leftovers home to their families. But Dad would whisper to Mom, “Don’t give away the pie!” My Dad loved pie and you would be in serious trouble if you got in between him and his pie. Often, if I brought a pie, I would leave Dad about a half the pie to eat later.

My pies, when the children were growing up, were terrible. But everyone ate them, anyway, as they all loved pie. Of course, with my pies, they just ate the inside and left the crust. They didn’t want to break their teeth off. I can make pies now and I will bring them to Mom’s dinner on Thanksgiving.

My milkman “Dick” many years ago told me of an old family recipe for pumpkin pie. He said the old time Mothers would take a raw pumpkin and slice it up and pile it high in the crusted pie plate. Then over the top, they would put a handful of flour and cinnamon and brown sugar, and a bit of butter. Then they would put the pie crust on the top, put slits in the crust, and bake the pie. It would be like an apple pie. It sounds delicious to me and I may try that. I made a zucchini pie like this one year and it tasted exactly like an apple pie. I think I added a bit of vinegar or lemon juice to it to give it a twang.

But pies. Pies, ladies! Make a pie for Thanksgiving for the men in your life. They will love ya for it.

Love and a Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
Connie

This morning, as I was up praying, I was thinking “Wow! It won’t be long until Christmas.” Ya know, Papa and me raised 6 children and we love Christmas. I should be writing about Thanksgiving, as it is the next holiday. But if you have a large family, as Papa and me raised, you have to think of Christmas even in October.

We had to start early to gather presents for each of our children. Mary, our sixth baby, was just 8 months old for her first Christmas, and Jimmy was in the Navy. Well, I had to send Jimmy his present early to get it there in time for Christmas. I sent fudge and Christmas cookies to remind him of the tastes of home. Shoot, we never had a lot of money for Christmas presents. But we got what we could to make each of our children feel special and loved by Daddy and Mama. We would give them one item of clothing like a warm sweatshirt. And then some kind of an inexpensive toy. In their stockings, we put candy and for the girls, hair ribbons or barrettes. And for the boys always basketball cards. I hear the little boys’ childhood voices as I write. “Daddy, you are lucky — you pick out the best cards. You always get the good ones.” Dan said he didn’t know what he wanted to be when he grew up, but he knew he would be in the NBA. Like it was a done deal. But we started packing little toys and fun things away in October to surprise the children for Christmas Day.

The children would have us take them to the Dollar Store to buy a dollar gift for each of the members of their family. They each had their own money, as they did a once a week paper route. So when David and Mary and Dan were little, and the other children were grown, we took the 3 youngest to the Dollar Store. So the 3 children represented 30 bucks, and all of them wanted me to help pick out presents. I was about cross eyed by the time I helped pick out 30 one dollar presents. And yet now, 15 years later, I would jump at the chance to do that all over again.

And ya know, somehow each year, we got a real Christmas tree for the family. We would find one for about 10 bucks. And, oh, the children’s hands would just tremble with excitement as they put the first ornaments on the tree. It was a special night to behold. I would fix chili and cornbread. And after supper, we would decorate the tree. Papa was so full of fun and loved Christmas. I tried to have some Christmas cookies made for the evening and always popcorn. After the tree was all decorated, our dog Daisey would go sit under it. One time her collar got hooked to the tree and she knocked it over, and then as we all screamed, she ran away dragging the decorated tree through the house.

One year, Mary gave me such a precious gift. She didn’t have any money of her own to spend for Christmas. She was just a wee little girl about 5 years old. Anyway, I had a precious old fashioned book that I had lost in the house someplace and couldn’t find it for about a year. I had finally given up ever trying to find it. Well about a week before Christmas, Mary found it upstairs, stacked in with some other forgotten books. And so for Christmas Day, she wrapped this book up for me and put it under the tree with a card that said “To Mom From Mary.” She has the same heart as I have and loves writing and books. So she knew how much Mama missed her book. So it was one of my favorite Christmas presents that year. I was so surprised to see it again, as I thought it was lost forever. And Mary was so proud of her little Christmas self.

If you saw this book, you would weep. It is real old fashioned from the 1800’s with a little girl about 5 on the front cover. She is praying to Jesus. And inside the book is her prayers. I have the book upstairs in the baby’s room on a shelf. Baby Rose has a sweet spirit like Mary has.

Mary, now married and 20 years old, is a lovely writer. And, of course, her heart has been cut open at so young an age by losing her first baby to crib death.

MOTHER’S CHRISTMAS GIVING

And just after Thanksgiving, I would start my baking. Then about a week before Christmas, I would make simple coffeecakes to give to the neighbor families. I would have one of the children dress up warm and deliver a few cakes to the neighbors. I would make a few a day and when they were done, they were delivered. They were made simply. I would make up a huge batch of sweet yeast raise dough. Then I would braid the dough for each cake and put it in a circle. I would put cinnamon and sugar on the braids before I wound them together. Then after they baked, I would put a light white powdered sugar glaze; then, on the top, green candy sprinkles. Then maybe red hots to look like berries on a wreath. Sometimes I put maraschino cherries on it, like in clusters of three. You can also add raisins to your sweet dough.

I would make about three Christmas cakes out of a batch of sweet dough. Then I would put the coffeecake on a pretty paper Christmas plate, and then put plastic wrap over it with a bow and a simple card “From the Hultquists. Merry Christmas.” I loved doing this to teach the children to love and respect our neighbors and to teach them the Joy of giving. Of course, the neighbors would ooh and aahh and kid the children about “if they were naughty or nice and what was Santa gonna bring ‘em for Christmas?” And when they would come back home, I would say, “Well, what did Chuck and Trudy say? Did they like the cake?” And the children would tell me what they said. It was a lot of fun. I look forward to having my grandchildren do this too, of course, when they are older.

I told Papa last week. “Thank God this Christmas we will have the grandbabies with us over the season, at least.” I was reading to Baby Rose and showing her a Christmas book Papa had gotten for her. It had a Christmas tree. I explained to Baby that we would buy a tree, too. And I told her it would be for Grandma and Grandpa’s house and she said, “And for ME?” And I said, “Oh, yes, Baby, for you, too.”

Mary asks me in such sadness, “Mom, how will I get through Christmas? I had so much planned for our little girl.”

I say, “Mary, I pray you will be pregnant at Christmas. The Lord will help you.” And ya know, I carry this sorrow and will carry it forever. I am getting better at it. I can carry it now with less effort and heartache. But I will always carry it. And this is what I tell Mary and Brandon. Time heals our wounds but the scars remain.

We as Mothers and Grandmothers learn to carry our sorrows like ladies of dignity. And somehow, in spite of our tears, we find Joy at Christmas. We make a Christmas with our hands and with our hearts. Remembering that it is a time for Joy and a time to rest and enjoy the family. We must have hearts of trust in God in order to encourage our children and, by our behavior, excite courage in their souls.

And, ya know, as a young mom, I didn’t want to make a Christmas, as I wanted to just celebrate Jesus’ birth. But to tell poor children that we would have no Christmas as the other children had, and would only celebrate the birth of Christ, was not showing our children the love of Jesus and their parents’ love. We celebrated both. And we let our children know that Jesus Christ was real but Santa was pretend, and we talked about Santa just to have fun.

And I bet I could say in my years as a wife and mother I have, without exaggeration, made at least a million cut-out sugar cookies. Maybe more! Again, here is another dough for Mother to learn to work with. I would say sugar cookie dough is like noodle dough. These cookies were a mainstay for me at Christmas. Many years, I sold them to buy Christmas presents. Mary, at 9 years old, made these and sold 40 dozen to buy Christmas presents.

I marinated my beef ribs last night to have today for Father’s Day. I just put the ribs in a plastic sack with about a half bottle of the Italian vinegar and oil dressing poured in the zip lock sack, and they sat in the fridge overnight. I cooked the ribs a little before I did that so I could drain them.

Anyway, they are in the oven now on about 300 degrees. After they have baked a few hours, I will put the homemade BBQ sauce on them and let ‘em bake a few more hours. I just make the BBQ Sauce like this. Just take a bowl and put in a can of tomato soup, or a few cans of tomato sauce … something tomato, in other words? Then add some mustard (about a tablespoon) and some brown sugar (about a cup or 2). Stir this up with salt and pepper. Then cut up some onions to go in, and some green peppers. The sauce should all be thick … like pancake batter.

Then, when the beef is almost done, put this sauce on it and let it bake on a low temp, about 300 degrees. I make a lot of sauce, as I like to be very generous with the sauce. I don’t just spread a bit on — I spread a lot on — and I let the meat all soak in the sauce. And I get the country style beef ribs without the bone in them. They were on sale at our meat market for just $1.75 a pound. I have about 4 pounds. About the last half hour or so, I take the lid off the meat and let it all get sort of dry and crisp and brown. So the sauce has cooked up on ‘em pretty good by then, and it is thick and reddish brown.

Of course, Papa is an onion and green pepper hater. So I just lay big slices of onions and green peppers on the top, so he can see them and not eat one. He likes the meat baked in the onions and peppers, but he don’t want to eat any onions and green peppers. And his dang kids are the same way. (Well, most of em are.)

But the main thing is to get those things tender and good, and sort of crispy and tangy and sweet … with a good bite. I will sneak in some garlic, too, and some other spices if I can get away with it. I would love to put some of my homemade horseradish in the meat, but getting hung on Father’s Day would not be “a good thing.” (Sorry, Martha.)

I am also fixing potato salad and baked beans. But, as I think of it, baked beans won’t be good with this. I will make a corn casserole, instead. I have a big pot on the stove right now with about 4 pounds of potatoes with the skins on. Also, I have a pot of eggs to hard boil. When the potatoes are done and cooled, I will make the potato salad. I will just peel them and cut them up and add the cut up, peeled hard boiled eggs. To this, I will add mayonnaise, mustard, and pickle relish (and don’t I wish — horseradish.) Well, horseradish is good in potato salad. But, again, I better not … YIKES. So, anyway, add some salt and pepper, and you could add celery, too. Make sure you make the potato salad well in advance, so that the salad is cold when ya serve it.

I will make a rhubarb dessert, too. We all love rhubarb.

Our grown kids in our area will be here, and my mom. Then the out of town kids will just call Jim to wish him a “Happy Father’s Day!!!”

Well I am gonna go rest and read my Bible and wait for the potatoes to get done and cooled. I will have a big day today.

I wish all of you fathers out there a Happy Father’s Day.

Well, it’s a busy day here. Jim is off today and I am having him take me to the Dollar Tree. I want to get some of those stakes that say HAPPY EASTER for my front yard. I want to get some cute ribbon to tie on my country mailbox. Also, I need some more jely beans.

This afternoon after lunch, I will make some cut out Easter cookies. I will just take a tin can and squeeze it into an oval shape and make cut out eggs. Then I will take some coconut and dye it green with food coloring. I will frost the cut out cookies and then lay the colored coconut on the top for a nest? Then I will stick a few jelly beans on the top, so it looks like a bird’s nest.

I may make pickled eggs. Just make pickled beets, or buy some, and add the peeled boiled eggs in a big jar. Let them set a few hours and they turn purple.

I will get Baby Rose in a minute here, too. So I am off for the day.

Oh, thank God it’s January! I loved the holidays, but January has always been my month to rest. I enjoy getting my winter pantry in order and getting into some serious homemaking. Maybe I will start a sewing project.

When we homeschooled, the months of January, February and March were our best months for serious study. Our children were always so excited over the holidays from October to December. Then January, the holidays were over and we could really get deep into school studies. Of course, we homeschooled through the holidays but it was very distracting, although fun. But when January came, the kids were more settled in. My home would be very quiet after the holidays until about April, when the children would be thinking about summer vacation. But the cold days of January kept them in and quiet and concentrating. We would read books together and I loved it.

Now here it is January, and I hope to get my notebook out and write down some plans for some happy homemaking ideas.

January is a good time to start tomato and pepper plants inside and to be ready to plant in the spring. We are getting seed catalogs in the mail at least once a week. The old time housewives would start planning their gardens on paper in January. I know I want to grow valerian and feverfew again. We used to start our tomato seeds in egg cartons with nail holes in the bottom for drainage. These plantngs are fun for the children to watch grow. And let then try all different kinds of seeds.

It’s a good month for making soups and stews and homemade breads. A time to relax with craft projects. It’s a time to dream and do fun things with the children at home. Jim used to do the jigsaw puzzles in the winter.

All too soon, the spring will come and all of the activity will start again, and we will be glad for that season in our families lives, too. But for now, it is January. Let’s savor it and stir it slowly. As nature takes its rest and the ground is asleep under the snow, let’s us rest, too.

This morning, I am cooking up hamburger and ground turkey, together with onions and peppers, and bits of celery and garlic. I will use some of it for a vegetable soup for today, and then freeze the rest in baggies to make winter casseroles and soups. I will get out my favorite pan with the red lid and cook away.

I think today I will make my Christmas Fudge. Annie was telling me that she don’t like the marshmallow fudge. And I thought to myself, “Is she for REAL???” I thought everyone liked the chocolate marshmallow fudge. But she has to be difficult and like the “Old-Fashioned Fudge” that ya gotta beat with a wooden spoon. Well, while she is givin’ her fudge a beatin’ I will be happily eating mine. “While she is beatin’ I will be eatin’.” Well, Annie should make fudge every week, so she can beat the heck out of something.

Anyway, my fudge is called EASY Fudge or “Never Fail Fudge.” The recipe is on the back of the marshmallow cream jar. I make it once a year at Christmas and it makes a lot. I mean, if you go to buy the fudge at the mall, it costs plenty. But this recipe on the marshmallow cream jar is just as good and rich and sure a lot fresher … and it makes 3 pounds. That is a lot of rich Christmas Chocolate.

I sometimes buy a can of mixed nuts and put this into my candy. But you may just want to use peanuts or walnuts or pecans. I don’t crush the nuts up; I leave them whole. And when you cut the fudge you cut right through the nuts. It’s a nice clean cut. But, anyway, I won’t write out the recipe because if you plan to make this fudge, you need the marshmallow cream, anyway, and the recipe is on the back of the jar. I just dug around in my freezer and found some fresh walnuts in a bag, so I will use walnuts to make our Christmas Fudge.

In the old days, I used to buy a jar of marshmallow cream at Christmas and, if I didn’t hide it right away, Dan and David and the boys would all get into it and try to eat it. So when I would go to make my fudge, the marshmallow cream would be half eaten. So if ya think about it, when ya go to the store to get the marshmallow cream, if its on sale, buy two. One for the fudge and one for the kids to sneak into.

A nice thing to do with your Christmas Fudge after you make it? Well, you can go to the Salvation Army and get the most lovely Christmas tins. I just take mine home and wash them out real good. And then I line mine with the light tissue paper that is a buck for about 10 big pieces … it’s beautiful paper and I would have died for it in the 70s. But, anyway, line your tin with the tissue, and then put a layer of plastic wrap over the tssue so the candy won’t melt through. But this makes a nice candy box to put on the table for the holidays. And, of course, this recipe makes 3 pounds of candy. You could give some of this fudge away for a Christmas gift, wrapped in pretty Christmas tissue and a nice Christmas tin. We used to do this and, oh folks, love fudge for Christmas.

I buy a container of the old fashioned hard candy at Christmas. (Mary always loved to get into that when she was little.) It only costs 2 bucks at the Dollar Store for a big can. And, often, if I was giving fudge away for Christmas, I would sprinkle some of the hard candy in my tin along with the fudge to make it festive.

And you need a heavy pan to make your fudge. I love my old pan I got at the Salvation Army right after Thanksgiving … the one with the big heavy red lid? The pot is black and is like a cross between a cast iron and an enamel. The red lid is enamel but very heavy, like cast iron. But I have had a ball with this pan ever since I got it. I have made lots of soup in it.,And it has a nice heavy bottom, and this will be perfect for candy makin’.

You could use your heavy cast iron dutch oven to make your fudge, too. I usually use mine each year. But this year, I am using my new pan, as it is a bit lighter. And I have to hold it and scrape the candy out at the same time. So a lighter pan will be easier to work with.

The kids get such a kick out of me when I show them my big pan with the red lid on my stove. I just think it is cute.

Also, when I got my last stove I got a small white stove, as my kitchen is so small. I call it my Minnie Mouse Stove, as my kitchen looks like Minnie Mouse cooks in it, anyway. But this little white stove reminds me of the 1920s stoves. The ovens in them were so small. But the Mothers cooked huge meals in them.

When Papa and me were first married, we had this apartment that had a huge kitchen. It was really old fashioned and I loved it. It had very little counter space, as the kitchen cupboards went from the ceiling to the floor. The ceilings were very high, of course, probably 10 ft high. You had to practically get a ladder to get into the highest cupboard. I didn’t even use these cupboards, as I was just a young wife with barely any dishes anyway. But I filled up the lower cupboards.

Anyway, this kitchen had an old white stove in it from the 30s or 40s. The stove had 2 ovens in it with 2 thermostats. The small oven, you used for every day, and the big oven was for big family meals. But you could have 2 things goin’ on at the same time, as each oven had its own temp control. I loved baking bread in the big oven and baking the family meal in the other side.

Happy Cookin’