Christmas - The Way We Were - part 3

Of course the Christmas week always included spending many hours doing jigsaw puzzles.  I still enjoy doing puzzles but I do them only at Christmas time.  I started a new collection more than thirty years ago, starting with this ornament-shaped puzzle.  This has been a family favorite and when I pulled it out on Christmas Day four of us tackled it with Jenn taking the lead.  We had it completed in a few hours that afternoon.  Great fun.

A few days later I enjoyed putting this oldie together, thrilled that here too not one piece was missing.

Just a few more memories - I remember :

-tramping through the snow with my sister, Erica, to our cousins house on the farm during the Christmas days, only one mile away but oh those biting Manitoba winter winds made us so grateful that we had those new head scarves to wear.  It was all worth the trudging when upon arrival we were heartily embraced, and commenced immediately to play all kinds of interesting games such as we didn't have at home: Sorry, Parcheesi, Tiddly Winks, Pick up Sticks and even Monopoly with our big cousin Alfred in their warm homey dining room.  Then, when it was time to go home we got our longed-for treat, one generous square of  "Ma's"* homemade fudge.  But by now the skies were dark and colder than ever, so "Pa" would hitch Darby to the covered caboose and then home over the drifts of snow the trusty Clydesdale plodded.  I was always very worried that the caboose would tip even after being reassured over and over again "Pa" would not let that happen!

*We always called my mother's older sister "Ma" and her husband, our uncle "Pa".  They were like grandparents to us since Ma and Pa took my mother, being the youngest one in the family, under their wing when Mom's parents both died very young in Russia,  leaving that entire family of seven orphaned. 

- getting the exact gift I asked for -  a beautiful blond-haired doll with a pretty blue dress that I'd spotted in the Eaton's catalogue.  Erica had picked the dark-haired doll with a pretty red dress.  To our delight there they were that Christmas morning beside our bowl of nuts and candies.

- getting a lovely red two-piece outfit when I was in Grade 5, a short pleated skirt with its matching jacket.  ( It was a welcome hand-me-down, in mint condition, from one of Herta's friends.)  I was so thrilled to have it to wear to my school Christmas program since I had a part in the class play that year.

- when I was in Grade 7, Erica and I both got identical dark green dresses that a seamstress made for us that Christmas - we loved them.  Usually Mom made all of our dresses - we only wore dresses in those days.

- one Christmas Eve service in our church in Winkler in particular.  As the program progressed, one of the handsome young men got up to sing a solo:

There's a song in the air
There's a star in the sky
There's a mother's deep prayer
And a Baby's low cry....

 ...and just like that, right then and there, the huge Christmas tree up on the front platform came crashing down falling right down the aisle...the rest of the program is a blur... but we surely will have received our brown paper bag full of peanuts, nuts, caramel candies, a few hard candies and an orange!  Sheer delight!

-Christmas mornings in our family home - waiting in the hallway leading to the living room for my Dad to open the door so that we could enter the living room where we had each placed a large serving bowl the night before to be magically filled during the night with peanuts, nuts and candies.  Here also we would be sure to find our gifts, always unwrapped, carefully laid out next to our bowl at the spot we had chosen on the couch or armchair the night before.  My parents liked order and a bit of ceremony to go with this.  We always were dressed in our Sunday clothes first thing Christmas morning so we would be ready for the morning service, because we went to church not only on Christmas Eve, but on Christmas Day too.  But before we children could enter the living room, we had to sing a carol, which I remember as always being "Welchen Jubel, welche Freude, bringt die liebe Weihnachtszeit..." (What jubilation, what joy the precious Christmas season brings...).

-in December 1949, when I was 9 years old, my parents had moved us into our brand new 3-story house on 9th street, complete with shiny hardwood floors in the front rooms.  We were excited for this first Christmas in our new home.  We were also grateful that our 3-year old brother, Helmut, was able to be with us.  Helmut had been hit by a truck shortly before Christmas and was in precarious condition in the hospital for some time.   This little fellow had slipped away from Mom's watchful eye to go visit Dad one block away at the Studio.  By this time we had already moved into a home one block away from the Studio and now in 1949, we had moved into our new home just before Christmas.  So we were settled in and excited.  Now Dad upped the excitement a lot by arranging to have a Santa at our place in full red suit and more presents in his genuine burlap sack!  (Dad's cousin George, who went on to become a master photographer, had arrived in 1948 from Russia via Germany leaving his wife and infant daughter behind, thinking they were "verschlept" during the war (carried away and possibly done away with.  Their reconciliation many years later needs to be a separate story).  It didn't take us long to realize that this Santa who stayed for our roast goose dinner at noon was indeed our Uncle George!  Now we also had an enthusiastic Dad with a new 16 mm movie camera recording the events of this day for posterity.  This movie is now in the process of being made into a DVD, three generations down from when the original was  filmed.

I am grateful for all the sacrifices our parents made on our behalf and to our Heavenly Father who makes all things possible - Thank You.

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That ends the trip down Memory Lane for this year.  The New Year is just hours away - what will it hold?   For this blogger it seems to be leaning toward recording things of the past, some of our history, so our children and grandchildren may have a place to check if they should ask.

Thanks to all who have taken the time to stop by.  I appreciate it so much.  Thanks for all the kind comments...it's such an encouragement and inspiration to hear 

from you in this way.  Thanks a million!

God bless you in new and amazing ways throughout this coming year. 
See you next year!
Love Alice