More about traditions

Sorry, got sick the day after Christmas and had to work today. So, more about the traditions of our family as I grew up.

The Christmas tree got put up whenever we could. That might be 2 weeks before Christmas or the week before, maybe the day before. (Unlike my married life, we got it done every year. Can't say that here. We had one 2 years ago that stayed up until March, I think. Got it down in time for easter, but haven't gotten it back up since. We'll try again next year.) We usually had the presents under there in time for opening after church on Christmas eve. Then, Santa came and we opened the stocking gifts on Christmas day before the big dinner. That gave Mom some time to get things ready for us. In later years, it got to be a challenge to sneak around Mom when it came to the stockings. She was hard to get to go to bed on Christmas eve! She sure did enjoy those surprises in the morning, though. That was my favorite part of helping Santa out.

When we were really little, in Iowa, we would go to Grandma's house, just around the corner, on Christmas for dinner. The Christmas I remember the best was the year Mom took the cradle Grandpa made for me (life-size) for the BPW Christmas party and it just didn't get back to me for some reason. I found it in the living room at Grandma's with a 6-mo size doll in it. She has been my favorite for about 39 years, if I recall right. I named her Susan, though I don't know why since I didn't know any Susans at the time. She has survived a fire, however, the cradle wasn't as lucky in 1987. It wasn't repairable and Grandpa couldn't do such lovely work anymore. It has returned to dust.

Those are the ones I can think of this year. Maybe next year I'll have more if my memory holds. I'm getting old, but I'll never be as old as my brother, at least not for quite a while, God love him.