Today as mom and I were discussing Christmas and traditions became a part of it made me remember some of the best Christmases I have ever had. Would you believe it was the one we did not have money. I think it forces you to be creative and to spend time with your family. This is one of those years.
My husband left for 6 weeks for the police academy in Alaska and when I got back from putting him on the plane our furnace had quit. I could not get the parts I needed except to order them from Seattle. Luckily for us we also had a wood stove but it meant that we had to shut off our water and drain the trailer house as the furnace is what kept the pipes from freezing. Then the pickup quit and I had to get parts for it and then the hot water heater broke and I had to order a new hot water heater. Needless to say we were broke. My husband was not getting any overtime and everything was breaking and Christmas was coming.
I had lots of stuff to bake with so we started in baking cookies to make this a special Christmas for dad when he came home. We would bake cookies and then put them in the freezer in a box. The next day we would make some different ones.
This started a tradition that lasted as long as the kids were home except we would make them and put them in a box for Grandpa. My dad used to always shake his present Christmas morning and say “I hope this is something to eat” or “is this something to eat?”. The year we came home from Alaska the kids waited in anticipation of Grandpa asking Christmas morning “is this something to eat?” Then he would open the big box and it would be full of cookies. I am not to sure who had the most fun that Christmas morning, my dad or the grandkids and we all enjoyed the cookies. We had so many we had to put some back in the freezer.
They also started making cookie boxes for our friends and the police departments. It remained a fun tradition until the kids left home.
That year we also made popcorn and cranberry strings for the tree. It kept us busy in the evenings sewing, eating popcorn and laughing.
We made snowflakes out of paper and covered every spot we could find in the whole house.
We made Christmas ornaments out of everything we could find. One of the funniest and favorite for years was taking a round piece of wet suit material and poking round tooth picks all around it and then painting it gold and putting glitter in it. That thing lasted for years and years.
We made popcorn balls and cookies for the tree where everyone that came over could find something to eat on the tree.
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