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If you are visiting my blog for the first time, please be sure to read my Introductory Post from December 2016 shown under previous posts.
The Christmas season is generally a busy one for most of us, but more so for a Lutheran minister. In addition to the weekly Sunday services and Bible classes, monthly meetings for various church groups, catechism instruction for both day school and public school students, counseling church members and visitation of the sick, Dad also had to prepare for the extra services between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Those included, besides these two, services for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, and midweek Advent services. Plus he organized the rehearsals for the children’s services held on the Sunday before Christmas for the younger children and on Christmas Eve for the older ones before the candlelight service.
Mom was also busy in the preparation of the music for many of the services as she directed the children’s choir for many years, and later a teen choir, and she taught kindergarten for the day school so was involved with them for the children’s service. But that’s not all! For several years she was busy sewing matching Christmas dresses for the three of us girls and baking probably a dozen or so kinds of Christmas cookies including her favorite cut-out spice cookies, spritz cookies made with a cookie press, cookie canes, checkerboard squares, pin wheels, Mexican wedding cake, and almond ice-box cookies. Many cookies were boxed up and given as gifts along with her famous Anise candy in red, green, and yellow chopped up and put in air tight jars. For Christmas morning we always enjoyed her Christmas Stollen.
Family activities during the month were the annual trip downtown Chicago to see the decorations and standing in line to see Santa. We decorated our tree with lights, ornaments, and tinsel. When I was little I couldn’t put on the tinsel since it had to be meticulously hung straight strand by strand, but I remember getting to put the Rudolph on which I actually still have after 60 some years. For the most part our trees looked pretty good except the year my sister Ginny was rocking a little too close to the tree and rocked right into it! She came out of it okay but the tree never looked quite right again. The only outside decoration was a lit-up group of carolers which we put in the front window. Not too impressive but, as you see, Mom and Dad were pretty busy!
We opened presents on Christmas Eve between the children’s service and candlelight service. Dad took us for ice cream while Mom went home to arrange the gifts from Santa. That is, except for the year my siblings got bicycles. Then Mom took us for ice cream so Dad could bring the bikes up from the basement. Christmas Day we sometimes drove to our grandparent’s home in Milwaukee after church. Other times they came to our home with our Uncle Ed and Aunt Evie, first in Cicero and then in Round Lake.
When we all became adults and started our own families, Mom crocheted little personalized stocking ornaments for each child, in-law, and grandchild. She also made this angel counted cross-stitch wall hanging. Later she started china painting and made many beautiful items. Here are some of her Christmas projects and, over the years she also worked in pencil and watercolor. Two of them Ginny took and made into Christmas cards to send out to friends and relatives.
As time went on and the families grew, Mom and Dad downsized their living quarters after leaving Round Lake and my sisters and I started hosting the family Christmas celebration. (Marty lived too far and had his own Christmas services to officiate.) When Mom had a stroke, at first we built a wheelchair ramp on our house and hired a driver to bring her over in a van, but it became too much for her to be in the wheelchair that long. So our family arranged to use a private downstairs room at the nursing home and brought in the Christmas dinner in crock-pots. In time this included the great-grandchildren as well so we were quite a group! Close to this room was a small chapel with a piano so we ended our day singing Christmas carols with Mom and Dad while our daughter Laura accompanied us.
Kathie's Kith & Kin 