Golden Memory Christmases

I’ve been on my own for many years and I have never

had a lonely Christmas. I don’t know yet where I’ll be

this year, but at the last minute somebody usually invites

me to join them and it’s all good. The reason I am okay

is I had some extraordinary Christmases growing up and

I draw on them for my Christmas cheer. A person only

needs one and if I hadn’t had my history, I would have

created it. When I was married, I used to adopt gypsies at

 Christmas time…whoever needed a place to be. I love to cook,

 so it was no big deal. These last few years, I’ve been the gypsy

and I am grateful to whoever hosts me.

The ambiance of my childhood Christmases lingers in my

Dreamscape becoming especially vivid every Christmas

since.

I grew up on Meyer’s Guernsey Dairy, Delphi, Washington.

Rise and shine time was 3:30 a.m. on Christmas morning.

Both grey DiVco milk trucks were loaded quickly and the

mission was to deliver fresh milk and cream to all the

customers on Christmas day.

Pop and Uncle Sam drove the trucks and the rest of

us were left back at the farm to do our chores.

Before we went to the ranch house, Mom allowed us kids

to open one present and our stockings. Then we loaded

up the car with all the Christmas dinner fixings that we

were taking to the ranch house.

Aunt Erma (Sam’s wife) came from her house on Black Lake

She would open tin after tin of the best handmade candies

I’ve ever had. Delicacies she set up on a 3 ft. square side

table in the living room. This one day of the year, we were

allowed to eat our fill. O the Joy! (My mom was a nurse and

strict about our nutrition the other 364.)

Uncle Frank, a bachelor, who lived in the ranch house and

was an antique dealer (with a museum right on the farm)

 decorated a tree with ornaments from Europe, mostly

German Swiss. He put the tree on a turning pedestal that

played Christmas music. Polly, the ranch house parrot sang

 along with the music and teased whoever came in

with: Shut the door! Were you born in a barn? Then he’d

laugh his crazy maniacal parrot laugh, which would make

everybody in earshot laugh, too. Uncle Frank was just a big

kid himself and enjoyed making it magical for everyone.

Aunt Louise and Uncle Ed would arrive from South Bay

 with a carload of packages and containers of good German food.

 Aunt Louise’s Christmas Specialty was steamed carrot pudding

with hard sauce, an Old Country treat her brothers had a fondness for.

There was so much to do before Christmas dinner, which was about

4 pm after the milk trucks arrived back home.

My mother and my aunts worked well together in the kitchen and I

loved doing whatever I was assigned to do, whether it was peeling

potatoes or dishing up the olives and condiments. My sister, Victoria

and my brothers, Burt and Doug were usually out doing farm chores.

I guess I was spared because I was the youngest!

Christmas dinner was the main event and we ate until we were helpless.

The hired hands did the evening milking on Christmas and Uncle Frank

rewarded them with generous gift baskets and gratitude. He had great

people skills.

Later in the evening, Uncle Ed and Aunt Louise would head home and

prepare for our family to come and see their tree. They had spent until

Midnight Christmas Eve frosting Christmas cookies and hanging them

by ribbons on their tree. Each was a little work of art. Our tradition was

 that each of us got to choose two and cut them to eat or take home.

Because the four of us were the only children in my father’s extended

family, we were fortunate to have so much love and gifts and attention.

I so appreciated it then and I am so grateful that I can feel the spirit and

love of those times with my family to this day. Golden memories

take me back home. Decide to have a Merry Christmas and you will!

Happy Holidays!

Raintreepoet :-)