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"From the time I was a baby until I was fifteen we
went to my Grandma and Grandpa Carl son's farm for Christmas Eve
and Christmas Day. After my Grandma died, we didn't go anymore. We
went every Sunday to their house for dinner. One Saturday in the
spring of 1935, she had prepared all of the food, baked the cakes
and had the table set. She had to crawl under the house to catch a
chicken that was trying to escape her. She was 74 years old at that
time. We got a call in the morning that she had died in her sleep.
Anyway ... We lived on a farm ... my
brother, Howard, Mom and Dad and I. When Christmas came we always
had snow. In the late afternoon of Christmas Eve we would drive to
DeKalb. Sometimes the roads were really full of snow and on
occasion we would have to go with the horses and a bobsled. It was
probably 10 to fifteen miles.
We
would do our Christmas shopping that afternoon. Grandpa had
usually sold some oats for Christmas money. We would go to my Aunt
Till's house. Grandmas would wrap the presents in the kitchen.
Uncle guy was a candy maker. the house would smell so good. He had
two glass counters full of chocolates in paper cups, red and green
and chocolate cover taffy cut in bars, peanut brittle. He would
sell it from the porch. My brother and I got to choose our
favorites.
Then
we would go to Grandma and Grandpa Carlsons, all the aunts and
uncle and cousins were there. A big angel food cake was on the
dining room table with a linen table cloth. The tree was in the
living room, which was separated from the dining room by double
doors. Everybody went in and sat down in the living room. There was
a piano and Aunt Hattie would play carols. On the tree were little
candles. You had to be careful or you would burn the house down,
so they weren't lit very long.
We
could hear the Swedish sleigh bells and stamping on the back
door and a voice ... ho ho ho! And in would come Santa ... it was
really my Uncle Ralph Wendlund. We would all sit on the floor
around the tree and he would call out our names and give us presents
out of his big sack. It was pretty exciting. I can still hear
those bells.
The adults would have
their exchange, all of the kids would have lots of packages. Then
we would have a big dinner ... ludfiske, limpe bread, Swedish
sausage, goose, mashed potatoes. It was always a big fancy dinner.
We would go home late at night and would fall asleep in the car.
When we would get up in the morning and Mom and Dad would have
presents for us. We would drive back to the farm and grandma would
have a big dinner .. chicken, duck, lingenberries. One aunt lived
in Chicago, one lived in Aurora, so by mid-afternoon everyone
had to go back home. They had two uncles with them, so Grandma and
Grandpa weren't left alone.
DeKalb was a small town then. The streets
were full of people, the Salvation Army was playing on the streets,
the town was decorated and everyone knew each other and were so
friendly and happy, just like in the movies!"
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