Christmas Adventures

by Donna Poole

“We’re taking Potters and going to Adrian. You guys want to come?”

“Are you crazy? In this snowstorm?”

“Well, Meijer has an awesome sale on BB guns with a coupon, one per customer, until they run out of the guns.”

“No thanks, we’ll stay here! Unless you need us?”

“No, Potters have a coupon, and we do, so we can get guns for Johnnie and Danny. We don’t need you; we just want you!”

Kathy La-Follette laughed. “We love you, but we aren’t crazy. We’ll see you when it isn’t a blizzard.”

We picked up Pastor Potter and Audrey in our old Dodge Aspen station wagon. Off we went through drifting snow on beautiful but treacherous roads, laughing all the way. We got the coveted BB guns and made it home safely, sure La-Follettes would regret not going with us when they heard how much fun we’d had. La-Follettes didn’t regret it. Like I said, they weren’t crazy.

Oh, the crazy stories that old Dodge Aspen could tell! One winter I kept complaining my feet were cold.

“I don’t understand why your feet are cold, honey. I have the heat all the way up, and I’m too warm,” John said.

Then he crawled under the car to change the oil and found the floor on my side was almost gone; there was just a wet, frozen carpet. He pop-riveted a piece of metal to make a floor on my side. The third seat of the car, where the boys sat, faced backward. There was no heat back there, and their shoes froze to the floor.

But what fun we had in that old car! It served us well for a long time. One year the boys bought a set of battery Christmas lights for our annual trip to New York to visit family. They strung them in the window and felt as festive as two of Santa’s elves, even though they had no feeling in their feet.

We took that old car to pick up many of our Christmas trees, cedar trees Bud Smith let us cut in one of his fields. Some years the trees were more brown than green, but they always smelled wonderful.

Bud always said we could cut any tree we wanted. I remember one year, walking through the field, my hands frozen inside my mittens, while John looked at every tree. Finally, he found one he liked. He cut it; it fell with a satisfying thud, and separated into two trees, both quite ugly. We laughed, chose the lesser of two evils, and took it home—home where in winter it got so cold John’s books on the end of the shelves froze to the walls.

The kids didn’t think the cedars looked much like “real” Christmas trees. They sang, “Oh, Christmas bush, oh, Christmas bush, how lovely are thy branches.”

Decked out with our homemade ornaments, the cedar trees looked perfect in the little house we lived in then. We enjoyed mostly homemade Christmases back then. We always managed a few store-bought gifts, thanks to the generosity of our church family who gave their pastor an envelope of cash every Christmas, money they could little afford to give! We filled in with handmade gifts those years.

I can still see the kids in their blanket sleepers with holes in the knees on Christmas morning, holding their hands over the kerosene heater to get warm, and looking at the tree with its few gifts with stars in their eyes.

Before we opened gifts, John always read Luke 2:1-14:

“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

² (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

³ And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

⁴ And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

⁵ To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

⁶ And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

⁷ And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

⁸ And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

⁹ And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

¹⁰ And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

¹¹ For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

¹² And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

¹⁴ Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

And then, even before anyone opened a gift, it was Christmas!

Danny was about eight years old the year of the BB guns; Johnnie ten, and Angie thirteen. She opened a beautiful pair of white ice skates. Kimmee wasn’t born yet.

Now we celebrate Christmas in a bigger home with a Fraser Fir tree. When the whole family can gather there are twenty-three of us. No one stands around a kerosene heater to keep warm; we get too warm with the gas fireplace.

Some things stay the same. Thirteen grandchildren look at wrapped gifts with starry eyes, and before we begin, John hands the Bible to our oldest grandson. Reece, thirteen-years old this year, reads Luke 2:1-14, and then, before anyone pulls wrapping paper from the first gift, it is already Christmas.