More than gifts at Christmas

By Rennie Phillips

Christmas time was always special growing up. We grew up on a small ranch in the Sandhills of Nebraska and basically we were poor. We didn't want for food or clothes or even toys so we had what we needed. Since we grew our own beef and pork and chickens, the freezers were always well stocked. Now today people believe if they have the freezer in their refrigerator full they are stocked. Huh! Mom had to have two big chest freezers full and then she was concerned. The one chest freezer was an old International Harvester chest freezer. Can't ever remember that old freezer even slowing down. One thing growing up we always had clothes and shoes and boots and such.

Dad made sure we had horses to play with and a dog and some cats. Dad was careful about how many cats though. When the momma cats would have a litter of babies, they seemed to always disappear. So we mostly had older cats. Dad made sure we went fishing or hunting coyotes or arrow heads. Mom made sure we had sweets to eat or cookies. Always had time to visit friends or relatives.

But at Christmas we always made out pretty good when it came to presents. Always had a school Christmas program. The teacher would give us pieces to memorize. Hated it. Still hate to memorize. My mind doesn't work good at memorizing so I'd memorize as best I could and then need some prompting. At the Christmas program at school we'd exchange gifts and share cookies and candy. Always had popcorn balls. Seemed like we always had taffy. It was a blast pulling taffy. Don't do that anymore. Got a firetruck for Christmas at our country school one year. Was an awesome gift. It had a ladder and all the rest. It was real metal.

Always had a blast at Christmas at home. I remember one year Mom and Dad got Mick and I bicycles for Christmas. I wanted a three speed and Mick wanted a regular bicycle. That three speed was awesome. We had an old horse that was dog gentle so Mick would ride the horse and I'd ride the bike and we'd have a drag race. No contest for a little ways. I could get that bike going good for a ways and then Mick on Shorty would catch up. Had a blast though.

Tough riding in the sand though. Really tough. Now if we'd had these modern big tired bicycles it would have been different but we didn't. Also had a gazillion sand burs and a particularly awful little spiky bur. Not sure what it was called. I know it would stick right through our bicycle tires.

You know I can't remember hanging stockings. We probably did but I can't remember it. What I remember the most though was the family gathering together and doing what families do. We ate a lot. From pies to meat to vegetables to mashed potatoes to bread, it was a feast. Vegetables were as easy as going down in the cellar or the basement and getting some home canned green beans. And if we had corn we went to the freezer for frozen sweet corn. For the meat we'd have a ham that Dad had butchered and cured or maybe fried chickens that Mom and Dad had raised and butchered. Might even have had a beef roast which Dad raised and butchered. The potatoes would probably have come from the cellar where we'd put them last fall after digging them. The bread or rolls might have come from Mom's kitchen or one of my sisters. The pies might have been lemon or pecan or apple. Man what a feast. Some of the food experts would have a hemorrhage, but the food was left on the dinner table for afternoon snacks or for supper. So later in the day we'd all gather again and feast some more.

We always play games of some kind and the games depended on how the weather was. If it was nice out the guys would throw some horseshoes. If it was cold and stormy the guys would play card games. Pitch and pinochle and cribbage were pretty common. The kids would play rummy. When we got old enough we'd play pitch. There were times when we'd play checkers. It was fun. Had a blast.

If we had snow all the kids would go sledding. We had some steel runner sleds that worked awesome. Also had a long wooden toboggan that would just fly down a hill. We tried riding a grain scoop down some of the hills but that didn't work very well. Dad had some old inner tubes that did pretty good. When we were little it didn't seem like we got cold like I do now. We'd get wet from the snow but just keep right on playing.

This year we gathered at our son's and had a feast as well. Kettle beef and mashed potatoes and corn and rolls. The beef we raised on our place and Marge made the rolls. Vic had bought some desserts. One thing I did have was a memory from back when I was a kid. We'd take home canned peaches and cut up some in a soup bowl. Then we'd take soda crackers and break them over the peaches and then top that with real whipped cream. The peaches today came from a can and the whipped cream we had bought. Still brought back memories from way back when.

Family back then was special and family today is special. Some have lost loved ones through the year or even during Christmas season but one still has the memories.

Have a great Season with your family and friends.