One of my Favorite Lessons from my Mother for Christmas

My parents came from German, Norwegian and Moravian, Bohemian ancestors. We always celebrated Christmas and went all out to decorate. We celebrated Jesus and Santa Claus. They taught us that Jesus was the reason for the season. They taught us to be Honest, Loyal, and Obey our parents, and respect our elders. We were taught that family is number one, behind God.

Mother was Methodist, and Daddy was Catholic. Our family celebrated all holidays and birthdays. There was always plenty of food, drink, and music. I loved the parties and barbeques. Mother was a wonderful cook, and Daddy grilled the best Barbecue ever. 

We were all planned, wanted and loved. Mother loved babies and being a full time wife and mother. If not for her, it would not have been the same. She worked hard to make holidays special for her family. We always had a live tree, and sometimes it was flocked because she missed the snow from Dubuque, Iowa where she was born. I liked the green trees best, and they did not shed as much.

My Mother had us six children look through the Sears Roebuck catalog and mark what we wanted for Christmas. She and daddy were on a very tight budget. Mother took in ironing for extra money, and we collected bottles to turn in and get money for them. I remember one time mother was cashing in the bottles in order to buy a gallon of milk. We ate a lot of rice, beans, spaghetti, and macaroni & cheese. But...we were loved and mother was able to stay home and take care of  us by being frugal. 

Mother and Daddy had very little money, mother was a Homemaker and daddy worked as a Mechanic for Brown & Root.

I can close my eyes and remember the book, and have fond memories. After we had showed her what we wanted, she would tell us to now pick out ten things that we really wanted, because Santa Claus had a lot of other children to give gifts to. She taught us to not be so selfish, and to think of others, but she allowed us to dream and let us have a choice on what we wanted too.

I always wanted a new baby doll, we played house a lot, books, and I had all of the Barbie & Ken dolls, new clothes for them, the Barbie Dream House, Barbie's pink car. Skipper too. I made beds for them all with shoe boxes and blankets out of old scraps of material from mother. I even made evening dresses for them. Mother taught me to sew about the age of 16, but I made dresses for them and safety pinned them together before then.