Here, Sister Elaine shares childhood memories.
Each Christmas Eve, Dad, Mom and I attended midnight Mass at our parish church in Nassau, Minnesota. So would Uncle George, Aunt Mary and cousin Frank.
After Mass, we rotated serving Christmas lunch after Mass, one year at our farm house and the next at their farm house.
Dad would light the kerosene lamps (got electricity later in 1949) while Mom and I set the finishing touches on the kitchen table. Then, we exchanged gifts and sat down to visit and enjoy fresh fruit cake, newly backed kuchen, fresh sausage and delightfully decorated Christmas cookies.
Sometimes, Santa Claus came while we were together if he had not stopped by earlier. He knocked on the front porch door, never tried coming down the chimney. Good thing, because we had the coal furnace heating our house and he would have gotten his nice suit all dirty with soot.
What precious memories of Christmas on the farm!
