Christmas Past and Heavenly Snow

 A lofty snow came early to Arkansas, mid December, as we lay dreaming in our beds. We yawned, looked out the window, and saw 10-inches of snow-covered ice.

I love waking up to snow that wasn't there when I went to bed. In Arkansas, we dream of a white Christmas with fingers crossed, so I am always ecstatic when snow graces our lives before Dec. 25th.
Snowbound and off school, the grandchildren went sledding and built snowmen and ginger bread houses.

However, we were as happy to see the snow melt as to see it fall. Cabin fever hits within days of being trapped in the house, whether you're building ginger bread houses or not.

We're known as ridge-runners in the Ozarks because our country roads follow the mountain ridges and veer up and down and sideways at 45-degree angles. When the roads are ice or snow covered, it means tough sledding in an auto and we end up in ditches or snowbound for days.

Within the last 10 years or so, giant Caterpillar road equipment has leveled somewhat the mountain passes and constructed beautiful, four-lane highways. We now drive through the mountain ridges rather than around them, leaving the nickname ridge-runners in the rear view mirror. Nevertheless, the mountainous highways are still formidable when it snows.

During my childhood in Wisconsin, there was never a doubt as to whether we would have snow on Christmas but rather how much and how deep and whether the snow would be good packing snow for snow men or dry snow for sledding.

I don't remember being snowbound in Wisconsin. We just strapped snow chains on our tires and were ready to go. We built snowmen and snow slides and skated down the creeks and through ponds. We built igloos and snow forts; played duck-duck-goose in the snow and fell over backwards in knee deep snow to make snow angels. We had boots, mittens, scarves, ear muffs and long johns, all those things you don't need for Arkansas winters.

During my childhood in  Badger, Wis., the city elders flooded the fields next to our town hall building and made a huge skating pond for Badger's 300 or so residents. I skated daily.

I was so enamored with ice skating as a child that I dreampt of becoming a professional ice skater. My idol, Sonja Henning. I practiced my twirls and swan dives and when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wanted to be a figure skater.

My dad and uncles went ice fishing, driving their truck on top of frozen lakes - cutting holes through the ice and popping up their ice fishing gear. Officially, my dad's profession was listed as an ice man on my baby brother David's birth certificate.

Yes, Dad was an ice man in Randolph, Wis., because back in the 40s in rural Wisconsin, we had ice boxes and not refrigerators. Those were the days ....

Christmas in Badger, Wisc.: David with his Hopalong Cassidy doll, John with his guns and holsters, ready for a cross-handed quick draw, Jeannette, left,  in her cashmere sweater, and me in a newly coiffed hairdo for Christmas, thanks to the neighborhood barber. The little beaded moccasin pin I'm wearing was always one of my favorite things and a gift from my parents. The moccasins and pillow were made of red, white, and black beads by the Indians at nearby Wisconsin Dells.

Proud Dutch Heritage

Dutch girl in wooden shoes, made in Austria

When you have grandparents (Dewey and Minnie Braaksma) who came from the Netherlands as teenagers, it instills a reverence in you for all things Dutch, like this wonderful little dolly in her wooden shoes and hair wound in copper curlers beneath a lacy Babushka.

She is from our doll collection and has no family heritage other than to bring a smile. The sentimental items that I treasure are memories, photos, and family mementos from Dewey and Minnie's 50th Anniversary celebration, passed to me at Minnie's death.

Several years earlier, Grandma Minnie and my Aunts Jane and Ann drove from Randolph, Wis., to Aurora, Ill., for a visit. When I gave them a tour of our house, Grandma Minnie spotted a coffee and tea service I had collected, stamped with a windmill and  "Made in Holland."  She loved it so that I sent it home with her, pleased that I had something she found so delightful.

Later my uncle informed me that when Minnie arrived home with the trophy coffee and tea set, he was put in charge of polishing it, and he polished and polished the pots, tray, creamer and sugar bowl, making every attempt to bring out a shine. Unfortunately, it was Dutch pewter, and no matter how long he polished, it never would twinkle and shine like silver. I could have saved him some elbow grease had I thought for a minute that Minnie was thinking my coffee set was sterling.

Something happened on that trip from Randolph that remains one of my favorite memories of Grandma Minnie. When I opened the door to welcome her into our home, Jane, Ann and Minnie were laughing amongst themselves, jabbering, and in the middle of this great story with Minnie standing barefoot in her stockings on my doorstep.

Turns out, for the road trip, Ann baked sandwich rolls and Jane brought Wisconsin cheese, and they stopped midway at a rest stop to eat a cheese sandwich. And, no doubt, there were home-canned pickles, too.

Well, Minnie didn't wear her shoes in the car as they traveled but instead carried them in a brown paper sack. She would pull them out and stuff them back in the sack, depending on whether she was in or out of the car. Unfortunately, the cheese and the rolls were in similar paper sacks. When they threw out their lunch sacks, Minnie also threw out her shoe sack, unknowingly.

So, when they arrived to Aurora and Minnie couldn't find her shoe sack, the light bulb went on and she realized she had tossed her shoes along with the leftovers. It was a mishap, and she took it with the same resilient good humor she did everything, and that is why I loved her so. I will always remember her standing at my back door, barefooted, and tickled because she threw out her shoes at a rest stop.

Whenever Minnie entered a room, you knew something good was about to happen ....