For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Isaiah 9:6-7

The Greatest Gifts

There are many gifts we can give at Christmas.

You won't find them in fancy packages under the tree.

These gifts are more precious than silver or gold.

For they're given out of love to the person that

is meant to receive.

The time spent making cookies with our children.

A phone call or a letter we've sent.

Forgiving someone for something that happened ages ago.

The listening ear that we've lent.

Christmas is about sharing.

It's not about what is in it for me?

It's about being thoughtful of others.

It's about caring about what they  need.

Christmas isn't about the sale's when you are shopping.

Christmas was the day that Christ was born.

He wasn't born in some fancy hotel room

or a huge department store.

Jesus gave many gifts throughout his lifetime.

He made the crippled walk and the blind to see.

He was a friend to someone that the rest of the world cast off

because he had leprosy.

The greatest gift ever given was the love that

Christ gave you and me.

Tuesday December 11, 2007

Christmas as a child

Words spoken by Grandma Reed

When I was a child, Christmas was much different than it is now days. Back then Christmas was celebrate for what Christmas meant, the birth of Jesus.

There was a lot of things different...

Dad and usually Clarence, would go get our Christmas Tree usually on the morning of Christmas Eve or the day before.

Katie Ann Steele had a woods that had pine trees in it, so she would let them go back there and find a tree that was 7 or 8 foot tall. It was always an exciting time around the Heim household. Mom or some of the older ones would pop popcorn and then we would string the corn and use it as garland on the tree, we would hang apples and other fruit that we might have. We had candle clips that we put on the tree and only on Christmas Eve would dad and mom light all the candles. We would all gather around the Christmas tree and sing Christmas carols, I loved them all and it would be hard for me to pick just one. Once we were all done singing we would all blow the candles out, it never took long with all of us kids. Mom always done a lot of baking, she made Molasses cookies, Raisin filled cookie  and made Fruitcake, I still remember the recipe:

Holiday Fruitcake Recipe

1 C Water

1 C Sugar

4 Large eggs

3 C dried fruit

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 C Brown sugar

Lemon juice, nuts

1 FULL bottle of your favorite whiskey

Sample the whiskey to check for quality.

Take out a large bowl.

Check the whiskey again to be sure that it is of the highest quality.

Pour 1 level cup and drink. Repeat.

Turn on the electric mixer; beat 1 C of butter in a large fluffy bowl.

Add 1 tsp. sugar and beat again.

Make sure the whiskey is still OK.

Cry another cup. Turn off the mixer.

Break two geggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Mix on the burner.

If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaters,

pry it loose with a drewscriver.

Sample the whiskey to check for toxisisticity.

Next, sift 2 cups of salt.

Or something. Who cares? Check the whiskey.

Now sift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.

Add one tablespoon of sugar or something...whatever you can find.

Grease the oven. Turn on the cake tin to 350 degrees.

Don't forget to beat off the turner. Throw the bowl out of the window.

Check the whiskey again. Go to bed.

Who the heck likes fruit cake anyway???

*Note from Jim

I got that joke by email the other week

and thought it was cute and  would be fitting to  put it in there.

I don't even know if Great Grandma Heim made it

or  even liked it.

On with Grandma Reed's story...

After we were done singing around the Christmas tree we would set down and always had Oyster Stew and we had the Oyster Crackers too. We would all get around and go to bed good so Santa could come. I always believed in Santa until I was about 12 years old. I had heard Mom and Grandma Heim talking about gifts and I figured it out. After Grandpa Heim died, Grandma Heim would spend Christmas at our house.

I thought Grandpa Heim was so old when he died but he was only 59 years old. He was a tall skinny man with a long white beard... 59 that's not old at all.

Christmas morning, we had to wait until all of us kids were up before we could have Christmas. Our upstairs were two big rooms, we had several beds and there would be 5 - 6 in one bed, we used both the head and the foot of the bed to sleep in. Us kids didn't think anything different. The boys always had a bed to themselves... They had the best, but we didn't know it back them. ha

Many of our Christmas gifts were hand made, mom always made our clothes, and dad made us toys,

us girls always got a doll, and all of us always got candy. If our gifts were wrapped, we didn't have no fancy wrapping paper like now days. Our gift were wrapped in newspaper or just brown paper with a string tied around it.

Our Christmas dinner, we always had chicken and mom's homemade noodles.

I'll never forget one year Violet & I had seen Beaver hats in the Sears & Roebuck catalog and we both wanted them. They cost a lot! Back then they were in fashion and we thought we would "just be it" if we had Beaver Hats.

We were both very excited that Christmas morning when we opened up our gifts and we both got our Beaver Hats, that was the "Best" Christmas gift I ever got!

Mom, wouldn't let us where our Beaver Hats to school, we had to save them and just wear them to Sunday School.

We always went to Church, dad would usually leave first with one buggy and a bunch of us kids. I always tried to get around and go early with dad. Mom would come later and bring the rest. There was nooo way we could all fit in one buggy. We went to the little white 1st Christian Church on E. Harrison street until dad built the new brick Church.

We always had fun in the winter even though we had to do our chores... We had to carry in wood for the stove, we never could afford coal. The boys had to take turns milking the cow. (*Jim's note, I asked Grandma about the cow, because Fran and told me in a email they had a cow named Daisy and she choked to death on a apple.) Yes, Daisy broke out of her pen and went to one of the apple trees and started eating apples. Before the Vet. could get there she die.

Winter time we loved playing out in the snow, we would wrap up real good and we all had boots and we would put them on, we had a lot of hand me downs growing up as a kid. I loved to make snow angels in the snow. We would go sledding down the one big hill and there was a small pond behind  the barn that we would slide on. We didn't have ice skates, we just slide in our boots. I loved to stick my tongue out and catch snowflakes. (she started laughing real hard, almost to hard if you know what I mean. LOL) I asked Grandma, "What's so funny?"

Once, when I was out  playing, it was really cold and I stuck my tongue on a metal pipe. And it was really stuck!

I just had to pull real hard to get it off...

It was really sore, for a long time, Why, I pulled the skin right off of it!

We were able to get over to see Grandma on Tuesday afternoon. Our daughter Michelle met us there with Jayden.

Grandma, was really happy to see us all walk in.

She told us that she was so lonesome on Monday with us not being able to go due to the ice storm.

She had another good week.

She said, they had really walked her a lot

that morning in therapy.

They have also taken away her Big Cookie that was making her gain weight and give her extra protein. She don't need it.

Candle Clips

BEAVER HAT

From what Grandma described, I believe this might just be like her Beaver Hat

Here I am reading Grandma's page to her from last week.

When I got to the part about the out house, it was hard laughing all over again. Grandma's roommate Sara was laying in her bed and she got laughing so hard we thought she was going to fall out... LOL

Jayden kept on walking back there to look at her and Michelle got a big kick out of her laughing so hard... Like I said it was almost a repeat from last week. Grandma, had those gathering out by her door again to hear her stories. Picture below. It's great to hear them all laugh!

Sandy & Jayden's reaction to Grandma getting her tongue

stuck to that medal pole.

Like I said, Grandma laughed to hard. So when she was in the bathroom, Jayden thought he would get up in her chair so he could check out her Santa in the Cubs plane.

We got that for Grandma last year.

When Sandy put up Grandma's Christmas decorations last week,

She couldn't fine Grandma's wreath that we had got her last year.

Well, I finally got all of our Christmas stuff up and low and behold Sandy found Grandma's wreath at our house. We then remember we had brought it home because Grandma didn't have room for it in her closet. So I hung it up for her on her door.

Grandma, wouldn't dare let Jayden go home without

her getting her good-bye kiss from him!

May Our Chistmas be

As the words in the song playing:

"To see the smiles and hear the laughter

A time to give, a time to share

Because it's Christmas

For now and forever

For all of the children

And for the children in us all."