I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. ~Charles Dickens

One of the traditions we had as children was the return of Santa on his way back to the North Pole--Dec. 31. At which time he would fill our Christmas stocking for the second time. It may have only been a pkg of Juicy Fruit gum and a dime, but I tell you, it was sooo exciting for us. This is something that I still do with my children. As children, we didn't have the fancy socks that we have today. We just ran in the bedroom, and got one of Daddy's work socks--usually gray with maybe some red edging. Unlike the socks we use today that are as much part of the decorations as the tree itself. Only, Santa takes advantage of the after Christmas sales, and they get a lot more in their socks.

I was very upset to learn, that not one of my brothers carried on this tradition in their families. I couldn't understand why. My belief is, they let their wives do the "Christmas thing", therefore the wife brings into the home the things she did as a child. I guess my husband did the same thing, because this wasn't something he did in his family either. At first, he probably just went along with it to keep me happy. But he really gets in to it now, and to this I am very thankful. Come to think of it, this idea came from the Davis line, so apparently Dad did it because Mama wanted to. I guess what it boils down to is the man follows the woman. This is kind of sad when you think about it. Generations of traditions could be lost because of this.

When Robert and I were first married, we both had things from our families that we liked and wanted to continue on with. For one, in the Prince Family, We would get up very early on Christmas morning, and I mean early. Sometimes we would be up 4:00 a.m. We actually got up earlier, but would be sent back to bed, until the excitement couldn't hold us down any longer. (Lucky for us, Mama was always on our side, Dad would have stayed in bed if he had had his way.) Whereas, the Grokes used Christmas Day to sleep in. Ohhhh, I could see this was going to cause a problem. Did we fight about it, I should say not, we compromised. We get up early--. Now on my part of this, in Robert's family they opened presents one at a time--starting with the youngest and working their way to the top, and then starting all over again after the oldest had opened a gift. This way you could ohhh and awwww about what everybody got. On the opposite end of this, my family all got our presents and then just started rippppppping them open. In five minutes it was all over, and nobody knew who gave what. So I decided to go with the Grokes on this, and like it so much better--besides, it makes the day go slower. We get up early, for me, and we open presents one at a time for Robert.

Growing up, we had a certain set of Christmas tree lights that we used year after year, or so it seemed. They were the great big Christmas lights and you don't see many of them any more. Most people use the miniature lights on their trees and house decorations. As a child another decoration we always had was a picture of Santa that we hug on the door.

Another Prince tradition for me was Daddy cooking breakfast, for all of us. This was the one time of the year, Mama didn't have to do it, and Daddy would cook our eggs anyway we wanted them. He also cooked pancakes, but don't tell anybody, I didn't like them, he never took them off the grill soon enough. Now Robert is the chief cook and bottle washer on Christmas Day in our family. He doesn't do pancakes, but we still have choices to make when it comes to how we want our eggs or what kind of meat we want with our eggs and hash browns. Now following this breakfast if I had done what we did as a child, I would go visit all my brothers and their families just As it is we usually just stay home and enjoy each others company. Not to mention watching of all the movies we seemed to have received as gifts--even from Santa. (Picture on left is My uncle Reeed and Aunt Laura Family visiting us on Christmas day 1957)

I grew up with the memory of Mama setting aside a special day the week prior to Christmas to make candy to pass around. This included my favorite, divinity, as well as panoche and fudge. We would then divide the candy up and put them on different places to pass around to our neighbors. Who in turn, would do the same for us. We would trade one plate of goodies for another. It's OK cause that meant I would always get some of Aunt Sylva's cherry divinity. This Christmas the only divinity I got came from a patron of the library who bought me a goody bag for helping her. Oh we got tons of neighborhood gifts, but I myself don't spend time baking and making candy--I would eat it all before we got it out of the house. I like to do crafty things to pass on to my friends and neighbors. I don't remember my Dad getting into this, but that is because he worked full time and ran the farm when he got home from work. Robert on the other hand is very helpful in driving me around and dropping off the goodies. There has even been times when, for one reason or another I didn't want to do it, and he was right there prodding me on.

And least we forget, Every year the New Harmony Ward had a primary program, and it seemed every year I was an angel for it. I still remember the silver tinsel and how it itched. But angels can't complain you know?







Oh, just like this picture of my brother Roland, Christmas is a time for dreaming, and you can bet I do.