There was a big smile on my face when I arrived home from school. Snow had started to fall during the afternoon recess! An important item on my secret holiday checklist received a mental checkmark. Racing into the house, I announced that I was going to play in the yard for a while. I loved the independence of being a ten-year-old. Mom nodded but admonished, “Be sure to come into the house before dark or if I call for you.”

I slowly shuffled through the new fallen snow while listening to the sounds of Daddy working in the barn, preparing the cows to be milked. Large flakes continued to fall. Sounds in the snowy air seemed louder than usual and carried further. The scrape of a metal shovel on concrete screeched as Daddy pushed scattered feed back into the mangers for the cows.

Darkening shadows and a chill made me decide to return to the house which I found filled with the comforting smell of supper ready to be served. My big sisters, brothers, Mom, Daddy and me all had our own place to sit at the table. No one would dream of sitting in someone else’s place. Routines made me happy, so checking off items on my mental list of holiday traditions helped me enjoy them and anticipate the next. So far, this year, I’d check-marked Saint Nicolas treats and snow!

Frosting a huge batch of cut-out cookies happened the next day. Checkmark! I looked forward to the job, but I rarely stayed for the full course. During the several hours that it took, almost everyone in the family decorated at least a few Santa or wreath cookies. The older siblings created artwork that they didn’t want anyone to eat. I contented myself with shaking green sugar on wreaths and trimming them with a few red-hot cinnamon candy dots.

The activity, “Saturday shopping trip to Marshfield” was check-marked next. Then immediately following that was a checkmark for, “closed bedroom doors” to wrap and hide presents.

My family didn’t get a television until a year later, but I often watched Christmas television specials at my neighborhood cousin’s house. Their mother made chocolate chip cookies for us. The smell of them baking was as enjoyable as eating them! Checkmark and checkmark!

A snowy walk to one of the woodlots near our farm to find a Christmas tree usually took place a week or so before Christmas. Checkmark! At the time it never occurred to me that finding a swamp balsam to use wasn’t a spontaneous happening. It took a long time for me to realize that during the warmer months Daddy or one of my brothers looked over and picked which tree to cut down.

Advent church services were on my check list, too. I loved the music but couldn’t understand why so much of it sounded mournful. When I asked one of the nuns who taught at my school, “Why are these songs so sad when the Christ Child is about to be born?”

The sister explained, “The songs show how sad the Israelites felt before Jesus was born. They yearned for their Savior to come but didn’t know when the promised event would take place.”

Two activities on my list remained unchecked on the morning of December 24^th. One was for, “put up the Christmas tree” and the second was for, “find candy in the Christmas candy closet”. Mom insisted that the Christmas tree not be brought into the house until after she’d washed the dishes from our midday meal. Finally, checkmark! But what about the Christmas candy? Santa hadn’t brought it yet. The closet in my brother’s bedroom remained empty of its sugary treasure. What if Santa forgot to bring it? The thought of Christmas without candy horrified me!

Mysteriously, sometime while I was bathing on Christmas Eve, and putting on the new flannel nightgown Mom had sewn for me, Christmas happened. By then Daddy and my brothers had finished milking the cows. We found presents under our newly decorated tree and candy bowls brimming with special candies on the end tables.

The next morning, I slipped away from the living room after playing with my presents for a while and stepped into my brother Casper’s bedroom. The air was chilly, like the registers were shut. Peeking around the corner into his closet, I saw a large cardboard box on the floor. It was filled with more than a dozen small brown bags filled with various hard candies and chocolate covered treats. This supply would refill the candy bowls in the living room many times. I sat down on the floor next to the box and popped a malted milk ball into my mouth and sighed with satisfaction. Checkmark!