Christmas At Grandmas

The bubble lights at Grandma’s house! The noisy laughter of the cousins. Sneaking the cookies that have silver candies. They are decorated in three frosting colors! Grandma does not do anything half way. It is the sixties. There is one TV set and it is off. We are all about telling stories, and laughing as a family. Everything is funny. Uncle Bill comes in dressed as Santa Claus. We love him the most; he gives us stuff and we love him more. We are in pretty dresses with scratchy petticoats and big bows. Wearing black patent leather shoes and lacy white socks. It is not even Sunday, but we know someone is taking photographs. They will be black and white. This is before we knew about color. There are aunts and uncles coming and going rapidly. Seventeen cousins, everyone has a baby to hold. A big family. My grandparents had ten children; so you can imagine. When we finish here we go to Great-Grandma’s house. She and her husband had eighteen children, so you can only imagine. This is easier in the summer time when we have hay racks set up with food. I snag a cookie there too. Someone offers me fruit cake. Yuck. It is the only thing I do not like to eat at Christmas time.