My Mom told me she had her first Christmas tree when she was eleven years old. Her family went to her friends home and her older brother stayed home and set up the tree. He had lit the candles on the tree. She was so thrilled to see their tree and she and her friend Clara each got a doll. The moms had sewed clothes for the dolls.
The first year I was married, and I was a believer at the time. I remember feeling that we needed to tell the Christmas story. It wasn't something that had happened in my home. So I used a tract from Lutheran Bible Institute that had come in the mail and before we opened gifts I asked if I could read it to my family. That year my grandma was there and she commented on how much that meant to her Every year we have shared the Christmas story of Jesus birth with who ever is with us for the evening.
When our oldest children were young, they were in a Good News Club and we had a birthday part for Jesus one year. From then on we always had a Birthday cake for Jesus in our home.
We made many Birthday Cakes for Jesus, not just one for our family, I shared them with employees and we shared them with people in church, one year we came home and had one extra cake left. We took it to Earl and Nora Anderson at Hampden and I know they were touched.
The only other memory is one year when Jack and I and our children were alone, we got out the costume box and found appropriate costumes and acted out the Christmas story. God's presence was very real that evening, and I felt like it was the best memory I ever had.
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