INA'S CHRISTMAS MEMORIES, 1937

 

And now we arrive at the Christmas in question, 1937, of which Ina says: 

December 22 it began to snow and gave us about six inches, just right for Christmas. By the way, that was Henry’s 32nd birthday. [Remember – Henry and Shirley were married in June 1937.]

 

Christmas Day was bright and sparkling. Henry and Shirley didn’t come out till that morning for it had been blowing and drifting the snow badly, but they made it in all right laden with a barrel of flour, groceries, apples, candy, nuts, etc. You can imagine the hubbub. We held breakfast back for them and all enjoyed it to the full. Then a few more packages had to be wrapped, candles lit, etc., and we settled down to look at our beautiful tree, but Dad was uneasy so we couldn’t take as much time as we wanted and June and Bertha drove up before we were done opening our gifts. The room was full of pretty packages it seemed. It was our usual “skimpy Christmas!”

 

Vance’s box came through in fine style and opened up beautifully. It always has personality and adds so much to our pleasure. We used the holly and silvered sprays in the decorations. The holly makes the very prettiest, I think. We used the silvered bull [pine] sprigs of last year again as a centerpiece and the candles. They are so festive; we burned them all evening. We used up one pair of white ones and part of one short pair of red ones and greatly diminished the tall red ones. We recalled that last Christmas Vance had said to light the candles to eat by and thus he would be blessing us as we dined.

 

After dinner, Shirley reduced the table to a round, removed the decorations, added candy, nuts, and fruit and fresh candles.

 

The cones Vance sent are very pretty. I gave Bertha a couple and some of the silvered sprays. I have so many now, for I kept some over from last year. It seems like the paint preserves them some way. KW