The Elder Christmas

People in Wichita County had a beautiful white Christmas Eve and Christmas! For awhile on Christmas Day, heavy snow appeared along with alot of wind which blew it around. The little storm did not last long and no roads had to be closed.

Our family invited our grandmother, Neva Elder-Kiefer-Duncan, my mother, Donna Lou Pepper-Elder, my sister, Lori Christensen, Leif and Lars to our home to celebrate. Our sister, Lona Sue and her son, Hunter Carson, were unable to be here until Christmas Day. Our son, Adam, and his wife, Mel, were also unable to be here because of work obligations.

We enjoyed Stan's own creation, Tenderloin Stew, and a pot of potato-onion soup. For dessert, we enjoyed homemade cookies that my mom and the girls had baked a couple of days earlier. Gifts were opened later. Everyone had a grand time. Getting to our house that evening was anything but comfortable. The temperature was 10 degrees and with the wind was even colder.

On Christmas Day, all of the above people plus Lona Sue and Hunter were at Leif and Lori's house. Leif and Lori prepared Leif's famous beef brisket complete with their horseradish and cream cheese sauce. Yummy! All of us prepared and ate way too much food! The lunch was completed by a homemade chocolate sheet cake and a family favorite that Leif brought into our family from Denmark, his home country. It is called Res Alamond which is actually a very fancy and rich rice pudding with ONE blanched almond inside. The pudding is topped with warm cherry sauce. No, the almond does not provide any flavor to the dessert. Leif explained to us on Christmas Day that the Danish added the almond years ago to encourage eaters to eat the dessert even though their tummies were full. Whoever finds the almond in their food, is to show it to the rest of the family. That person receives a special gift. This year, Leighlyn found the almond and won a gift certificate to Wendy's. If any of you are interested in the recipe, please let me know.

After eating lunch, we all retired to the living room to open gifts. Hard to believe that it took us almost 3 hours to open them! No, that doesn't mean that we had hoards of gifts but we definitely had plenty! It took us so long because after all of the gifts were seperated and delivered to each recipient, everyone watched each person open his/her gifts. We started by letting the youngest person open their gifts and eventually made it to the oldest person's opening. This was a tradition that my beloved grandmother, Vera Stichcomb-Pepper-Hatton, started in our family many years ago.

We received absolutely no disappointing gifts. Everything that we received was much appreciated! Stan and I were married in 1981. Shortly there after, we bought an electric crepe machine. We loved it and used it OFTEN until it died which was somewhere in the later 80s. Since then, we have looked and looked but have not been able to find one. On Wednesday, I went to the hardware store to see if they could order one for us. They were unable to find one in their books either. On Christmas Day, we unwrapped our gift from Leif and Lori and found a WONDERFUL crepe machine!!! This one will last for many years as it is not electric! We're going to break it in TODAY! If you're interested in purchasing one, Lori found it on EBAY.

After the opening of gifts, Stan took out our new Wheel of Fortune TV edition game. He plugged it into their TV. For the next few hours, the family gathered around and solved one word puzzle after another.It was soooo much fun! The game does not come with Pat Sajak or Vanna White, but other than that, it is just like what we see on TV right down to the super shiny floor underneath the puzzle screen!

We all commented that this was the best Christmas ever since we lost Daddy and my grandparents, Don and Vera Pepper.

My mother started a new tradition in our family this year! She had the patriarch, Stan, read the Christmas Story to everyone on Christmas Eve. Everyone so enjoyed it!

We hope that you had a memorable Christmas also and we wish you a very happy new year filled with great love and happiness! Many people around the world choose to come up with resolutions for changes in their lives. I hope that we all agree to resolve to be better people and to treat each other better than ever!

VLE-B