Christmas Plans

From letter dated December 10, 1956

At first we had hoped that we could get up to Grand Rapids for Christmas, but with Bucher just starting a new job, he couldn’t get any vacation time. Then we tried to talk Mother and Dad into coming down here. They decided not to, partly because Mother hasn’t been feeling well and partly because they would prefer to come later in the spring when the weather is meaner in Michigan. However, we are used to Christmas with just the immediate family and will have a simple little celebration among ourselves.

 

This is Alex’s electric train Christmas (which is one reason I was so anxious to have my Dad here). Alex hasn’t admitted to us that he no longer believes in Santa Claus, but I’ve heard him talking with the “gang.” I do observe that he doesn’t talk about “if” he gets a train for Christmas, but “when” he has his train for Christmas. We lucked into a marvelous sale on American Flyers, and were able to get a more elaborate starter set than we had hoped. And I think my parents are going to get things to go with his train as their present.

 

Mother and Dad are giving Carli a bike…which is the one thing on earth that she wants. I’ve explained carefully to her that we can’t afford to get her one right now, so I know she hasn’t the slightest suspicion. Furthermore, I have had a time talking her out of asking Santa for one…that really would cause complications. Now she is going to ask him just to surprise her since there isn’t anything else she is really set on having. The “surprise” is going to be a little table with two chairs. We left Alex’s nice table in Belize and the children don’t have anywhere in this house to color and draw as the love to do. I’ll probably get a new set of doll dishes to put on the table, just to fancy it up for Christmas morning; we left Carli’s old and broken set in Belize. That is one toy she really would enjoy having.

So, I guess we are pretty well set for Christmas.

 

Our weather has been elegant, except for one or two short cold snaps. If I had time I could keep a nice tan just getting out for an hour or so in my back yard every day. However, housekeeping U.S. style, without any nice helpful hands around, is something of a change for me. I find that I don’t have as much free time as I did in Belize.