A Little House Christmas

        With the world on edge and discussions on how to handle increasing violence on every talk show, I have been stealing away from it by readings Little House on the Prairie with Elijah. We already finished Little House in the Big Woods and to be honest, they are a bit detail driven.  So much so that I don't think Elijah would ever choose to read them on his own.  But, it's been a relief for me just to live in that world for a while.  Pa made everything by hand: the walls of his house, the floor, the roof, the table and even improvised making his own nails for a door.  Ma cooked everything, sewed everything and had no problem taking a carcass from some newly shot rabbit, cleaning it out and having it ready for her hungry husband.  Brave, brave woman.  And the girls, Mary, Laura and baby Carrie who seems to sleep a lot, were content playing in the prairie grass chasing garter snakes and would never talk back or disobey Pa or Ma.  At least three times I've read:  "Children were to be seen and not heard"  and "At supper, children only spoke when spoken too."  It's a concept I can't even begin to relate to seeing that our dinners are full of noise and wiggling and mayhem.
       Laura describes her life with such fondness, her nostalgia for what was a very difficult time comes across as just the way it was.  They found such joy in Pa's fiddle playing at night and square dances with the neighbors who were a horse ride across the creek away. They found joy in simple things - a sunrise, a sturdy house, sugar with coffee, a hand-stitched doll, and a candy cane in their stocking. 

     This past week, both Elijah and Lydia went on field trips to see "A Little House Christmas" which takes several Christmas chapters from all the books and builds them into a one-act play.  The basic theme of the play is that Christmas can be blessed no matter what the circumstances, no matter how little you have.  In these days of over-abundance, that's the message I left with and it's the message that inspired our little home-made tree made of paper, popcorn and styrofoam.


    The paper snowflakes were the easiest.  The girls grabbed their safety scissors and went to work.  The popcorn strings were a little more difficult.  One night while over at our neighbor's house, I brought popcorn, needles and thread.  We adults sat around the table and competed for longest, untangled popcorn garland.  Some of us found this easier than others. 

Angel topper - before eyes & mouth

The styrofoam angel created some irony for me.  I spent more money buying crafty items to make the DIY angel topper then if I'd bought one at Hobby Lobby which would have been a simpler route.  Buying one would have taken a few minutes, but then I wouldn't have had my two-hour creative break on a Sunday afternoon, and I wouldn't have had my girls next to me painting their own projects (their hands mostly) and loving every minute of it, and our little tree would have lost its Little House-inspired qualities.  So in honor of Laura Ingalls Wilder  - we dedicate our old-fashioned tree to you.