Chapter 29
Preparations for the Holidays

Our Christmases always seemed to be times of exciting announcements, high-running emotions, family, friends, guests, food, and the unexpected. The Christmas of 1856 was no exception.

We had been looking forward to Christmas all the month of December. Almeda had such a way of making the holiday a happy time, and of course my sisters and I couldn’t have enjoyed anything better than being part of all the preparations. We made decorations out of ribbons and popped corn, colored paper, and greenery cut from the woods, bells and dried berries.

And what Christmas celebration would be complete without a feast, and people to share that feast with? So along with everything else, we were thinking of who to invite to our place for the day. Pa and Almeda always included all five of us kids in most of the talking and discussion that had to do with our family. Sometimes they’d talk alone, walking together, or whispering in low tones in their room late at night, but they included us in everything they could. It really made us all feel that we were a whole family. And both of them would include me in even a more personal way in their decisions too. To say I had a friendship with my own Pa sounds a little funny, but in a way, that’s what it was. He was my friend! And so was Almeda—friend and mother and an older sister all rolled up into one.

And so we talked and planned the Christmas as a family. Of course we intended to invite our friends like Alkali Jones and Rev. Rutledge and the Stansberrys, and of course Uncle Nick and Katie and little Erich. Zack said he’d like to invite Little Wolf and his father, and after a brief glance at Almeda, Pa looked back at Zack and replied, “I think that’s a mighty good idea, son. You go right ahead and ask them if they’d join us for the day!”

Pa fell silent for a few moments. I hadn’t noticed the look that had come over his face, but when he next spoke I could see in his eyes that he’d gone through an intense struggle just in those brief moments. The tone in his voice spoke much more than the words that came out of his mouth.

“You know, Almeda,” he said quietly, “there is someone else we might pray about asking to join us.”

“Who’s that, Drummond?”

Pa paused again, and when he answered her, though his voice was soft, the words went like an explosion through the room.

“Franklin Royce,” he said.

Becky and Zack immediately let out groans, but Almeda’s eyes were fixed on Pa with a look of disbelief and happiness at the same time.

“You’re right,” she said after a moment. “He is a lonely man, with probably no place to go on Christmas.”

“It just seems like the right thing to do,” Pa added. “I’m not all that anxious to strike up a friendship with him after what he’s done. But we have to put the past behind us, and I believe it’s got to start with us. One thing’s for sure—he’s not going to be inviting us to his place anytime soon!”

Almeda laughed. “I think it’s a wonderful idea, Drummond!”

The rest of that week before Christmas we did lots of baking—wild huckleberry pies, an olia podrida (a stew with a lot of meats and vegetables mixed together), and honeyed ham. Then Christmas morning we baked biscuits, potatoes, carrots, yams, and two pumpkin pies.

There was also a lot of sewing and stitching and trying-on to be done too, everyone pretending they didn’t know what it was all for. Almeda made Pa close his eyes to try on the new vest she was making him, telling him to pay no attention to anything that was going on. I did the same for a shirt I was making for Zack. We kept poor Mr. Bosely so busy that week—buying extra bits of linen or cotton fabric, lace, buttons, and thread.

It was so funny to watch Pa going about Christmas business of his own, and with Zack and Tad. Men have such a hard time knowing how to do and make things, especially for wives and sisters and daughters. Most of the preparations at holiday time came from the women. But Pa entered into the spirit of it, and kept his little secrets too, and would sometimes shoot a wink at one of the boys about the things that they were planning that none of us knew about. I could tell it made Almeda love him all the more to watch him try to do his part to make it special.