I have grown up with the most amazing and fun sister ever. We have annoying inside jokes, the same long and uncoordinated arms and legs and a pretty weird sense of combined humor. We were so lucky to have a family full of cousins; out of 8 grandkids, there were 7 girls and we were all fairly close in age. This made any family function or holiday heaps of fun!
Bethany and I have been reminiscing a lot lately over the weird things we would do as kids when we all got together. I cannot believe the imagination I used to have.
When we were kids, Mom read us Little House in the Big Woods, one chapter at a time before bed. My favorite chapter was about the Christmases they spent in their tiny cabin in Wisconsin, all covered in snow. The girls got mittens and peppermint sticks in their stockings and Laura got a special rag doll one year.
Bethany and I "played" our own version of this story once, and it can best be described as "Poor Christmas."
During the holidays we have always put electric candles in all of the windows at the front of the house. We would turn out the lights in Bethany's room and plug in the candle and pretend that was the only light we had.
We kept a little bit of fake money in a pitcher and sometimes we would "go to the general store to buy food" (aka the Fisher Price kitchen in the playroom) and come back with a fake loaf of bread and an apple wrapped in a dish towel. Maybe some cheese, if it was a good day. This was our only food.
Then it would be Christmas Eve and we would wonder if Santa would bring us anything since we were poor. We put on nightgowns and of course we hung up socks and pretended they were stockings, and I remember getting an empty perfume bottle in my stocking from Santa.
I think this game also came from an early exposure to American Girl books and to the movie Little Women, which continues to be a holiday tradition and one of the most-quoted movies amongst the older cousins.
"Butter! Oh isn't butter divinity? Oh God thank you for this breakfast!"
