December 2019 Crest LinesVolume 4, Issue 8 by Rachel Clemens, Senior Services Director Share your story...a memorable Christmas, a surprise gift, or special celebra- tion. As I began to think back over the years nothing truly specific or mem- orable came to me. Kate and Megan gave this assignment to me almost four Christmas Memories 2 weeks ago and still nothing was coming to me until I started singing Barbra Streisand’s rendition of “Jingle Bells” in my head and then Mahalia Jack- Christmas Memories 3 son’s “Go Tell It on the Mountain.” At that moment vivid holiday memo- Hillcrest Neighbor 4 ries came flooding back. Our holiday was centered around music, cookies, December Calendar Center and tradition. My mom had a red Currier & Ives tin filled with cassette tapes. Every Christmas Memories 5 Christmas she would add to the collection – John Denver and the Muppets, Hillcrest Staff 6 Rocky Mountain Holiday, Alvin and the Chipmunks’ Christmas, The Chief- tain’s, The Bells of Dublin, the White Christmas soundtrack and A Charlie Christmas Memories 7 Brown Christmas. As we got older there were popular artists like George Christmas Memories 8 Strait, Mariah Carey and Bing Crosby. I can remember rummaging through the tin to pick out Christmas music as we made holiday cookies, the same Department Updates 8 every year – spritz cookies, “snowball cookies,” more commonly known as Can the Griz 8 Russian tea cakes, and chocolate chip cookies with and without walnuts, which were always a staple in our house. Music and cookies were a main part of Christmas for us. We made cookies for Santa Lucia – a tradition that my family had growing up and that I have introduced to my children. On the night of December 12th chil- dren put a shoe outside their bedroom door for Santa Lucia to fill. Instead of reindeer, she rides a donkey. We would put out cookies and milk for her and carrot sticks for her donkey. Santa Lucia would leave an ornament, Fitness Center Open House chocolates and mints, and an orange. Over the many years of Santa Lucia coming, my siblings and I were able to create a vast collection of ornaments Stefan Stern to take with us when we moved out and started decorating trees of our Annual Tea Party own. Mock Auction Cookies were made for our annual Christmas parties. We hosted two parties; one for our farming community neighbors and one for my dad’s students from Indiana University who were away from home. Both parties were pot luck dinners but my mom’s lasagna and Christmas cookies were Art Walk always part of the festivities. Valentine’s Dinner We also made the obligatory cookies for Santa Claus and left them Bozeman Hot Springs out with milk, not forgetting carrot sticks for his reindeer. Christmas morn- ing most of the cookies were eaten, milk was drank, bites were taken from the carrots, and cookie crumbs scattered. Santa Claus always left a long let- ter acknowledging the things my siblings and I accomplished or how proud he was of how we’d matured over the last year. These are the memories that I cherish and thank my parents for, the small things that end up filling your heart for a lifetime. Wishing You All Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year! Crest Lines ~Sharing our Christmas Memories~ Stafford Hall Kay Reilly Christmas Day 1944. I was in the Army Construc- We lived in a house in a valley with mountains tion Engineers. On Christmas Eve we had moved behind. We always cut our own tree and looked from Verdun, France to join in the Battle of the forward to doing so. This pre-Christmas my hus- Bulge. On Christmas day it was snowing while I band and I saddled our horses and one each for dug my first fox hole. The snow would fall on my our two boys and our daughter (maybe 5 to 9 olive drab covered uniform and melt. The temper- years old) and rode up the mountain on our ature was about 28 degrees. We were now in Gen- quest. It had snowed the night before and there eral Patton’s 3rd Army. I wonder what lay ahead were no tracks in the snow other than ours. It was for me. We had replaced the 4th cavalry unit the beautiful with a crust of ice on top of the snow. day before. Now we were on the banks of the Mo- We cut down the tree of our choice and started selle river and on our own. The nearest town was down the mountain with the tree on the end of a Grevenmacher, Luxumbourg. lariat rope fastened to my husband’s saddle horn. We could see our house with smoke coming out Katie Schabarker of the chimney and the snow undisturbed other Every year on Christmas, my Grandpa George than our tracks. would give my sisters and me an envelope labeled Soon the tree slide down in front of the colt “From Santa” containing $100. He continued this he was riding. When the colt saw it passing him tradition all of our lives. He passed away in Febru- on its way down the hill, it scared him and he ary of 2017. That Christmas my family was gath- jumped about 20 feet in between jumps. When ered in the living room and my mom handed we got home our tree looked like Charlie Brown’s each of us an envelope labeled “From Santa” and Christmas Tree. We went inside and had some told us it was our present from Grandpa George. hot chocolate and then went back up after anoth- My parents had decided to continue the tradition er. On the way up the snow showed a big hole with us as well as their grandbabies in order to every 20 feet where the horse jumped and inden- keep Grandpa’s memory alive. tations in various placed where the tree hit. I think of this every Christmas with fondness. Gene Quenemoen Corrine Fohrer One of my most memorable Christmas seasons My most memborable Christmas was when I was was in Ethiopia, 1966. My family included my 7 years old. My parents were British and the fami- wife, Marie, and four children, Julie 15, Kane 12, ly we spent Christmas with each year was also Jonie 10, and Lori 9. Upon our August arrival in British. Unbeknown to me, Mr. Schofield ar- Addis, Ababa, I went to a hospital with a severe ranged a big surprise for me. They had purchased intestinal infection; Julie moved to a missionary a piano, which I dearly loved for years and years. boarding school; and Marie and the younger chil- It still exists in the home of my daughter in the dren flew to Diredawa to enroll in school and set Florida Keys. Mr. Schofield was an organist at our up our new home. I followed a week later in time church. He spent many hours teaching me how to to meet my classes at Haile Salassie University. play. After a rough start, we all got together; Julie flew in from boarding school and we had a very memorable Christmas. We cut a tree, not a pine, and decorated it, exchanged gifts and were very thankful for our time together. Crest Lines Leslie Egloff Wow—am hard put to remember any one Christmas that was special. Each was special in its own way. I do miss the HUGE family gatherings with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. he was out of town. There were two of us going Later my husband Werner and I created our own into labor six weeks early so the hospital was pre- extended family. We had 10 grandkids, starting pared. The other woman in labor was my age and with the three kids we jointly created. Our first we met in the waiting room. I had one friend in Christmas without family happened in lower town who wanted to be at the birth, but she had Baja California/Mexico. We had our first RV in left town that day. One other person we knew which we camped out of on Tecolote Beach. Our took care of our older son. kids were adults starting their own families. It Things progressed and my new doctor said seemed strange but it was such fun to dig clams he was just going home for dinner and would be and go fishing. On Christmas mind you, that back. In his absence, our baby made his way into was special. the world ! The nurse scattered everything out of the way and another on-call doctor came in and Lorraine Deming caught him. We spent a 3 week Chrsitmas Holiday in Poipu, He weighed 4lbs 8oz. The other mom had Kauai, Hawaii. My husband, son Greg, his wife her daughter an hour later and she weighed the Jen and their 10 year old daughter Kali. Much to same as our son. We didn’t bring him home for a my son’s dismay, I insisted on a live Christmas week because he had jaundice and Bozeman had tree, which we found at a K-mart parking lot temps far below zero for two weeks. It was –45 the sale. To save room, Greg hung the tree from the night he was born, Christmas Eve, and we named rafters. Kali and I decorated it with candy canes, him Nicholas. Best Christmas gift ever! which had melted during the night. That night we had a gigantic thunder and lightning storm Natalie Keim visible from 3 sides of the room.