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Children’s children are a crown to the aged and parents are the pride of their children. Proverbs 17:6
When I was a little girl growing up in Wexford, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh, my mother, father, two older brothers and I went to my mother’s parents’ house every Christmas Eve. We eagerly awaited an evening of fun with our cousins, eating lots of Grandma Johnson’s good Swedish cooking, and enjoying laughter with our many aunts and uncles. My mother brought her beloved apple pies. One year as we were driving to my grandparents’ house, my father had to hit the brakes suddenly and the pies flew from the rear of the car onto my head as my mother braided by long blonde hair! My brothers teased me about that for years.
Born in Sweden, my grandparents met on a ship while crossing to Sweden from America after emigrating five years earlier through Ellis Island. Grandma was 16 when she came to America to work as a cook for an affluent Connecticut family. She was deaf from birth and never learned to speak fluent English. Grandpa was a foreman in a Pittsburgh steel factory, taking English classes at night school. They courted long distance, eventually marrying and raising six children.
These adult children and their families gathered excitedly at the yellow brick house on Duquesne Avenue. Every year Grandpa passed out a Christmas card with a two-dollar bill to each grandchild, no matter their age (I still have all of mine). For months, Grandma had been preparing special foods: pickled herring, lutefisk, and a jellied sausage roll called Korv. Meanwhile, the grandchildren played “elevator” in Grandma’s upstairs cardboard wardrobe, ran circles around the first floor, and slid down the long banister. And the adults sat around the dining room table devouring an authentic Swedish smorgasbord, offering prayers of thanks, and “Skal” with glasses raised high.
After favorite carols were sung while my mother played piano, we offered hugs and well wishes, sadly knowing it might be another long year before seeing one another again. But our hearts were filled with love as we anticipated Santa’s arrival the next morning. And yes, we were already thinking about next Christmas Eve at Grandma’s.
Heavenly Father, you have blessed me with so many gifts in my life, but the one I most treasure is the gift of my amazing family – past, present, and future. Please grant each one of them your eternal peace and love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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