By E. Carnes McDonald Times Community Newspapers Special Writer

By E. Carnes McDonald

Times Community Newspapers Special Writer

hen I remember the

/t a / \ Christmas dinners past, it

IkJ J is a nostalgic trip back to

^ / my grandparents’ Ohio

farm. Once again, I can drool

over the tantalizing aromas

emanating from Grandmother Sophia’s farm kitchen. Again, I inhale the heavenly woodsy scents of freshly cut pine branches, cedar boughs, mistletoe and holly that decorated the entire farm house.

Our annual Christmas dinner was a formal event. Everyone from infants to grandparents dressed in their finest holiday togs. There was no blue-jeaned or sweat suited attire in my grandparents’ house. As an expatriated Prussian Army officer, my paternal grandfather Ludwig insisted on spitshine military cleanliness in all his progeny. Haircuts were short and crisp for the boys, and hair was braided so tight for the girls, it gave us slanted eyes.

Everyone over the age of 10 ate with the adults in the formal dining room. Those under the age of 10 ate in the kitchen. We were delighted to eat in the kitchen because one could relax from being under Grandfather’s ever-roving eagle eye. However, even without constant kitchen supervision, manners were paramount. Many a time one of the children found out a wooden spoon was used for more than stirring the contents of a pot!

There was not one, but three Christmas trees to delight everyone. The first tree was a magnificent Blue Spruce rising up more than 10 feet in the formal parlor. It was painstakingly decorated with Austrian and German glass ornaments.

The second tree was called “kinder tannenbaum” (the children’s tree). All our presents were stacked under its welcoming boughs. Set up in the large entrance foyer, it was a Scotch Pine decorated with all the homemade ornaments we children had ever made for