The season is upon us now, and I think back on Christmas through the years. The best ones had my grandparents included. Each year they put up the silver tinsel tree and plugged in the electric color wheel that slowly changed the tree from silver to red, green, blue and yellow. Most of the ornaments were blue, and it just looked cool!
There was a heavy card nativity set that I just loved to play with. Grandma would let me set it up if I were careful, and I tried very hard to find just the perfect position for each animal and angel. There was always an Elf on the Shelf as well. I never knew it was an old tradition until just this year. They appear to be in vogue again, and I'm seeing Elf On The Shelf in the major bookstores. I guess everything old IS new again!
(Me in the hayfield. That's the old farmhouse in the back.)
Grandpa indulged all three of us kids, yet never had to lay a hand on us to punish us if we erred. All he had to do was look disappointed and sigh. Maybe shake his head. We would immediatly feel so bad that if he had actually whipped us we would have felt better! Grandma, on the other hand, was the disiplinarian. She actually gave me a knife once, and told me to go cut the maple switch for her to use on my behind!! Needless to say, all of us kids, once we experienced these two actions, did our level best not to experience them again!
Grandma and Grandpa usually slept upstairs in the attic during our visits. They had seperate beds, and I think it was so we kids could rotate sleeping with them. But there was this one very special Christmas Eve.....
As I was shaken awake by a gentle hand, my eyes opened to see my grandpa leaning over me, a quieting finger held to his lips. I crawled slowly at first from the warm bed, reluctant to leave the quilts behind. Then I remembered. It was Christmas Eve! We were going to sneak up on the barn animals and see if it were true that at midnight they bowed down to pay homage to the Christ child!
My feet wanted to dance, but the warning look from my grandpa, accompanied by an understanding smile, kept all dancing inside my body. We crept down the stairs, carefully skipping the sixth step that would have creaked and given us away to my grandma and my two younger brothers.
In the dark kitchen, grandpa helped tuck my pajama-clad legs into my boots, then zipped my coat against the cold Ohio winter night. He shrugged into his old barn jacket and smiled down at me as he slid my toboggan hat over my rumpled hair.
We unlocked the back door, freezing as the loud snick of the bolt rang through the air like a gunshot. We stared at each other, but didn’t hear anyone coming to investigate. Grandpa opened the door slowly and we stepped out into the dark.
A light snow was falling, the flakes drifting slowly past us, glittering in the soft illumination of the old security light in the corner of the farmyard. The snow crunched beneath our boots as we walked softly towards the barn, my small mittened hand clasping his work-roughened one.
Despite the crunch of the snow underfoot, I thought we were as good as spies, or even Indians.
When we got to the barn, grandpa slid a flashlight from his pocket to check his wristwatch before unhooking the barn door clasp. The hinges squeaked loudly in protest as he swung the door open, shining the light into each of the 3 stalls.
Two cows and a pony stared calmly back at us, one cow chewing her cud. None of them were concerned in the least at our intrusion. To my great disappointment, all three animals were standing on their feet, not kneeling in the straw. I heaved a sigh in disappointment, feeling my grandpa’s hand come to rest comfortingly on my shoulder.
We left the barn and headed back to the farmhouse, my disappointment making me drag my feet. The squeaking hinge had warned the barn animals we were there, and since they wouldn’t kneel if humans were present, or so the legend goes, they remained on their feet.
Grandpa stopped suddenly and swung me up into his arms in a big hug, then whispered in my ear, “We’ll catch them next Christmas!”
I hugged him back, suddenly happy. No one else would have gone with me at midnight to the barn! Not my dad, nor my mom. Not even grandma! I had the best grandpa in the whole wide world!
Yes, this really did happen. I can still feel the disappointment, so keenly sharp, when we opened the barn door only to see all the animals standing. It would have been so normal to at least see a cow lying down as she chewed her cud, but no. They were all standing, which was unusual for that time of night. ButI was just a child, and it never crossed my mind at that time.
Grandpa was generous to a fault. If a neighbor needed help, Grandpa was there. If his grandbabies needed or wanted something, he did his best to fill the need, or take care of the want. So when I wanted to see the animals kneel to celebrate the birth of Baby Jesus, the Grandfather part overrode the farmer part. I was indulged, even though it meant getting up in the middle of the night and going out into the cold for something that was just a story.>
