Bio: Langreck, Kimberly Malott (Christmas Memories 1981)

Contact: Kathleen E. Englebretson
Email: kathy@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Langreck

---Source: Marshfield News-Herald (1 December 1981)

Christmas Memories

Christmas has always been a very special time in my family, but when I was younger it was the most important time of the year.

Soon after Thanksgiving, the family would begin to think about Christmas. We would all go up to the attic and haul down the numerous boxes of Christmas decorations. While my dad and my brother Tony would go and find a tree, my sister Carol and I would start unloading the boxes. Every year it was amazing to see the amount of decorations that we had accumulated. Each decoration had a special memory attached to it. Some were the ones the kids had made at school and others were ones that we had made as a family,

When the men would return with the tree the big task of decorating would begin. First the tree would be put in the stand and watered. My little brother always got to water the tree because he was so small that he could crawl under the tree. Next on would go the string of lights. We always had blue lights on our tree because my mother thought that blue was a very beautiful background for the decorations. After the lights were on, we would all participate in putting on the decorations one by one. Everyone would comment on where they thought each decoration should go.

After the decorations, on went the tinsel and the snow. And for the final touch, the star of Christmas would go up. The star that belonged on the top of the tree was the most exciting part of decorating the tree. It was a symbol that the tree was and Christmas was almost there.

After the chores of decorating were done, we would sit down to a big meal and relax around the house for a family night. The long wait for Christmas Eve would then begin.

Mon and dad always seemed to convince us kids that we had to go to bed early on Christmas Eve so that Santa Claus would come while we were asleep. It was terrible to have to go to bed when you were so excited. I guess that's why we never slept past 5 or 6 a.m.

As usual, one very cold and snowy Christmas morning, all of us kids were up early and were trying to get our parents awake so that they could come see ll the gifts that Santa Claus had left under the tree during the night. Little did we know that morning that this would be one of the most wonderful Christmas' ever.

Mom got up and made our usual big Christmas breakfast of pancakes, bacon, sausage, fruit and orange juice and chocolate milk. Tony, Carol and I gulped down our food as fast as we could and rushed into the living room to find the gifts not as plentiful as other years.

The family sat around the tree as usual and dad handed out the gifts. We always watched each person open their gifts so that the day would last longer. Tony and I both noticed that we were receiving fewer gifts than anyone else. Carol was getting dolls and clothes and lots of other toys, but Tony and I were only getting a few smaller items.

After the opening of gifts was done, mom and dad went outside to burn the trash. Tony and I went upstairs and started to complain that we hadn't received as much as Carol had. We felt that mom and dad loved her more. All of a sudden mom called upstairs for us to come down. When we got downstairs, mom told us to go outside and help dad burn the trash. We bundled up and dragged out of the house. We both walked as slow as we could until we finally reached the old shed. When we walked behind it there was the biggest surprise two kids could ever have in their life.

In each of dad's hands there was a rope and attached to these ropes were to Shetland ponies. Tony and I ran to them and asked if they were ours. Dad handed each of us one of the ropes and we immediately named our ponies "Pepper and Spice". We spent the rest of the day brushing our horses and talking to them. We couldn't believe that they were ours.

When it was time to go to in that night we resisted, but we knew it was bedtime. When we crawled into our beds we realized that we hadn't told out parents how much we loved them and that we had been wrong about them earlier that morning. We both ran downstairs and told them that we were sorry and that we loved them and our ponies.

Our ponies tended to be the most exciting thing for the next several years, but as time went by we grew out of them and moved onto bigger horses.

I will always remember those ponies for the time we spent with them but most of all for the lesson it taught my brother and I: "Don't ever think that your parents don't love you because they are always planning on something very special and meaningful to make their children happy throughout the year and especially at Christmas time. That Christmas also taught me to never be greedy until you know what lies ahead.

Now that I have children of my own; someday I hope to please my boys as much as my parents did every Christmas, But I also hope to teach them morals along with every holiday season.

Kim Langreck of Neillsville is the mother of two boys, Joshua, 2 1/2, and Joseph 1. She works as a secretary for Willie Miller of Century 21 in Marshfield. During her free time, she enjoys reading, baking and shooting pool and motorcycle riding with her husband (Thomas). A 1980 graduate of Granton High School, she is currently going to school to earn her real estate license.