\nAvis Savre<\/center>
![\"2015](\"http:\/\/theresortrvpark.com\/resorter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2015-163.jpg\")
<\/a>Each Christmas Eve is a memorable holiday. During the great depression in the early 1930\u2019s everyone was poor. One gift was all one could hope for. Dad was\u00a0a carpenter as well as a farmer. One Christmas he made us toy airplanes with a moving propeller and wheels. Other years he made me a white doll wardrobe, a\u00a0doll bed and doll table from scrap lumber in his shop.<\/p>\nMy brother and I grew up on a farm. Our house had a large kitchen, dining room, and a parlor (living room to the millennials). There were double sliding\u00a0doors between the dining room and parlor. There also was a door from the kitchen to the parlor. Mother would close the doors to the parlor about 4:00 PM\u00a0Christmas Eve. We were told that Santa wouldn\u2019t stop if anyone was in the parlor. What time did Santa get to north Iowa? NO ONE was to enter the parlor\u00a0until after the Christmas Eve dinner.<\/p>\n
Uncle Ed came one Christmas Eve afternoon and wanted to borrow a book. Mother allowed him to go into the parlor to get it. We children were horrified that\u00a0Santa might be there. To our great relief he was not.<\/p>\n
After the roast beef, lutefisk, lefse and all the trimmings were devoured, my brother and I, lantern in hand, were sent to the outhouse in the back yard.\u00a0One does not tarry in any outhouse. In summer there were unpleasant odors and in winter frozen bottoms. But Christmas Eve we would leave the door open and\u00a0scour the sky hoping to see Santa land his reindeer and sleigh full of gifts on the roof. When our little \u201ccheeks\u201d were freezing we would run back to the\u00a0house.<\/p>\n