THE GIFT
Day #9
Have you ever seen that Christmas movie called, The Gift (I think that is what it is called...). It is the story of family who lives on a farm. Every morning the Father has to drag his moaning and groaning teenage son out of bed to do chores (milk and feed the cows, etc.). This one particular year the boy can't figure out what to give his dad for Christmas. As Christmas draws near he has a fabulous idea to get up way early and do all of the chores before his dad wakes up. His father has never see the kids wake up and open their presents on Christmas morning because he was too busy doing the morning chores on the farm.
Christmas morning comes and the son wakes up bright and early. He feeds and milks the cows, cleans up and does whatever else needs to be done. As morning draws nigh (I feel so educated using that word) he runs home and hops back into bed and pretends to be asleep. A few minutes later his father comes in to wake him up so that they can do chores. He moans and groans as usual until his father leaves the room. A few minutes later the father is down the farm and realizes what his son had done. The love and appreciation that shows on his face is priceless. He is finally able to see his family open their gifts on Christmas morning.
What a priceless gift that was. It probably meant more to that father than any gift money could by.
So...
I grew up on a farm.
Dairy farm to be exact.
However, we were never allowed to open presents on Christmas morning until Pops got home from chores. Oh and on our farm didn't have 3-4 cows like this movie did. We had 300-400 cows.
One day many, many moons ago (that is what us Indians say) us 5 kids had a bright idea to give our dad this same gift. We planned and planned and were so excited until mom told us that we were way too young to do everything that needed to be done. Ok so maybe 5 kids all under the age of 11 or 12 can't breed a cow or give it a shot if it is sick...but we could go down there and work together as a family.
And so we did for years and years
(until we got married and had Christmas mornings with our spouses in our own homes)
The girls would get up early and milk.
Rachel would take the first shift at 3:00 am
Then Kami and I would get up around 4:30 or 5:00 am and finish up the milking
There were two of us because I was very thorough (read: slow)
Mom would feed the calves
Pops would do whatever else needed to be done (breeding, feeding, doctoring, etc)
and the two younger boys would help out mom and pops...until they got older and could do things on their own.
Don't believe that it was a perfect Christmas morning, because after awhile the thrill of doing service wore off and a few complaints were expressed. But while it was often cold (really, really cold) and those stupid idiotic cows (really, really stupid and really, really idiotic) wouldn't do what I wanted them to do, fond memories of working together as a family on Christmas morning where still made.
Working together on Christmas morning as a family is a tradition that I will never forget.
I know there is a picture at home of use 3 girls after we got done milking, but I don't have it. So you are stuck with another picture of me in my old school glory daze.
This was the year I got my first pair of ski's.
Awesome.
Have you ever seen that Christmas movie called, The Gift (I think that is what it is called...). It is the story of family who lives on a farm. Every morning the Father has to drag his moaning and groaning teenage son out of bed to do chores (milk and feed the cows, etc.). This one particular year the boy can't figure out what to give his dad for Christmas. As Christmas draws near he has a fabulous idea to get up way early and do all of the chores before his dad wakes up. His father has never see the kids wake up and open their presents on Christmas morning because he was too busy doing the morning chores on the farm.
Christmas morning comes and the son wakes up bright and early. He feeds and milks the cows, cleans up and does whatever else needs to be done. As morning draws nigh (I feel so educated using that word) he runs home and hops back into bed and pretends to be asleep. A few minutes later his father comes in to wake him up so that they can do chores. He moans and groans as usual until his father leaves the room. A few minutes later the father is down the farm and realizes what his son had done. The love and appreciation that shows on his face is priceless. He is finally able to see his family open their gifts on Christmas morning.
What a priceless gift that was. It probably meant more to that father than any gift money could by.
So...
I grew up on a farm.
Dairy farm to be exact.
However, we were never allowed to open presents on Christmas morning until Pops got home from chores. Oh and on our farm didn't have 3-4 cows like this movie did. We had 300-400 cows.
One day many, many moons ago (that is what us Indians say) us 5 kids had a bright idea to give our dad this same gift. We planned and planned and were so excited until mom told us that we were way too young to do everything that needed to be done. Ok so maybe 5 kids all under the age of 11 or 12 can't breed a cow or give it a shot if it is sick...but we could go down there and work together as a family.
And so we did for years and years
(until we got married and had Christmas mornings with our spouses in our own homes)
The girls would get up early and milk.
Rachel would take the first shift at 3:00 am
Then Kami and I would get up around 4:30 or 5:00 am and finish up the milking
There were two of us because I was very thorough (read: slow)
Mom would feed the calves
Pops would do whatever else needed to be done (breeding, feeding, doctoring, etc)
and the two younger boys would help out mom and pops...until they got older and could do things on their own.
Don't believe that it was a perfect Christmas morning, because after awhile the thrill of doing service wore off and a few complaints were expressed. But while it was often cold (really, really cold) and those stupid idiotic cows (really, really stupid and really, really idiotic) wouldn't do what I wanted them to do, fond memories of working together as a family on Christmas morning where still made.
Working together on Christmas morning as a family is a tradition that I will never forget.
I know there is a picture at home of use 3 girls after we got done milking, but I don't have it. So you are stuck with another picture of me in my old school glory daze.
This was the year I got my first pair of ski's.
Awesome.
5 comments:
Some corrections need to be made.....
Rachel woke up at TWO THIRTY AM. Every half hour counts.
We also didn't have quite so many cows back then, but it makes it sound good.
You forgot the crying on Christmas eve :) and good ol JOSE!
That picture of you is classic. I also love the angel on the top of the tree.
This post totally made me smile! I love that story {And totally got emotional reading it - HA! :)}.
What fantastic memories! You guys are seriously troopers, getting up so early to help! Good kids! All of you! :)
P.s. LOVE the picture!
I love that story, its one we have to read every year too. Glad we didn't have milk cows to worry about.
i really love this story. you have an awesome family.
Yeah, I remember those days! Let me tell you dad really appreciated all the help you guys gave! Good times! One, nobody has to get up to milk, just other chores, but not bad, really! Thanks for all the help all those years. We do have some pics somewhere of all of you getting home from milking.
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