He stumbles through the log cabin door and hangs his coat on a nail. His mouth waters when he smells the cornbread Minnie is taking out of the Dutch oven. She will serve soup beans and taters with the bread for their supper and ice-cold buttermilk.
She starts and faces her husband. "Bob, you scared me. What's wrong, honey?" She pins a stray lock of black hair into the bun at the nape of her neck.
"Minnie, it don't look like we'll have no Christmas. I ain't got no money to buy the young'uns presents. I can't even buy a stick of peppermint candy. When in the thunderation will this Depression end?"
"Don't reckon cutting' a rusty will do no good. Everything will work out. Money don't matter. It's our love that makes Christmas."
"Give me some sugar," says Bob. Minnie kisses her handsome husband. Her heart thumps as she recalls how she almost lost him. Before they were married, Bob hopped on a train and went to Colorado. He worked as a cowboy in the Grand Tetons for six months. Fortunately for both of them, Bob didn't stay out West. He grabbed his gear and returned to the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the pretty Miss Minnie Matheson. They were married the next day.
Now Minnie watches Bob hanging empty stockings on the fireplace mantel.
"I allow this is a waste of time," he says.
"God will provide," affirms Minnie. She helps him hang the stockings and blows out the candle. They hold each other and warm one another beneath the Double Wedding Ring quilt in their feather bed.
On Christmas morning, screaming children awake Minnie and Bob. The rush into the living room. Baby Ray's face is covered with chocolate candy. The other five children grab goodies from their stockings.
"Where did you get those?" asks Minnie.
The boys poke their hands into overall pockets and grin sheepishly.
Minnie asks again, "What have you boys been up to now?"
The oldest child, Rondy, explains. "Us fellers cut wood Christmas Eve on Shewbird Mountain. After dinner we shelled a bag of corn and walked through the holler to Ed Murray's country store."
"Boys, did you walk all the way through the snow?" asks Bob.
"Yeal, the road was covered with snow," says Robert. "It looked like a fairyland with icicles hanging from the pines."
"I slipped and dropped the bag of corn," interrupts Reuben. "We scooped up as much as we could. Then we went to the store and traded the corn for oranges, peppermint sticks, chocolate drops and hazelnuts." He laughs and his red hair sticks up like a porcupine.
"Last night we filled our stockings with goodies," says Ralph and pops a chocolate drop into his mouth.
The Ledfords celebrate Christmas and endure the harsh winter of 1931. Minnie can hardly wait for spring. One nice day she gets her bonnet and strolls to the country store. The chirping robins and jonquils bursting through the earth put a song in her heart.
She notices a tender stalk of corn shooting from the dirt road and has a good laugh remembering how her boys pulled off the best Christmas they ever had.
by: Brenda Kay Ledford
