Summary:  Joe revisits his mama’s Christmas 1844 journal entries.
Written for Day 17 of the Advent Calendar
Rating:  G  Words: 859

Bonanza
~*~*~ Advent Calendar ~*~*~
* Day 17*

“Snow Angels”

Part 2

(About 30 or so years later)

It was sunrise and about two weeks before Christmas at Joe and Karie’s cabin.  They and their two-year-old daughter Marie were already up and about.  Karie cooked breakfast as Marie toddled around with a doll clutched in her arms.  Joe looked out the front window and saw a thick blanket of snow covered the ground.  He scooped up Marie and carried her over to the window.  The little girl giggled.

“Look!  Snow!”  He exclaimed.

“Snow,” she softly repeated with big admiring green eyes.

He ruffled her honey-blonde curls as he remembered him and his brothers playing in the snow when they were children.  They made snowmen, snow angels and had snowball fights.  Joe looked down at Marie and thought about playing with her in the snow.  Well she was probably a little too young to do snowball fights and make snowmen.  Maybe next Christmas.  Not this one.  Still she could make snow angels, and he could show her how.

“How would you like to go out there and make snow angels?”

She nodded her head.  “Yeah.”

“Okay.  Let’s bundle up.”

Karie replied, “Can you wait until after breakfast?  It’s almost ready.”

“Oh good!  Breakfast to warm us up before we go out into the snow.”

They soon sat down to a breakfast of eggs, pancakes and sausage links.  All through the meal Joe shared stories of him and his brothers playing in the snow when they were children.  Marie’s face looked enraptured as he spoke.

He looked over at the small Christmas tree beside the fireplace.  It was covered with garlands and ornaments from Joe and Karie’s families.  He noticed among the ornaments the two angels that were Mama’s.  Pa told him that she had bought them when he was a baby.

After breakfast they all bundled up and gathered outside on the porch.  Karie held Marie in her arms.

“Now, watch,” Joe told Marie.  “I’m going to show you how to make a snow angel.”

“Okay.”

He laid down in the soft powdery snow and flailed his arms and legs about.

Marie giggled.  “Papa funny!”

Oh she thought he was funny did she?  He had lots of stories he could tell her about him and his brothers.

Joe stood up and stepped back onto the porch.

“Would you like to try it?”  He asked Marie.

“Yeah!”  She said.

He took her from Karie and laid her down in the snow.  She immediately started flailing her arms and legs about as she giggled.  Then he picked her back up.  Joe gazed at the imprints they had made in the snow.  A big angel and a little angel.  Angels came in different sizes didn’t they?  He remembered Mama’s journal which Pa had given him several Christmases ago.  There was a Christmas entry where she wrote about teaching Joe how to make a snow angel.  He may have been the same age that Marie was now.

“See the snow angels that we made?”

“Yeah!”

Next they all went on inside to have hot cocoa to warm them up.  Joe pulled Mama’s journal out of the bookcase and found her entries from December 1844.  As they sat at the table he read aloud what Mama had written.  Somehow it felt like she was right there with them.  He had no memories of that Christmas, and he so wished he did.  Still he did have a vague memory of him, Mama and his brothers making snowmen and having snowball fights when he was a little older.

Karie asked, “I wonder if your brothers remember that Christmas?”

“Oh, they probably do,” Joe replied.  “Besides I can’t imagine Adam not remembering the first rifle that he got for Christmas.”

“He probably does remember.  I wonder what happened to your mama’s rifle?”

“I’m sure Pa has it stored somewhere upstairs at the house.  In fact, I think I’ll ask him about it when we all get together for Christmas dinner over there.”

Joe glanced over the yellowed pages that Mama had written so long ago.  He felt warmth inside as he remembered her.  Snow angels.  He always enjoyed making them when he was a child.  In fact he enjoyed making one a while ago and seeing his little girl do the same.

“I think after dinner I’ll get all of the children together and have them make snow angels.”

Karie laughed.  “I suppose you’ll be joining them?”

“Of course, and my brothers will probably join us.”

“Oh really?”

“Sure.”

A moment of silence followed while Joe silently reread the last few lines of Mama’s Christmas Day entry.  Pa and his brothers told him many times through the years about her love of Christmas.

“I have a request,” Karie said.

“What’s that?”

“I was just thinking about your pa reading the Christmas story to the family every Christmas night.  Do you mind doing that for our little family?”

“Oh I would love to.  I think it’s a great idea to pass on family traditions to the next generation.”

“I do too.”

Merry Christmas, Mama.  Merry Christmas.

Character: Joe

Activity: Making snow angels

Link to Day 13 for those who skipped over days to read to Part II of Snow Angels, here is a link to Day 14 of the Bonanza Brand 2021 Advent Calendar:  Snowball Fight! by rh2006fan

Link to Day 18 of the Bonanza Brand 2021 Advent Calendar:  Family Traditions by Sibylle