The Day Before Christmas

“But at last it was the day before Christmas and Alice and Royal and Eliza Jane were home again. The girls were cleaning the whole house, and Mother was baking. Royal helped Father with the threshing, but Almanzo had to help in the house. He remembered the switch, and tried to be willing and cheerful.”

***

“The kitchen was full of delicious smells. Newly baked bread was cooling, frosted cakes and cookies and mince pies and pumpkin pies filled the pantry shelves, cranberries bubbled on the stove. Mother was making dressing for the goose.”

***

“That night everyone was tired, and the house was so clean and neat that nobody dared touch anything. After supper Mother put the stuffed, fat goose and the little pig into the heater’s oven to roast slowly all night. Father set the dampers and wound the clock. Almanzo and Royal hung clean socks on the back of a chair, and Alice and Eliza Jane hung stockings on the back of another chair.

“Then they all took candles and went to bed.”

—Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farmer Boy

I loved the Little House books when I was a girl, but never read Farmer Boy. I thought that it would be boring to read about a boy. Boy (no pun intended), was I wrong! Farmer Boy is one of my most favorites of the Little House books. I especially love to read how Mother cooked and worked very hard to take good care of her family.:)