Mrs. Osnow’s Class

One of my favorite Christmases took place when I was five. Despite the fact that it was years ago, I can remember it almost as if it were yesterday.                       

The car ride to my grandparents’ house was long and tedious. It took five hours and back then, I could hardly even read. We did listen to some books on tape but most of the time I just stared out the window, watching the scenery go by.           

Finally, we were driving down the small dirt road that led to my grandparents’ property. They live in a large, old house in the middle of the New Hampshire country-side. There is a spacious yard with a long hill sloping down to a pond, meadows, woods and lawn space and, in the summer a huge garden full of beautiful flowers. When we arrived, the whole place was covered in a blanket of bright, white snow, making it even more beautiful than usual. Nobody lives near my grandparents except a lady across the street in an old farm house complete with a silo. However, there are farms if you drive down the road for awhile.           

My aunt, uncle and cousins were already there. They had driven up from Washington D.C. the day before and came to the door to greet us when our car pulled up. The first thing I observed when I walked inside was a magnificent Christmas tree, covered in shining lights and colorful ornaments. The living room, as always was meticulous which is the way my grandmother likes to keep it. Every last picture frame or chair had an exact place and no one was allowed to move them. Of course I didn’t pay attention to this; I was more interested in playing with my grandparent’s dog and my two cousins. Since we arrived very late and it was already dark, we couldn’t play in the snow so we played board games for a while and then watched a movie. After dinner, my mother read a couple of chapters out of a book that we had been reading and I went to bed. My cousins arrived there first so they were the ones who occupied the two beds in the nursery. My brother and I had to sleep on inflatable green mattresses on the floor. It wasn’t the most comfortable bed I had ever slept in but it was all right.           

The next day we left the house early to go skiing. There is a small resort nearby and although it is not as large as some we have visited it’s never crowded and there are plenty of good runs. Since I was so small, I was not able to go on many of the runs but there was one that I did repeatedly. It was a green circle trail, the easiest type, and it was very flat. The trail wound across the mountain, crisscrossing back and forth. It was quite long and cut through pine forests where the new snow rested on the branches of the trees. I think eventually my father got extremely bored going down the same trail because he enrolled my brother, my cousins and I in a skiing class. In the class, which was for beginners, we skied down the same trail as before a few times and later drank hot chocolate.             

We returned home late in the afternoon, around 4:00 and spent the rest of the day playing games, playing with the dog and the three cats and reading.           

The next day there was plenty of time to play in the snow. First, I slid down the hill on the sleds that my grandparents keep in their barn. They are the old fashioned type with red runners. The snow was about two feet deep and it was the wet type that could easily be packed into snowballs and snowmen. Starter snowballs could pick up snow as easily as being rolled along the ground. When I used the sled, it went speeding down the hill almost before I sat on it. I had to duck to avoid the deer wire that is around the lawn and garden. At the end of the hill I flew over a small hill and landed on the frozen pond where I skidded on the slippery ice. As soon as my sled stopped moving, I jumped up and ran to the top of the hill again.           

 Eventually, when I got tired of this, my father pulled on his ice skates and linked the sleds together. My cousins and brother and I sat in the sled and he pulled us on the ice so that the person at the end was always being whipped around. Next, we ice skated on the smooth slippery pond.            

Later, while I was building a snowman, I heard the clip-clop of horse’s hooves. The next thing I knew, a lady and a teenage girl were riding out of the woods on the biggest, blackest most beautiful horses I had ever seen.            

“They are Friesian” my grand mother said, “The lady breeds them on a farm down the road” Then she asked the lady if we, the grandchildren could ride the horses.           

“Of course” said the lady so we got to take very short rides. I remember how huge the Friesians were compared to how small I was. They seemed like giants to me. I rode a horse whose long black mane was plaited into a braid that hung all the way down to his knees.           

After the lady and her daughter continued on their way we finished our snowman and had a snowball fight. We hurried inside and ate warm soup and hot chocolate. Afterwards my mother and I baked cookies to give to “Santa”. After a Christmas Eve dinner of roast beef, scalloped potatoes, green beans and other delectable food I hung my stocking by the fireplace and although I felt wide awake.           

The next morning I woke up early and ran downstairs to open my presents. My parents had said the previous night that I was allowed to open my stocking but I could not open my presents until they woke up. In my stocking were slinkies, notepads, packs of cards, edible bubbles and lots of other small gifts.           

When my grandparents and parents awakened, we opened the rest of our presents. I can’t remember what I received but I am sure that I liked them. For breakfast we had oatmeal with vanilla ice cream and strawberries, a Christmas tradition in my family.            

After playing in the snow one last time we had to leave. I was reluctant to leave, however, I couldn’t wait for the next visit.