A Real Life Santa

With Thanksgiving and Black Friday behind us we are now ready to tackle the Christmas Season.

I would like to say a few words about Black Friday. We had a top notch staff for the night when utter chaos ensued. Our little bakery at the Legends was packed with shoppers from 10pm right up until 3am! I remember checking on Pam, new to our family and the bakery, as she was making hot chocolates. She, in a very frantic, almost quivering voice said, "hey, I learned to make 3 at a time!" Then as if she needed self-assurance that she could make it through the insanity mumbled,
"yea for me!" Welcome to the family Pam!
We got through it, thanks to Cassie, Ashley S., Maddie, Ashley R., Pam and my husband Mike. Great job guys!

It is very easy in the retail environment to get the Bah Humbug Syndrome. We try our best to not let that happen by helping each other through every day as our production schedules get longer and longer. No matter how prepared we may be the demand for povitica bread and strudels grows each year, creating quite a challenge for all of us.

How about a Christmas Story. MeMa, my mother, has told this story for years, I'd like to pass it on. All throughout her childhood she remembered each Christmas getting exactly the toy she and her nine siblings wanted. An amazing thing, especially when you consider that her parents barely got by. Many times they were forced to leave one farm, pick up and move to another. Rich with love and caring, this family knew poverty and doing without. So, how could it be that each of Henry & Eva's ten children were adorned with the exact toy that they asked Santa for?

Well, when MeMa was about ten years old, her older brother DanEddy (who, by the way, lost his life in Korea) discovered the truth. While at midnight mass, a man walked up the aisle and DanEddy whispered, "hey guys, there's Santa!" They all laughed at him quietly, thinking he was being silly. When they got home, though, he told his story.
With his siblings hovered around him he explained that earlier that day he had seen their neighbor Mr. Paul Doege, a young man who had never married, putting the toys into their barn.
Apparently Mrs. Doege, Paul's mother made the rounds with all of the local mothers, got their list of toys for each child and her son Paul purchased them and secretly delivered them. A real life Santa!

Stories like this help us to keep the real meaning of Christmas in our hearts and minds as we work through the long, busy hours of the holidays.

Oven & Out!