The Little House Oyster- Soup Christmas, Learning the important things about Christmas

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A Little House example 

This year, I am reading the Little House books with my granddaughter and her homeschool classmates. We stopped for the semester after the Christmas chapter in The Long Winter. I started this project because I wanted to share the wonder of the pioneer childhood Laura Ingalls Wilder shared with the world in her semi-autobiographical children’s books. However, the Little House books hit me differently as an adult woman and mother. This one is particularly harsh. Living in the brand-new town of DeSmet, South Dakota, in the winter of 1880-1881 was the worst. With train lines down and relentless snowstorms and blizzards, the family was in real danger of starvation or exposure.  

Yet Pa manages to come home with two cans of oysters and joyfully announces that they will have oyster soup for Christmas! If you can get past the idea of 19th-century commercial canning and oysters making their way to the landlocked prairie, then you must cope with Ma’s response when told that the cow is practically dry.  

“I’ll thin it out with water,” said Ma. “We’ll have oyster soup for Christmas dinner!” 

Yum?! 

Despite their dire circumstances and questionable Christmas cuisine, Laura recounts her baby sister saying, “Oh, what a lovely Christmas!” 

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