It is with anticipation and gratitude that we prep for our journey to upstate North Dakota to join family in the celebration of several rounds of celebratory events. Ding-ding…hope you haven’t been slacking in your quick witted sarcasm training.

On the 18th, mom and dad’s marriage odometer rolls over to 48-years, the 20th Grandma Helen, and perhaps the fire department, will extinguish an impressive bonfire of 90 birthday candles, the 24th my brother Jarvis, and my sister-in-law Janice, celebrate 17-years of marriage, and we’ll top it all off with a Chrest family Christmas gathering.

That should sufficiently shake the snow globe of holiday cheer. As we know, it can get a little brisk up north this time of year, so to prevent freezing and cracking, it is suggested that snow globes be fill with solutions that are no less than 80-proof. Exercise caution, as this does substantially increase the risk for explosion if exposure to sparks or open flames occurs.

Public Service Message: If you can’t be careful at least be cautious, make your holiday gatherings OSHA compliant, FR clothing for young and old alike. Results may vary.

Elizabeth Helen Ellis, yeah that’s her “real” name, although I’ve never heard her called Elizabeth. You try it first, and let me know how it goes. Grandma Helen was born in Selz, North Dakota, the second of ten children born to John Kraft and Anastasia Mattern. I’m sure, as the second of ten children, the development of her cooking and cleaning skills was not an option, but rather a necessity.

As the mother of nine herself, and her years of work in Johnson’s Cafe, managing the Lignite Lanes, a school cook and custodian at Burke Central, and her helping my dad keep the meat room spiffy when my parents ran the grocery store in Lignite, she has cleaned up a lot of messes.

Grandma’s parents, John and Anastasia, were joined in marriage January 3rd, 1927 in Selz. I was only about 5-years old when Anastasia passed, so I have no recollection of her. Great Grandpa Kraft died in 1993, and I have memories of him playing his accordion and spitting streams of chewing tobacco into the large brass spittoon next to his easy chair while he flipped channels between various baseball games.

I have a very vivid memory of one of my younger cousins as a toddler tipping that spittoon up to his mouth for a swig. Before any of the adult types glanced away from their hand of cards to intervene, he had streaks of brown tobacco juice streaking across his cheeks. Card games were serious business, not to be interrupted by the throngs of children that were always underfoot.

We can trace Grandma Helens ancestors on her father’s side back as far as her Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather, Georg Kraft, who was born in western Germany in 1776. Around 1808 several families took a 3-month journey east to establish settlements in southern Russia. These Black Sea Germans settled several villages in the Odessa, Russia region, and those village names, Strasburg and Selz, moved with them when they packed up and headed for America in the late 1800s.

It is interesting to contemplate the lives of those who came before us, and the various forces that moved them about as they searched for a better life. A life that was theirs, a life of opportunity, challenges, love, and loss. So it goes…and goes…and goes…

Come join us at the Lignite Senior Building for cake and coffee on December 20th from 4-6pm, and help us celebrate Grandma Helen’s 90th birthday. If there’s a BINGO game somewhere in North Dakota that day, we may be celebrating without her presence, but celebrate we shall.