Students and staff returned to school on Monday, Jan. 6, after a two-week winter break. Before break, many teachers said that they were very excited about their holiday traditions.
“We celebrate Christmas but not always on Christmas,” said Mrs. Riemersma, a teacher at Norwalk HIgh school.
Riemersma said that when she was younger she would enjoy making peanut brittle and Kringla with her family.
“My grandpa from when I was little always made peanut brittle and he has this recipe for peanut brittle which is really good,” she said. “For a long time we always made peanut brittle at Christmas.”
Riemersma said that she doesn’t make it as much as she used to since she and her family are trying to be healthier. She also said that when she was little she used to have Kringla.
“Kringla, it’s like a sweet bread, you roll it into like a snake shape,” she said.
Riemersma said that when she was little, her mom would make Kringla during christmas time.
“Sometimes people twist them into pretzels. At our house we always handmade them into a figure eight-type shape,” she said.
Mrs. Reimersma said that she really loves Kringla.
“They’re so creamy and they’re like sweet, warm bread that’s soft, not too sweet,” she said.
Mrs. Riemersma said that one year she made some Kringla and sent it to her older brother who lives in England. He always loved Kringla, and when she sent a wrapped care package to her brother, it got delayed, so it arrived pretty late.
“It was all moldy and gross and he said, ‘I just wanted to try it. I was so excited about getting Kringla,’” she said. “So then I just sent him the recipe. He’ll have to make his own.”
Riemersma said that she would normally make it when she and her family were feeling hungry.
“Sometimes we’ll make sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies and whatever and we used to have them with the cookies so when someone is feeling snacky they can eat it,” she said.
Riemersma said that another memory she had was when her kids were growing up, they had certain things they wanted for Christmas and things that they didn’t want, so she would come up with a budget for each of them and they would make a list of what they wanted.
“For a number of years I’ve had the kids, I’ll tell them, ‘This is kind of the range where we are looking at, make a list and put the links for it on the Internet and email me the link,’ and then I’ll pick up the presents from their list,” she said. “That way they would get what they want.”
Riemersma said that when the gifts arrived, she would open the main box and leave the original. She then had her kids wrap their own presents.
“I had them start wrapping their own presents and they wrapped it very well when it was their own present,” she said.
Riemersma said that once they finished wrapping their own gift they would place it under the tree. She said that they were very eager to open it since they already knew what it was.
“It’s a different kind of surprise,” she said, “it’s not as much of a surprise as much as this anticipation in wanting or they’re excited.”
Riemersma said that this helped her a lot because wrapping a lot of gifts was very hard to do and it took a long time to get it done.
She said that it was their own unique way to celebrate Christmas and that in the end, “it works.”
Mr. Alfred, a history teacher at Norwalk High School, said that he visits family during the holidays.
“So my wife and I and my kids, we’ll go to either my parents’ house or my wife’s parents’ house, so we’ll do that alternating years, so this year we are going to my wife’s parents’ house,” he said.
Alfred said that he enjoys celebrating Christmas with his family. He also said that he enjoys playing games with them too.
“There’s always a different thing that we do, like one time they said whoever found this pickle ornament got money,” he said.
Alfred also said that he enjoys playing an unwrapping game.
“Sometimes they Saran Wrapped a bunch of gifts and they would time, and you would have to undo the saran wrap like a big ball of Saran Wrap of gift cards,” he said, “And whenever the gift card came out as you were unrolling the Saran Wrap with the time frame, you got.”
Alfred said that he always enjoyed playing the Saran Wrap game but never really won the pickle ornament one. He said that this year his brother-in-law is going to hide the pickle.
“I think he’ll find it before we even get there,” he said.
Alfred said that he really enjoys celebrating christmas.
“I just think the holiday season is a good one. I think it’s even more interesting when we have kids,” he said.
Miss Beckman, a science teacher in Norwalk High School,
said that she has a lot of plans during the holidays.
“Over winter break I have a couple of different Christmases,” she said.
Beckman said that she celebrates Christmas with her dad’s side of the family, her immediate family and her mom’s side of her family.
“I always have Christmas with my dad’s side of the family on the 24th,” she said. “Then my immediate family on the 25th and then my mom’s side of the family like sometime during winter break.”
Beckman said that with her dad’s side of the family, she plays a fun game with her cousins.
“So with my dad’s side, we always play this game,” she said. “I think it came from Germany but where they hid a pickle ornament in the tree and then they let all of us cousins try to find the pickle ornament and then whoever found it first got an extra gift.”
Beckman said that they don’t play the game as much since they have gotten older but she always had a great time playing.
“It was fun,” she said. “I never won very often.”
Beckman said that with her mom, they always build a puzzle together on Christmas. She said that whatever puzzle she got her for Christmas they would build together.
“She’s crazy,” she said. “She loves puzzles. She’ll do the tiniest and most intricate puzzles ever and I don’t like puzzles so I usually tap out after a couple of hours.”
Beckman said that she always starts with the corner pieces and then the outlines and after that she usually lets her mom finish.
“But, yeah, they are like the crazy thousand-piece puzzles and they all look the same but it’s fun,” she said.
Beckman said that she and her family enjoy many different dishes during Christmas.
“Usually we do like some kind of soup and sandwich situation on my dad’s side and then have crab legs for my immediate family – my mom dad and brother – which is kinda weird since we live in Iowa,” she said. “And then for my mom’s side, it’s just whatever my grandma wants.”
