Winter brought its hardships and pleasures. We prepared the buildings as much as we could for winter storms and covered all cellar windows with straw. The cattle had to be watered at the watering trough and usually the ice on top had to be chopped with an ice pick to get to the water. But the hardships were offset by the pleasures of winter. Snow meant bobsled riding, and ice on the creek meant skating. The dam made a wonderful place to skate. We would build a fire and skate, then come back and congregate around the fire. Sometimes there would be as many as fifty skating. They would walk from West Lebanon and Girty, boys and girls, and skate until ten, then all were off for home. The young people would get up a sled load, and some farmer would donate a team (mostly my father) and off to some home for taffy pulling or to play Charades or Skip to My Lou. Everyone had a good time and little money spent. The two local churches were German Reformed and German Lutheran, and these folk had brought the Christmas tree habit from Germany. One of other of the churches always had a tall fir tree towering to the ceiling and covered with real candles, which were lighted with a candle tied to the end of a long pole. They always put on a program of Christmas carols, and we attended all of them. Before the program began the sexton lighted the up the tree and what a thrilling sight that was, as we never had one at home. With such a big family, we would have had no room for it. Presents were taken for the children, and after the end of the program, they were distributed by Santa Claus (usually Will Shutte), who appeared from a cardboard chimney. How exciting to have your name read out for a gift. They had a lot of real good singers in those days, and I think there was more singing in groups than today. Then there was the cutting of ice and filling of ice houses. At first they cut the ice by hand with a crosscut saw, then later we had an ice cutter hauled by a horse. The ice was often as thick as two feet above the dam. We could drive the horses onto the ice and load the sled, often filling the ice house in one day. The ice house was built with double walls with sawdust between, then the ice blocks were packed in sawdust. As the ice house got emptier in the summer, it got to be more of a chore to dig out the blocks, so we located them by pushing a post digger down through the sawdust until we struck ice.