19 kids from age 3 to 15, 6 adults and apple peels, chains, popcorn strings, cranberries on a thread ............just what you need to decorate a tree for the Old Stone House.
Geneva United Methodist Church has a Sunday School with 23 children that attend regularly. That is exciting news for a small town! Even more exciting, they volunteered to make the decorations and then decorate the trees for Christmas at the Old Stone House. 
We told stories of what living in the house in the 1850's would have been like. They probably spent the first winter living in the basement. It's got a dirt floor, low ceiling and is cold. The kids have homes with finished basements and just imagining what that winter would have been like in the Old Stone House made them grateful for what they have.
We explained why the bed had ropes in it. Mattresses were material covers stuffed with straw, hay, feathers, whatever they could find and placed on top of the ropes that were woven into the bed frame. They may have changed the bedding only once or twice a year - and it probably had bugs in it. Then the ropes were tightened so the bed would not sag. The old saying "sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite" really meant something!
Our Historical Tour of Homes is this coming weekend, and we feel honored to have our local children involved in the process. Thank you Geneva!
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