A Very Verbout Christmas

Written by Kari Sundberg, Eagle Editor

This is a special Christmas story about one family who came together over the holidays to recreate some timeless memories in a familiar old farmhouse. 

The children and grandchildren of Robert and Mary Ann Verbout gathered to celebrate one last Christmas in the old house that built them – a house that will soon be moved off the farm.

Sitting just outside of Grygla, is the old farmstead of Robert and Mary Ann Verbout, who originally bought the property in May of 1957 and resided there until 2010. (The couple then moved to Valley Home in Thief River Falls following Mary Ann’s heart surgery.) Robert passed away in 2012; Mary Ann in 2018. 

Their granddaughter, Alisha Anderson, along with her husband, Robbie, and their kids, now reside on the farm, just having built a beautiful new home after living in the old farmhouse for a few years first. The old house will soon be moved to rural Grygla, with another family able to create some new memories in it and make it their own, but first, Alisha wanted one last Christmas for old time’s sake. She had many memories of growing up and celebrating a big Christmas at her grandparent’s house and decided to get the ball rolling one last time.

The following interview was conducted with Alisha Anderson, who is the daughter of John Verbout. 

First, let’s start with the timeline of you moving into your grandparent’s house and how that came to be:

Robbie and I moved back to Grygla in June of 2018. We weren’t sure where we wanted to live yet or where we wanted our kids to go to school. We were living with my dad until we sold our house in Duluth. Our house sold in December of 2018, but we still weren’t quite sure where we wanted to call home. 

Call it fate, but the person renting my grandparent’s house at the time decided to move back to his hometown, so the house was open for us at the right time. We moved into my grandparent’s house on Thanksgiving weekend; I was able to tell my grandma we were moving in before she passed. 

While living here, both Robbie and I were pulled back into small town life. The simplicity and slowness of rural living was a breath of fresh air and my grandparent’s yard was home for me; I couldn’t imagine going anywhere else. A few job changes occurred in our favor, and we made the decision to build across the yard after exceedingly vetting the idea of remodeling and adding onto my grandparent’s house. We moved into our new home mid-July of this year, 2021.

And your grandparent’s old house will soon be moving off the farm?

Yes. My hope was that we could find someone who could put the house to good use, and I’m so happy that it will be. It will be heading east to a farmstead in rural Grygla.

Let’s dive into where the idea for “A Very Verbout Christmas” began:

Ever since I had my own Christmas in that house when my family moved in on Thanksgiving weekend in 2018, I have wanted to have a big family Christmas again. My Grandma passed away a week after we moved in, so it was a very emotional and sentimental time for me. Family time, traditions, and making memories are important to me. 

While we were living in my grandparent’s house, different cousins would come over to visit and we would all talk about all the memories we had growing up, many of them involving Christmas Eve. I love hearing all the stories that my aunts, uncles, and cousins have to offer. My dad is the third youngest of the 11 siblings so there are a lot of things he doesn’t remember or has a different point of view on due to his age. Similarly, as one of the younger cousins, there were things we never got to experience or didn’t pay attention to since we were so little, so it’s fun to hear things we didn’t catch on to due to our age at the time.

My dad’s youngest sister creates these cute short Christmas videos that she and her son put together. This year, she gathered old photos of childhood Christmas celebrations and put them in a video with Lynn Anderson’s “Ding-A-Ling the Christmas Bell” playing in the background. It tugged at a lot of heartstrings, and I responded to her text saying how precious the video was and that I felt so bad as I’ve had this idea of one last Christmas in Grandma and Grandpa’s house but have been too busy to even think about organizing it. My aunt took it from there and said, “We have to do this, our family loves Christmas, it is last minute, but we’ll make it work and we’ll make it great!” 

And actually, it worked out best this year as the house was empty and provided more room for us to create the most nostalgic atmosphere!

Has it been a long time since the whole Verbout family gathered for Christmas? 

It has been a very long time. The last time Grandma and Grandpa hosted Christmas Eve was in 2002, I believe. Each year they’d host Christmas Eve for whoever could come, knowing that it might be the in-laws turn that year so not everyone would be there. We have all gathered since for weddings and funerals, however, not even then do we get everyone at one time due to there being so many of us. Grandma and Grandpa had 11 kids (8 girls and 3 boys) and 29 grandchildren. 

Was your grandparent’s house the traditional gathering place when they both still lived there? 

Yes, you always knew you had a place to go on Christmas Eve as my grandma loved having a houseful. As the years passed, it became more and more stressful, however, I know as a mother myself, there was probably nothing better than as many of her kids as possible all together under one roof for one night of the year.  

“A Very Verbout Christmas” took place on the farm on December 29th. Was everyone able to make it?

10 out of 11 of my grandparent’s children were able to attend, 13 of 29 grandchildren, and 23 of 44 great grandchildren. We had 58 people packed in my grandparent’s house that night and it sounded just like it used to: full of laughter, chaos, and thuds from upstairs as the little ones played. Some had never met each other before but they all played together as if they knew each other forever. 

Take us into the house that night you all gathered: 

We had all the traditional food, drink, and goodies that my grandma and aunts used to make on Christmas Eve. My aunts decorated with old pictures and décor that used to be present at Christmas Eve celebrations, complete with a real Charlie Brown Christmas tree decorated with bulbs from their time-period. All other décor was stuff that was familiar to all of us from our visits to Grandma’s house. 

We tried to give everyone an experience as if nothing had changed. 

One year, my grandpa gave my grandma a record player for Christmas, so my aunt had a record player set up playing old vinyl’s of Lynn Anderson and Buck Owen’s Christmas classics, which prompted some waltzing in the living room. 

We had our traditional sleigh ride, one for the whole family, even though it was bitterly cold, and one for us older cousins and some aunts to push each other off one more time. Once again, there was a bottleneck to get out the door to the sleigh ride, a few gloves were sent home with the wrong people, and we lost a boot along the way. We had a piñata for all the great grandchildren just like we always had growing up too. My aunt orchestrated a “Verbout Family Feud” which was a fun way to test each other on traditions they all had. There were many laughs during this game and of course, the noise level in the whole house increased dramatically! 

Finally, my aunt worked hard to give all her 10 siblings a “Santa” gift. This was a memorable gift from their childhood or something she remembered her siblings playing with a lot. Each gift was from its vintage year, and it was just really special of her to go out of her way to find and remember 10 special items that most remembered. 

What is your own favorite Christmas memory in your grandparent’s house?

My favorite Christmas memories include the annual sleigh ride after the meal. We’d all put on our winter gear and hop on what I remember as an old rickety sleigh pulled by my grandpa’s equally rickety tractor. Cousins of all ages and some aunts and uncles would be piled on this nighttime sleigh ride. We’d all push each other off and run to catch up to the sleigh to hop back on. 

Another memory I have is what the house sounded like on Christmas Eve with everyone packed in there. We are a loud family, and everyone wants to get their voice heard, which in turn makes the whole event much louder. I was often brought back to that familiar sound while living there these past 3 years during birthday parties for my kids. The noise of kids playing upstairs along with constant chatter and laughter downstairs brought me right back to Christmas Eve. We would always have Santa Clause come and he would give us presents, sometimes actual presents and sometimes half empty can of peanuts. 

Finally, I remember all of us cousins going down to the basement for the piñata. 

What did it feel like to move your own family into that house for a few years?

Living in my grandparent’s house for just shy of 3 years was really special to me. I was able to have 3 extra Christmases, several birthday parties, and bring my 3rd baby home to that house. I worked from home during the pandemic and due to lack of space, my office was right in the living room in front of the picture window, the same place you could find my grandpa sitting most days watching the cars go by. I made many pots of soup on that stove, just like my grandma did for us; we always knew there’d be chicken dumpling soup at hunting season. 

I had several cousins and some uncles over during our stay there so I was able to do a lot of memory and story swapping that probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise. I also found out why Grandpa made my grandma sleep closest to the wall, someone had to block the draft from the north wind when it blew!

It sounds like it was “A Very Verbout Christmas” indeed!

Preparing for this Christmas celebration with my aunts and my dad is something I’ll always treasure. Hearing their memories and getting to partake in the traditional Christmas preparation is an experience I would have never had otherwise. 

Moving back has been one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. I wouldn’t trade the experiences I’ve had or that my kids have gotten since moving back for anything.