An extract from Emma Eberlein Kriewaldt’s diaries:

“[Father] saw to it each year that we children had a tree and when mother sometimes protested because she was already so overloaded with household cares and duties, he simply said that he would trim the tree himself and that settled the manner. Mother was silenced and we had our tree and papa did not trim it either.

The same way at Easter time. We always had our colored eggs and how pleased father was when he could take his little flock out to the barn and watch them hunt their Easter eggs. How he used to laugh when one of the youngsters discovered his nest which he had carefully prepared out of moss and leaves several days before, discovered it, and full of beautiful eggs. I honestly believe that he enjoyed it more than us. Dear Father! And now he is resting these five years beneath the sod.”

Source: Emma Eberlein Kriewaldt’s diaries, entry for 20 December 1901, on pages 124-125 of the transcription prepared by Ernie Kriewaldt.