Having a day care means getting to celebrate Christmas with children, years after your own are grown.
Donna Ross of Moran has been watching area children for more than 40 years. Each year at Christmastime, the children enjoy a big party. They exchange names and each brings a gift to give to another. Donna also gives each a gift.
They play games, do arts and crafts projects, and enjoy refreshments. Parents also join in on the fun.
“We are a little family here. For the kids that come here, these are like their brothers and sisters,” Donna said.
“During COVID, when they couldn’t be together, they missed each other so much.”
Donna is licensed to watch 10 children. Three attend school during the day, and three more leave at noon. That means she has just four in the afternoons, which is a quieter time.
“It keeps you young,” she said of watching the children.
“They are the funniest little people.”
About 10 years ago, she tried to count how many children she has watched. She surpassed 100 before giving up.
Often, children come to her day care as infants and stay until middle school age, around 12. That means there isn’t a lot of turnover, but after 40 years, she’s taken care of quite a few youngsters in the area.
She still keeps in touch with some of them.
“My first day-care kid is now 45 and a teacher in western Kansas,” she said, exhibiting the same kind of pride as talking about her own children.
AND SPEAKING of her own children, Donna remembers how special Christmas was for them, as well.
“There were nights I’d have to stay up all night, waiting for my kids to go to sleep because they were so excited for Santa to come,” she recalled. “I don’t think they ever understood why Mommy was exhausted, but I wanted to keep that magic going for as long as I could.”
Daughter Brandie McQueen and her husband, Nick, live in Lindsborg, where she is a physician recruiter for Salina Regional Health Center. Son Chris Barker and his wife, Amy, live in Manhattan with their four children Mason, Emma, Kate and Lucy. He is a youth pastor at Faith Manhattan.
Donna remembers one particular Christmas about 40 years ago, when Cabbage Patch dolls were popular and her daughter was around the age of 5.
“She wanted a Cabbage Patch doll and you couldn’t get them anywhere,” Donna said. “She was so serious. She was being good. She thought Santa would bring her one.”
Worried that Santa wouldn’t be able to find one of the dolls, Donna set about making one. She stayed up late every night to work on it.
