Curtiss, December 26th 1895.

Dear brother!

It has been a long time since I wrote to you, but now at Christmas, I will send you some words. For you siblings it may have seemed that I would never write again. Still I have thought of it often, but nothing ever became of it. As I said, it is Christmas, and with it memories of times gone by, celebrating Christmas at home together with parents and siblings. In my mind I see Gausdal and everything as it was, and yet I know much has changed since I left. So many have died, and many of those who were children then have grown up now. I will tell you how we are doing. We are all in good health and doing well. We had a pleasant Christmas Eve. We had done a tree for the children. We decorated it with apples, candy, candles and lots of other little things for the children. They ran around the tree and were happy. Children look forward to Christmas here too, but not like Norwegian children, as children here are more used to goodies all the time.
I just remembered I haven't written to you since I had Paul. And he is good, so Axel and Marie look after him while I'm out milking. I am mainly without a maid. I had a maid for a while this summer, but then I had three Americans who bought their food from me. That would have been too much work for me on my own, as they are used to high quality. I have six cows and three yearlings, and then we have two horses. This summer we had four pigs, but now we have slaughtered two. We only have two sheep now. But then I have a whole lot of chickens. We had a good year this year. And we had a steam-driven threshing machine for the threshing this fall. We have had a mild winter until now. The ground has been bare until just before Christmas Eve. Then it started snowing at night and we had a lot of snow. The weather is a lot colder now too, so we will soon have full winter.
I wish to tell you what I bought for the money Father and Mother left me. I bought a sewing machine and a chest of drawers for them. Both pretty and useful things, and even though these things have never been in contact with Father and Mother, I still have them to remember them by. I often wonder how you siblings are doing, as it has been a long time since I received any letters. I suppose you, Kristian, are still unmarried, but maybe you have a girlfriend? You must tell me that when you write. And you must tell me how each of the other siblings is doing. I hope you will write to me soon and tell me lots of news from Gausdal, as it has been such a long time since I heard from there. Give my greetings to Hjelkerhaugen. And you must greet Anders and his children and Johan and Marte. I would have liked to visit you all this Christmas, but the road is too long, so I must postpone it for now. Finally my most sincere greetings to you, Kristian, from me, your sister Randi Rued.

Mathias also sends greetings. Live well. Write soon.