Category Archives: family

A new tradition at Christmas

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This year my husband Alan and I were able to spend Christmas with our grandchildren. While driving to their home which takes us about 5 1/2 hours, my grandddaughter Ivie ( eldest) texted me on my phone.She  asked me when would we arrive at her home. I know our daughter, son in law, and our granddaughters were excited we were coming to spend Christams with them. Alan and I were just as excited. We always have a fun time together.

Traveling in car  brought back many memories of when I was a child, and my grandparents lived far away. My grandparentss would come for Thanksgiving and would stay until New Year day. The holidays were so exciting having them spend time  with me. My grandmother made a large variety of cookies. And when we became adult, she would give us our own box of selected candy and cookies along with canned cherries, peaches, applesauce and salmon. My grandparents lived near fruit orchards and they loved fishing. They did all their own  canning. We all looked forward to our own Christmas goody box.

I did continue the tradition on a smaller scale, by making 4 different kinds of cookies, pumpkin bread with orange frosting and 1 candy. When we arrived my granddaughters were so excited to see all the goodies I had made.

While shopping  a few weeks prior at  Trader Joe’s (a specialty market) a large precooked gingerbread man. I thought it would be fun to decorate this cookie. I bought 4 cookies for us girls to decorate, I figured my husband and son in law would not mind not participating in this activity.

I purchased all types of shapes of candy to decorate.  My granddaughter Bailey and I sat down and drew out a designs on paper  of what we wanted our cookie to look like and coming up with different ideas. My granddaughters were so excited. On Christmas day we decorated our gingerbread man. I made my gingerbread a Girl, Erin’s was a Hawaiian girl, Bailey’s was a colorful Snowman, and Ivie’s was a Hippy!

It was fun creating a new tradition together. Did you create a new tradition?

 

 

Remote Grandma using social media!

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Our  granddaughters are  involved with ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop and lyrical dancing. Living out of state it’s difficult to observing them in dance classes and seeing their progress.This is when I wished I lived close to them . It’s fun being involved with my granddaughter’s interest, plus they feel such pride when I come to their performances.

This past fall, Ivie (eldest granddaughter) auditioned for a ballet part in the “Snow Queen” and was  selected as a dancing flower. Every Sunday afternoon Ivie’s mom would drove her to the rehearsals. I give my daughter and son in law  a lot of credit,   driving 45 minutes one way  to rehearsal.

Ivie’s personal time was so limited with school, dance and the  additional dance rehearsals. This was the first time Ivie and I had very little communications with each other.  I wanted to stay in touch, so I begun  posting on Ivie’s wall on Facebook to keep up with how she was doing. She responded to my messages and we were able to keep connected and up to date.

Two weeks ago my husband and I went to see  Ivie performance in  Snow Queen. She played a part as a dancing flower.This performance had professional dancers and amateurs like my granddaughter. They had makeup artists to apply their makeup and beautiful costumes. The performance was at Herbert Hall in downtown Phoenix. A remodeled stage, small but pretty inside. We enjoyed seeing Ivie performance and she was so proud we were there.

I have found when kids get older, you must find what their way of communicating is  to stay connected. So now when I am on Facebook I post a comment on her wall and she always replies. Stay connected it’s worth it!

 

 

 

 

Why we are thankful!

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This year we were able to spend Thanksgiving together. So many families have their children living out of state and are unable to spend the holiday together. Since our daughter has been in the service, I can count a handful of times we were able to spend our Thanksgiving together.  i can tell you we really appreciate our time together.We had so much fun preparing our Thanksgiving dinner.

Ivie and Bailey helped me make the pumpkin pies. I make the crust from scratch from a recipe my grandmother gave me. I doubled the pie crust recipe, so we could make a separate crust with butter and cinnamon and sugar . This we baked separately, with no pie filing, just to eat. My grandmother use to make this when I was a child. Ivie and Bailey could not wait to eat the crust the made. I hate to think about how many calories I ate that day!

I hope you were able to spend time with your family