This particular blog and date deserves a separate entry from my regular Christmas Day Blog. Not that the entire day wasn’t special. It was. But because this is about a very special gift I got on Christmas Day from a very good friend.
We swap gifts at Christmas with our friends in Florida. She has always been the best gift shopper and always knows just exactly what you would like for Christmas. I fall short by far, but her creativity is the best in the world, in my opinion.
Our Christmas presents from them arrived in the mail a few weeks before Christmas with an e-mail telling us to look for the package, but unless I wanted my surprise to be spoiled, I shouldn’t open it until Christmas.
Christmas morning I opened the box and inside was a framed picture and a letter from her. I decided I would not look too closely at the picture, and I would read the letter after seeing what was in the box because I knew the surprise would be gone if I read the letter.
Inside the box was the most precious tea set anybody could hope to own. There were three saucers, three small plates and two cups in pastel colors. Not plastic, but the kind that were made of glass as in long time ago, nice tea sets every little girl dreams of having.
The picture was made in 1943 and was a picture of my friend, her sister and a friend of theirs all sitting at a little table with the tea set on the table. (And the table was set using a cute little child-sized tablecloth.) They were having a tea party with some of the dishes she had given me. She pointed out they were in the Sunday navy taffeta dresses , dressed for tea! Her mother had taken the picture and had documented the date on the picture, which made it even more special to me.
During the summer her mother and the two little girls would go to a rented cottage at a beach at Ocean Grove, Massachusetts where they would stay the entire summer. Their father and her Grandpa would come from the city to join them on the weekends. (What more fun could there be than to be able to afford to spend the entire summer at the beach?) She said they swam, dug clams, picked blueberries, played games and had their tea parties. (The cottage they stayed in during those summers was blown away in the hurricane of 1954.) She doesn’t know why her mother packed the tea set up that particular summer and brought it along, but she had the picture documenting the time they used it there. My friend doesn’t remember when they first got the tea set, whether it had been the Christmas before or if they had it longer.
She had heard me mention earlier that I had bought some dessert dishes that went with my Butterfly Meadow dishes from Lenox that my daughter had given me years ago when that pattern first came out. I told my friend I was planning to make those dishes special for the Little Princess and she and I would use them for our tea parties and eat from them when she came to visit after she was older. She said she had decided them she would give me that tea set for Christmas! Later she would read on this blog site that I had recently bought a little Fisher-Price tea set for Little Princess to use at her house and mine. I think she thought that might diminish the surprise or fun of giving me those dishes. I think I had already received them in the mail from her before I posted that blog. I sure am glad because I would have hated her deciding I didn’t really need the tea set from her past just because of a little plastic tea set. Never in million years would I choose plastic over those beautiful dishes she sent me!
Someday when The Little Princess can understand the concept of not knocking the dishes all over the floor, she and I can pull out the set and play with it. Maybe. Maybe not! Those dishes have at least close to 65 years on them. Maybe I’ll just keep them in a safe place and show them to her all along and tell her where they came from, show her the picture and read my friend’s special letter, and let her know someday she might inherit them. If she’s lucky.
In her closing paragraph my friend told me why she had given me the dishes and said, “I hope you will enjoy them and maybe you will think of me when (the Little Princess) comes to tea.” Oh, that goes without saying! I’ll make sure The Little Princess knows the history.
My daughter asked me if I was going to be sure to keep the letter and picture with the tea set. She had to ask? She knew the answer. She was just trying to make sure I understood the importance of keeping it all together. Of course I do.
How many times do you have a friend who would give you something that valuable? A part of her very own childhood. I, myself, am quite a bit more selfish, I think!
Thanks, my friend. That’s got to be the best Christmas present I can ever remember getting!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
New Years day – January 1, 2008
New Years day – January 1, 2008
Since some of my children don't know how to cook the necessary collard/turnip greens required for the new year, the three local kids came over for dinner tonight. (At least they contend they don't know how to cook them.)
We had a menu of: Baked ham glazed in brown sugar sauce; black-eyed peas (for good luck and plenty of change during the year) seasoned with ham; coleslaw; collard greens (for money in the coming year); pickled peaches; squash casserole; tomatoes (sweetened) for collard greens/turnips (because my son-in-law has to have something to help make the collards a little pallitable); tea; corn bread (a little too brown on the top and bottom, oops!); carrot-raisin salad (this and the coleslaw were because I had been playing with my new 11 quart Cuisinart food processor I got for Christmas.)
Mommy offered the Little Princess some collard greens. She ate maybe two of her baby sized spoonfuls without protest, but the third one wasn’t met with quite the same enthusiasm. Oh well, two out of three ain’t bad.
We happened to drive by a Goodwill store on Sunday and I saw an interesting little kitchen set in the window and thought it might be good for the Little Princess to use at my house. Instead, I found a cute heavy plastic Little Tikes rocking chair in blue and white I thought Little Princess would love to use, as well as a Fisher-Price popcorn popper that is making its way back into style from the generation of our kids. There was also a Tyco Sesame Street kitchen which I found. The original price on the kitchen was $5.02, but since it was on Sunday and a special on toys I got it for half price. The accessories were to be picked up at the cashier’s stand. As luck would have it they couldn’t find the accessories so they gave me the price of $2.00 with half price for the day being $1.00. I took it immediately because it made water running sounds when you pushed the spigot, it made a telephone ringing noise, and it had several other voices on it and I figured she would get my $1.00 worth out of it when we played with the teaset. The popcorn popper was $2.02/half price of $1.01; and the rocker full price was $4.04/half price of $2.02. It was quite a bargain for a few toys that cleaned up quite nicely.
Little Princess loved the chair as soon as she came in. She tried it out immediately. It took a little practice, but she managed to learn to get in and out of it. A seat belt would have been nice since it rocks! She was so cute when she tried to rock it. She understood the concept and kept moving forward and back because she knew she needed to go back and forth like mommy does when she rocks her. That was her favorite of the three toys, but she did like the kitchen piece also.
After dinner Little Princess found the remote control to the electric heater. She pushed every button until she finally made something work on it. She made it turn on/off, oscillate, change speeds, and everything else it does. The look on that sweet face when she realized she had made the remote work, was priceless. It was like a light bulb went off and she had made an important discovery in her world. She turned slowly around, remote still in hand and pushed every button once again, waiting as she turned to see what reaction she would get from whatever was in the line of fire. She was checking her world out once again. Of course, it didn’t make anything else in the room work, but she kept going until she had turned completely around and found the heater once again.
Another time she was trying so hard to climb up onto the sofa. As I've said many times before, she’s quite the little crawler (onto furniture, etc.) /climber. She couldn’t accomplish it, so it appeared she grabbed the plastic box her tea set is stored in and emptied it out. Her daddy thought, and it did look like it, she was trying to find something to stand on to finally climb onto the sofa. She was distracted by all the tea set pieces and everybody watching her, she never went back to climbing onto the sofa, but she definitely is learning to make her decisions and figure things out.
She climbed up onto a box next to my chair and stood straight up onto it. She has to be watched. She is such a little tomboy. Oh my, I didn't just say that! She's just an active little girl who is't frightened by anything, girl or boy things!
She loves to go to the back of the house, into the bathroom and into her room. All the lights were out in the back, but she kept trying to go back there. She finally went back and into her room without any lights to guide her and walked over to her bed. She was standing by the foot of her bed when I turned on the light. I could hardly find the room, myself. It’s almost as if she has night vision. Another time she worked her way back into the bathroom, headed for the tub. She knows her way around. She’s amazing.
Later she had the green ball in her hand and had given it to me. I thought we were playing with it, but she got irritated with me for keeping it and started fussing at me. Later I asked her if she wanted to play with me with the ball. She stopped, held onto her ball and stuck her little hand out palm out towards me as if she was telling me to “Stop, don’t come near my ball.” I don’t know where that came from. Her daddy had said before that he has seen her do that on one or two other occasions. That is not behavior she has ever seen from any of us, that I have experienced. You wonder where these things come from. They just make some of these things up as they go along, I guess.
She was so tired she would lie down on the floor with the little ball propped underneath her little head/body.
Later her mother asked her if she was ready for bed. She went over to the door to the hall, tried to open it so she could go to her room to go to bed. But first mommy had to change her diaper (dia-dia). She fought for a while, but finally gave it up and got into her pajamas. She fell asleep on the way home and then they had to wake her up to put her to bed. Such is life. Interruptions everywhere. Such a busy day for a busy little girl.
Since some of my children don't know how to cook the necessary collard/turnip greens required for the new year, the three local kids came over for dinner tonight. (At least they contend they don't know how to cook them.)
We had a menu of: Baked ham glazed in brown sugar sauce; black-eyed peas (for good luck and plenty of change during the year) seasoned with ham; coleslaw; collard greens (for money in the coming year); pickled peaches; squash casserole; tomatoes (sweetened) for collard greens/turnips (because my son-in-law has to have something to help make the collards a little pallitable); tea; corn bread (a little too brown on the top and bottom, oops!); carrot-raisin salad (this and the coleslaw were because I had been playing with my new 11 quart Cuisinart food processor I got for Christmas.)
Mommy offered the Little Princess some collard greens. She ate maybe two of her baby sized spoonfuls without protest, but the third one wasn’t met with quite the same enthusiasm. Oh well, two out of three ain’t bad.
We happened to drive by a Goodwill store on Sunday and I saw an interesting little kitchen set in the window and thought it might be good for the Little Princess to use at my house. Instead, I found a cute heavy plastic Little Tikes rocking chair in blue and white I thought Little Princess would love to use, as well as a Fisher-Price popcorn popper that is making its way back into style from the generation of our kids. There was also a Tyco Sesame Street kitchen which I found. The original price on the kitchen was $5.02, but since it was on Sunday and a special on toys I got it for half price. The accessories were to be picked up at the cashier’s stand. As luck would have it they couldn’t find the accessories so they gave me the price of $2.00 with half price for the day being $1.00. I took it immediately because it made water running sounds when you pushed the spigot, it made a telephone ringing noise, and it had several other voices on it and I figured she would get my $1.00 worth out of it when we played with the teaset. The popcorn popper was $2.02/half price of $1.01; and the rocker full price was $4.04/half price of $2.02. It was quite a bargain for a few toys that cleaned up quite nicely.
Little Princess loved the chair as soon as she came in. She tried it out immediately. It took a little practice, but she managed to learn to get in and out of it. A seat belt would have been nice since it rocks! She was so cute when she tried to rock it. She understood the concept and kept moving forward and back because she knew she needed to go back and forth like mommy does when she rocks her. That was her favorite of the three toys, but she did like the kitchen piece also.
After dinner Little Princess found the remote control to the electric heater. She pushed every button until she finally made something work on it. She made it turn on/off, oscillate, change speeds, and everything else it does. The look on that sweet face when she realized she had made the remote work, was priceless. It was like a light bulb went off and she had made an important discovery in her world. She turned slowly around, remote still in hand and pushed every button once again, waiting as she turned to see what reaction she would get from whatever was in the line of fire. She was checking her world out once again. Of course, it didn’t make anything else in the room work, but she kept going until she had turned completely around and found the heater once again.
Another time she was trying so hard to climb up onto the sofa. As I've said many times before, she’s quite the little crawler (onto furniture, etc.) /climber. She couldn’t accomplish it, so it appeared she grabbed the plastic box her tea set is stored in and emptied it out. Her daddy thought, and it did look like it, she was trying to find something to stand on to finally climb onto the sofa. She was distracted by all the tea set pieces and everybody watching her, she never went back to climbing onto the sofa, but she definitely is learning to make her decisions and figure things out.
She climbed up onto a box next to my chair and stood straight up onto it. She has to be watched. She is such a little tomboy. Oh my, I didn't just say that! She's just an active little girl who is't frightened by anything, girl or boy things!
She loves to go to the back of the house, into the bathroom and into her room. All the lights were out in the back, but she kept trying to go back there. She finally went back and into her room without any lights to guide her and walked over to her bed. She was standing by the foot of her bed when I turned on the light. I could hardly find the room, myself. It’s almost as if she has night vision. Another time she worked her way back into the bathroom, headed for the tub. She knows her way around. She’s amazing.
Later she had the green ball in her hand and had given it to me. I thought we were playing with it, but she got irritated with me for keeping it and started fussing at me. Later I asked her if she wanted to play with me with the ball. She stopped, held onto her ball and stuck her little hand out palm out towards me as if she was telling me to “Stop, don’t come near my ball.” I don’t know where that came from. Her daddy had said before that he has seen her do that on one or two other occasions. That is not behavior she has ever seen from any of us, that I have experienced. You wonder where these things come from. They just make some of these things up as they go along, I guess.
She was so tired she would lie down on the floor with the little ball propped underneath her little head/body.
Later her mother asked her if she was ready for bed. She went over to the door to the hall, tried to open it so she could go to her room to go to bed. But first mommy had to change her diaper (dia-dia). She fought for a while, but finally gave it up and got into her pajamas. She fell asleep on the way home and then they had to wake her up to put her to bed. Such is life. Interruptions everywhere. Such a busy day for a busy little girl.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007 – Christmas Day –
Somehow my original blog for this day was deleted. I tried to add a picture and didn't reduce it down and even though it indicated it had accepted it, when I went back to look at it, it was completely gone. Luckily I had kept a copy of the original blog in my Microsoft file. I've also added a little blip at the bottom which wasn't included in the original blog.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007 – Christmas Day – We met at Little Princesses's house around 12:00 so her mother and I could finish preparing our meal. Mommy had sausage balls and a new chocolate drink she had gotten from the internet called Snow chocolate?. It was good. Got to get the recipe from her so we can post it on our blog site for Little princesses' memories.Little Princess and her daddy were both fast asleep when we got there. They had all three gotten up earlier and had Santa Claus visit, then Daddy had gone to sleep when she did. His Mom came around 1:00 and he got up. He had been working quite a few days, even weeks into the early morning hours to finish Little Princesses' piece of furniture before Christmas. He didn’t get it moved up into the house but we did get a chance to see it after dinner. He did a fantastic job. They call it a book case/shelf, but it is an addition to the pieces of furniture they have in the living room that their family friend had sold them. (Everybody except Granddaddy trudged down in the rainy muck to see the new furniture. He had already seen it. I believe The Little Princess knew it was for her because she smiled the biggest smile when we were all bragging about it.)For our Christmas dinner we had the following: Broccoli Rice Casserole using the short cut recipe of Minute Rice and fixed in the microwave; butterpeas, five-cup fruit salad, macaroni and cheese, barbequed pork like Mama G. used to fix, rolls, tea, and I’m not sure what else! But it was good!We all had a nice visit later in the afternoon. The Little Princess had quite a day with her first real Christmas where she has been mobile and can enjoy it.She finally got her white bunny that we picked up from the Boyd's Bear Factory during our visit to see her Uncle, Aunt and cousins in New Jersey earlier this year.
She's had a fantastic day for her first year and she was lots of fun to watch.
ETA - At the close of the day I heard her Daddy call to me to bring the camera, quick. The three of them were in the kitchen and what should I find but the sweetheart standing in front of the refrigerator covered in white stuff, which turned out to be the White Chocolate Cocoa drink from this morning. Lucky for the Little Princess the cocoa drink had cooled much earlier in the day and it was only cold milk at that point. But nonetheless it was a sticky mess and a surprise to a little girl who was apparently trying to be helpful to mommy by pulling it out, right onto herself. Here are some pictures showing her surprise and disgust at all that sticky mess on her pretty little face. If you put your mouse arrow on the picture and click, it should bring up a larger picture for you to see.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007 – Christmas Day – We met at Little Princesses's house around 12:00 so her mother and I could finish preparing our meal. Mommy had sausage balls and a new chocolate drink she had gotten from the internet called Snow chocolate?. It was good. Got to get the recipe from her so we can post it on our blog site for Little princesses' memories.Little Princess and her daddy were both fast asleep when we got there. They had all three gotten up earlier and had Santa Claus visit, then Daddy had gone to sleep when she did. His Mom came around 1:00 and he got up. He had been working quite a few days, even weeks into the early morning hours to finish Little Princesses' piece of furniture before Christmas. He didn’t get it moved up into the house but we did get a chance to see it after dinner. He did a fantastic job. They call it a book case/shelf, but it is an addition to the pieces of furniture they have in the living room that their family friend had sold them. (Everybody except Granddaddy trudged down in the rainy muck to see the new furniture. He had already seen it. I believe The Little Princess knew it was for her because she smiled the biggest smile when we were all bragging about it.)For our Christmas dinner we had the following: Broccoli Rice Casserole using the short cut recipe of Minute Rice and fixed in the microwave; butterpeas, five-cup fruit salad, macaroni and cheese, barbequed pork like Mama G. used to fix, rolls, tea, and I’m not sure what else! But it was good!We all had a nice visit later in the afternoon. The Little Princess had quite a day with her first real Christmas where she has been mobile and can enjoy it.She finally got her white bunny that we picked up from the Boyd's Bear Factory during our visit to see her Uncle, Aunt and cousins in New Jersey earlier this year.
She's had a fantastic day for her first year and she was lots of fun to watch.
ETA - At the close of the day I heard her Daddy call to me to bring the camera, quick. The three of them were in the kitchen and what should I find but the sweetheart standing in front of the refrigerator covered in white stuff, which turned out to be the White Chocolate Cocoa drink from this morning. Lucky for the Little Princess the cocoa drink had cooled much earlier in the day and it was only cold milk at that point. But nonetheless it was a sticky mess and a surprise to a little girl who was apparently trying to be helpful to mommy by pulling it out, right onto herself. Here are some pictures showing her surprise and disgust at all that sticky mess on her pretty little face. If you put your mouse arrow on the picture and click, it should bring up a larger picture for you to see.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
The Little Princess and her mommy came over and she and I took Little Princess over to her office so Mommy could get her business license paper work turned in before the 31st of the month. She was audited this year for her hours of training. Little Princess got to go with us because she refused to take her nap. So she was fed and bused off with us. She fell asleep just before we got there and I stayed in the car with her until her mommy finished her work then we met her in the lobby for her to go up and see the people in her office.
She comes across as being very shy around people but she is far from shy. You should have seen her running around outside and then as soon as we left the building she was her usual busy-body self once again.
On the way back home we stopped by a few places and I swapped out a Christmas gift before I kept putting it off.
After that we took care of more errands before returning home. After we got back to our house Little Princess had on a wet diaper. I asked if she wanted it changed. She laid down on the mat. I asked if she would get a diaper so her mommy could change her. She got up off the mat and went over to where I keep the diapers, got one and went back and laid down. She’s smart.
She comes across as being very shy around people but she is far from shy. You should have seen her running around outside and then as soon as we left the building she was her usual busy-body self once again.
On the way back home we stopped by a few places and I swapped out a Christmas gift before I kept putting it off.
After that we took care of more errands before returning home. After we got back to our house Little Princess had on a wet diaper. I asked if she wanted it changed. She laid down on the mat. I asked if she would get a diaper so her mommy could change her. She got up off the mat and went over to where I keep the diapers, got one and went back and laid down. She’s smart.
Monday, December 24, 2007 - Christmas Cookies
**Disclaimer: Just because it ain't proper grammar, correctly spelled, or doesn't follow the rules of English 101, 102, 103, 505, whatever, doesn't make it incorrect (to me, at this particular moment of writing). This is my blog, and if you don't like my construction of sentences, my split infinitives, improper use of grammar, misplaced commas, improperly used semi-colons, etc., don't criticize. And if you happen to be an English teacher and came across my blog accidentally, please feel free to use this as the means of teaching your students the way NOT to write. If you're still offended just get your own blog, and see if you can do any better! But keep coming back, because I'm having lots of fun. I really do know better, I just ain't in the mood to do better! When you get old you just have to make sure the thoughts get written down, proper or im. Since this is mostly as a record for The Little Princess, that's all that counts. If she grows up thinking I'm uneducated, at least she'll know my thoughts, scattered or otherwise, were recorded because of her. So there!**
Recently the little Princesses' mommy decided we should spend today making Christmas cookies with the Little Princess. In preparation for this, I spent yesterday morning trying to find this cute little child-sized pink sil-pat covered rolling pin from Linens'N Things. (Just for Little Princesses' future reference, it cost $9.99 plus a tank of expensive gas!) But you're worth it!
Weeks ago, maybe even months ago, I had tried to plant the seed in Granddaddy's mind, that this would be such a darling little thing to have to use with The Little Princess when she got older and we could make cookies together. Subconsciously I was really trying to convince him that by the time she was old enough to use the little rolling pin, they wouldn't be carrying such a cute little thing anymore, and sweet Little Princess would miss out on a really fantastic experience. That usually works. All I have to do is say it is for The Little Princess and he immediately agrees with me. This time he didn't seem to catch the hint; therefore, he paid for his lack of hearing what I was saying by having to tromp all over the County and beyond trying to find that rolling pin...which we should have bought when I mentioned it...but we didn't...And he knows the rule he always tells me I should follow...buy it now while you want it, or you'll never find it...But he didn't live by that rule the first time I suggested, even practically begged him to suggest I buy it...Anyway, you understand the problem I was dealing with here.
I hadn't told The Little Princesses' mommy about it because I didn't think we would use it so soon, and I wanted it to be a surprise for her as well. Let me insert here another thing. While we were out trying to find the rolling pin (as well as something else to add to Mommy's Christmas present,) she calls on the cell phone. Granddaddy can't keep a secret no matter how hard he tries. When she asked where we were, he immediately tells her, which only makes her question more and more, why, what, etc. (As I write this, I'm beginning to realize just how much of her aunt she has in her!) I really didn't want her knowing what I was doing. I wanted to surprise her, too, as I said, but No, he has to continue talking with me doing the crazy dance with arms swinging, etc. to let him now he is to "knock it off, don't say anything!" You'd have to know him to understand how complicated this can get with him. He just keeps getting himself deeper and deeper into something he should have stayed out of to begin with. (Note to self: Whenever you leave him alone in the store, either confisicate his stupid cell phone, or contact cell phone service and see if you can have in-coming/outgoing calls from anyone but you, blocked until after you're back together again!)
Any-who, since Little Princesses' mommy later came up with the idea of establishing a tradition with Little Princess to make cookies at Christmas, so this was what caused me to set out on my search for that now elusive rolling pin. Granddaddy should have known to encourage me to get it when I first showed it to him, but no, he has to learn the hard way! And he blames me for having to run all over town! Hummph!
Back to the cookie making day.
We set up Little Princesses' high chair with a flour-dusted rolling pad, that adorable little rolling pin and some cookie dough as well as some of Grandmomma's prized cookie cutters.
(We had decided a couple of days before that since we would have to chill homemade dough it would be best to try using the bought cookie dough in a roll. Another mental note: homemade dough is probably better. Make in advance and chill. This got very soft and stuck in the cookie cutters as well as on the mats and rolling pin.)
We showed The Little Princess how to use the rolling pin and we started our cookie making adventure. She seemed to really enjoy trying to roll it out in the manner far exceeding the abilities of any other 14 month old.
She had so much fun chewing and teething on the end of that expensive rolling pin, probably as much as she did rolling out the dough.
She was covered with flour on her sweet little face, nose, clothes and anything else that was showing. (Who was supposed to be in charge of making sure the bib was in place for this child? Grandmomma can't do everything, you know! Or to use a favorite quote from my Mama, "I can't do everything and work in the mill all day, too!" What made this so funny was she never worked in the mill. Her parents did when she was younger, but not her. Where did that come from?) Oh, but I digress! Focus, Grandmomma, focus!
At one point Mommy said, "That's your cookie, Grandmomma!" My cookie was supposedly the one The Little Princess had just sneezed on! (Yep, it was captured on film!)
I don't think so, Mommy or Little Princess. That is definitely not Grandmomma's cookie. Grandmomma's very funny when it comes to eating after anyone especially one who has sneezed on the food. That cookie was set aside especially for The Little Princess. She was perfectly happy to eat her own. I think she did it on purpose! (This is the first cookie she cut out.
Oh come on. Now you know you can tell it's a Teddy Bear. After all, that's her very favorite animal at this point in her life. The dough just lost its shape because she had handled it so much.
So, Little Princess decided she would also sample Santa's cookies before leaving them for him for tonight. First the raw dough then the undressed cookies, and finally the decorated ones
There I go again, now I'm putting the ending before the beginning. But let's add some more important stuff before we finish those cookies.
Granddaddy's job was to take pictures. Her Daddy was down in the workshop finishing up the Christmas surprise for both her mommy and the Little Princess. It was my job to help Mommy get things organized and just be an assistant, whenever I could.
I turned around to make sure Granddaddy was doing his job (Yes,supervising was another of my jobs. I was a very busy woman.) and there he stands, camera hanging, draped around his neck, his mouth open, staring while The Little Princess makes her cookies. Granddaddy got so caught up in the whole cookie-making affair that he stopped making the pictures. Now who can just stand there and not get pictures of a first-time, memory-making experience such as this for a little girl? Ummm, can we say "Granddaddy"?
So that "poor granddaddy" didn't miss the real-life moments, Mommy called Little Princesses' Daddy up from the workshop to take pictures (after all, he had nothing else to do and hadn't been staying up until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning working on this project for the past few weeks. Surely he can stop and take a few hundred pictures,) and in the meantime, in order to keep from missing some great moments granddaddy was supposed to be getting, I grabbed the camera and started taking my own pictures. We only took 692? with my camera and I don't know how many her Daddy and Mommy finally took with theirs. By the way, Mommy, I need copies of those. There might be some shots that look better from Daddy's point of view!
If you look at those pictures on the computer and zip by them fast enough they look just like a movie! So funnnny. Keep that camera rolling, you might miss just the right one!
Back to Granddaddy...Oh stop it! Stop feeling so sorry for "poor granddaddy". That's why he's so difficult to handle. You people keep feeling so sorry for "poor granddaddy".
You can still capture the moment while you're looking through the lens of the camera! Oh, please! I think my granddaughter needs to give her Granddaddy some of those "focus, please, look-at-me-Granddaddy" looks she gives me!
Little Princess had a wonderful time making those cookies, and so did the rest of us. We(I) cooked them and then we decorated them after they were finished. She had plenty of patience waiting until we got them cut out, pried them from the cookie cutter, cooked and got them ready to decorate. See how alert she was during the whole thing?
She had oh so much fun helping Mommy pipe the icing out onto the cookies.
It did require some of Mommy's help since it takes a bit of pressure to get the frosting out of the bag, but Little Princess did help. She would grab a cookie as soon as Mommy frosted it for Santa, pick at the icing, and plop it into her little mouth. My what a sugar high she probably had after we left! Oh, and she had cookie dough hanging from one or both of her little ears in little tiny balls that made her ears appear to be pierced!
Oh yeah, now I remember, my other jobs were to (a) bake the cookies (in case I haven't aleady said that) , (b) take them out, (c) and clean up all that mess in the kitchen
while Little Princess and her mother disappeared to the back for a nap for Little Princess. Or at least Mommy attempted to get her down.
But before that, the funniest part was cleaning up The Little Princess. Mommy and Granddaddy were standing holding Little Princess over the trash can so Mommy could shake her off and clean her up without a lot of trouble.
Now those were precious pictures. You say Grandmomma got pictures? Of couse, as you can see above. Poor Little Princess didn't even complain. She really didn't know what they were doing, I don't think, so she just went along with it.
After all was said and done, Santa had cookies on his plate for Christmas Eve.
He must have eaten them all because the next day when we went over, there were plenty of crumbs on the table where he had devoured them!
One little footnote: Little Princess had an outbreak on her little face. Now since this was store-bought dough, I don't think it would have been from eggs in the dough. I don't think they put raw eggs in store-bought cookie dough, so there may have been something else working on her there besides the eggs.)
It was fun,
until now...
Another little thought to add here: When The Little Princess visited Santa for this years photo shoot, Mommy had envisioned her precious angel sitting nicely in his lap as she looked into his bearded face and stroked it lovingly, smiling all the while. Well, sometimes what we envision comes out a bit differently from what we get. Little Princess screamed anytime she was near Santa and those dreams fell through. However, I have to say the cookie making episode went quite well. We couldn't have asked for better. Good job, Little Princess. I was proud of you.
Even if we didn't build a single memory for The Little Princess we certainly captured a few for ourselves. It doesn't always have to be about The Little Princess, does it?
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
First, let me start out by saying today is my daughter-in-law’s birthday. Happy birthday, mother to my three precious grandsons. Hope your day is fantastic! And you’re staying warm and well! We miss you guys so much!
On December 19, 1962, also a Wednesday, my dear hubby and I started our official meeting and began our journey together. We had met before at a youth fellowship program which was held every week at our church, a large downtown church we had both become members of at different times.
He had even taken a friend and me home one night from the fellowship when my sister, who usually drove us there and back, played sick. We had walked the eleven long blocks to the church that night rather than waiting for the bus. Oh yes, I've always referred to us as definitely being street walkers, without fear of attack at that time in our lives. We actually were street walkers every night, but that’s a story for another day. (Oh, the days of innocence!)
My friend had a major crush on him and had been flirting with him for some time. I’m not sure if he even realized it or not, but he should have. She was pretty obvious. Somehow he found out we were going to have to catch the bus home that night and offered to give us a lift. That was great news to her. She immediately accepted and hopped in the front seat next to him and rather than stand on the street corner waiting for the bus by myself, I got in on the passenger side.
I’m not really even sure just how the rest of the months played out, but he wasn’t interested in my friend after all, though she still liked him.
This particular Wednesday night we had a Candlelight service at the church at the end of prayer meeting. Somehow I managed to ditch another friend of mine and my sister because for some strange unknown reason my candle kept blowing out, which meant I kept having to drop back a few people each time and someone else would light my candle. This went on for a little while until low and behold who should be there to light my candle but…yep, you guessed it! Mr. Man. Cutie Pie. Handsome.
He would tell me later that for some reason his candle kept going out but he kept heading forward to have his lit. Now isn’t that just strange? He could have just lied to me about that. I don’t know.
I know I ruined a perfectly good heavy dress coat because it was covered with candle wax from the wind and dripping wax. It would be years after we married before I would get another heavy coat to match that one, and thanks to a friend’s dog or better known as devil dog, my poor fur collar on that one was chewed up. Obviously, I had terrible luck with heavy coats. Many years later the kids came along and well, you know how that goes. No need for anything expensive at that point. You just make a mad dash out of the cold.
Anyway, an even stranger thing was his candle didn’t blow out any more and neither did mine! Hmmm. Wonder why that happened?
The rest of the story was…he asked if he could drive me home. Was I going to say no? I don’t think so. He was awfully handsome and had a really nice personality. I could enjoy being with him, I was pretty sure. At least enough to give it a try, couldn’t I? To heck with my other friend. If she hadn’t landed him by now, she probably wasn’t going to.
So, I boldly walk up to my sister and tell her, “He is going to drive me home”, to which she says with much attitude, “You came with me, you’re going home with me!” Yeah, right. See you back at the Church’s home, Sis. And I turned and walked away to his car. If she didn’t know enough about him to know he wasn’t a serial killer by now, she certainly wasn’t going to learn anything more, because she had known him much longer than I had.
When I finally went in, my sister and the friend who wasn’t interested in him, were hanging over the balcony, acting like goof balls, giggling, waiting for me to come home to a locked front door. They had had the house mother lock the doors so I couldn't get back in. No, I wasn’t really late. I think curfew was maybe 11:00 or 11:30 on week nights and not much later on weekends. (Yes, we did have curfew at the Church's home even though we were out on our own, working and paying our own rent. Those were the days when a woman's honor was protected if she lived in one of their homes.) I had made curfew, maybe not by too long, but I had made it. They were just being cute, or so they thought!
He and I had sat outside the Church’s home in his car and talked for a long time, obviously being watched like a hawk by my sister and friend. He asked me for my phone number, which I gave him. He didn’t write it down so I figured that was that, because he wouldn’t remember it. Cross him right off my list! Now I’m wondering if he didn’t already knew that number from calling other girls up there? Yep, probably did have that number memorized already.
I should have had a clue, however, because he didn’t call me again until well after Christmas and into the New Year. He was apparently too cheap to spring for a Christmas present. Now that was convenient, wasn’t it? He said he had been busy with out of town visits back home. But he did finally call and we started our long months of dating which eventually led to marriage, two children, a daughter-in-law and then a son-in-law and so far, four grandchildren.
Actually it was just nine full months that we dated, but they were as I said, full, because once we started dating he practically lived at our apartment. I did say, practically. By that time my sister and I had moved out of the Church's home and into our own little apartment in a nosey landlord's house! Couldn't get away from those protectors. I had to marry him to get him out of my sister’s way. And since he was eating almost every evening meal with us she was threatening to make me pay for his groceries, not to mention she was cooking for us all. I was a working girl and not making so much money I could pay for both of us. The only way I could make him pay for his groceries was to marry him! I told you he was cheap, didn’t I?
Happy Anniversary, Sweetie! Aren’t you lucky your candle kept going out?
On December 19, 1962, also a Wednesday, my dear hubby and I started our official meeting and began our journey together. We had met before at a youth fellowship program which was held every week at our church, a large downtown church we had both become members of at different times.
He had even taken a friend and me home one night from the fellowship when my sister, who usually drove us there and back, played sick. We had walked the eleven long blocks to the church that night rather than waiting for the bus. Oh yes, I've always referred to us as definitely being street walkers, without fear of attack at that time in our lives. We actually were street walkers every night, but that’s a story for another day. (Oh, the days of innocence!)
My friend had a major crush on him and had been flirting with him for some time. I’m not sure if he even realized it or not, but he should have. She was pretty obvious. Somehow he found out we were going to have to catch the bus home that night and offered to give us a lift. That was great news to her. She immediately accepted and hopped in the front seat next to him and rather than stand on the street corner waiting for the bus by myself, I got in on the passenger side.
I’m not really even sure just how the rest of the months played out, but he wasn’t interested in my friend after all, though she still liked him.
This particular Wednesday night we had a Candlelight service at the church at the end of prayer meeting. Somehow I managed to ditch another friend of mine and my sister because for some strange unknown reason my candle kept blowing out, which meant I kept having to drop back a few people each time and someone else would light my candle. This went on for a little while until low and behold who should be there to light my candle but…yep, you guessed it! Mr. Man. Cutie Pie. Handsome.
He would tell me later that for some reason his candle kept going out but he kept heading forward to have his lit. Now isn’t that just strange? He could have just lied to me about that. I don’t know.
I know I ruined a perfectly good heavy dress coat because it was covered with candle wax from the wind and dripping wax. It would be years after we married before I would get another heavy coat to match that one, and thanks to a friend’s dog or better known as devil dog, my poor fur collar on that one was chewed up. Obviously, I had terrible luck with heavy coats. Many years later the kids came along and well, you know how that goes. No need for anything expensive at that point. You just make a mad dash out of the cold.
Anyway, an even stranger thing was his candle didn’t blow out any more and neither did mine! Hmmm. Wonder why that happened?
The rest of the story was…he asked if he could drive me home. Was I going to say no? I don’t think so. He was awfully handsome and had a really nice personality. I could enjoy being with him, I was pretty sure. At least enough to give it a try, couldn’t I? To heck with my other friend. If she hadn’t landed him by now, she probably wasn’t going to.
So, I boldly walk up to my sister and tell her, “He is going to drive me home”, to which she says with much attitude, “You came with me, you’re going home with me!” Yeah, right. See you back at the Church’s home, Sis. And I turned and walked away to his car. If she didn’t know enough about him to know he wasn’t a serial killer by now, she certainly wasn’t going to learn anything more, because she had known him much longer than I had.
When I finally went in, my sister and the friend who wasn’t interested in him, were hanging over the balcony, acting like goof balls, giggling, waiting for me to come home to a locked front door. They had had the house mother lock the doors so I couldn't get back in. No, I wasn’t really late. I think curfew was maybe 11:00 or 11:30 on week nights and not much later on weekends. (Yes, we did have curfew at the Church's home even though we were out on our own, working and paying our own rent. Those were the days when a woman's honor was protected if she lived in one of their homes.) I had made curfew, maybe not by too long, but I had made it. They were just being cute, or so they thought!
He and I had sat outside the Church’s home in his car and talked for a long time, obviously being watched like a hawk by my sister and friend. He asked me for my phone number, which I gave him. He didn’t write it down so I figured that was that, because he wouldn’t remember it. Cross him right off my list! Now I’m wondering if he didn’t already knew that number from calling other girls up there? Yep, probably did have that number memorized already.
I should have had a clue, however, because he didn’t call me again until well after Christmas and into the New Year. He was apparently too cheap to spring for a Christmas present. Now that was convenient, wasn’t it? He said he had been busy with out of town visits back home. But he did finally call and we started our long months of dating which eventually led to marriage, two children, a daughter-in-law and then a son-in-law and so far, four grandchildren.
Actually it was just nine full months that we dated, but they were as I said, full, because once we started dating he practically lived at our apartment. I did say, practically. By that time my sister and I had moved out of the Church's home and into our own little apartment in a nosey landlord's house! Couldn't get away from those protectors. I had to marry him to get him out of my sister’s way. And since he was eating almost every evening meal with us she was threatening to make me pay for his groceries, not to mention she was cooking for us all. I was a working girl and not making so much money I could pay for both of us. The only way I could make him pay for his groceries was to marry him! I told you he was cheap, didn’t I?
Happy Anniversary, Sweetie! Aren’t you lucky your candle kept going out?
December 18, 2007 - I have a picture…
Of the little Analyzer taken at the beach just prior to his first birthday. He is squatting down, looking at the sand as it runs slowly through his tiny fingers and he closely examines his new-found toy. I love this picture of him.
It shows his true personality from the very beginning of his early years. As I’ve said before, he is a child who carefully examines everything, and thinks it through carefully. He is such a smart little boy, or now I must say young boy because he celebrates his eighth birthday today.
It’s so hard to believe he has grown so much in such a short time. It seems just yesterday his Daddy was attending his Aunt’s graduation from college. Since her due date was so close, his Mother was home with her mother and sister just counting what was hopefully, the hours when he would come.
After the graduation exercise, his Daddy came back by the house to drop us off on his way home and just as he was pulling out of the driveway, our telephone rang and it was his Grammy wanting to know if his Daddy was still there. He needed to come to the hospital because they had already taken Mommy in and the new baby boy should be here before long. They had found out months earlier that he was going to be a little boy.
So his Daddy left our house for the hospital with instructions from us to call us as soon as there was news. We decided it would be better for us to stay home and wait for the news, to keep down a little bit of confusion.
Sometime after 5:00 a.m. Saturday morning his Daddy called and told us we had our first grandson. A handsome, huge baby boy. Granddaddy and I went down later in the morning to meet our little prize for the first time.
There’s nothing quite like seeing your first grandchild for the very first time, unless it’s seeing your second, third and fourth grandchild for the first time. Miracles never cease. And babies are just that. Miracles. The joy doesn’t lessen one bit no matter how many you’ve welcomed into the world. They are each precious and loved one as much as the other.
It was such an awesome experience looking into the nursery and seeing that handsome little blonde-headed miracle as he appeared to be trying so hard to escape from that bassinet. As I said earlier, he was a big boy. Not fat, but he was a long and big healthy looking little boy. We knew that baby in that nursery was ours. He was the most wonderful little baby in that whole hospital that day. That long leg was extended, trying hard to get out of that bassinet, and he was really crying. He looked exactly like he was trying to escape. He had life to explore, and he didn’t want it passing him by.
All those other little babies in the nursery looked so tiny. Ours was filled-out and just perfect, active in every way. I smile now when I think about seeing him for the first time. I hope I never forget our grandbabies making their entrance into this world.
My message to you my sweet grandson: You’ve been so much fun watching as you’ve grown into a more mature young boy. I can’t wait to see how much more you grow over the years. You’ve made us proud to have you for a grandson. May you have many, many wonderful, successful years ahead of you. I’m sure you will. Happy Birthday, sweetie. Granddaddy and I both love you, Little Analyzer.
It shows his true personality from the very beginning of his early years. As I’ve said before, he is a child who carefully examines everything, and thinks it through carefully. He is such a smart little boy, or now I must say young boy because he celebrates his eighth birthday today.
It’s so hard to believe he has grown so much in such a short time. It seems just yesterday his Daddy was attending his Aunt’s graduation from college. Since her due date was so close, his Mother was home with her mother and sister just counting what was hopefully, the hours when he would come.
After the graduation exercise, his Daddy came back by the house to drop us off on his way home and just as he was pulling out of the driveway, our telephone rang and it was his Grammy wanting to know if his Daddy was still there. He needed to come to the hospital because they had already taken Mommy in and the new baby boy should be here before long. They had found out months earlier that he was going to be a little boy.
So his Daddy left our house for the hospital with instructions from us to call us as soon as there was news. We decided it would be better for us to stay home and wait for the news, to keep down a little bit of confusion.
Sometime after 5:00 a.m. Saturday morning his Daddy called and told us we had our first grandson. A handsome, huge baby boy. Granddaddy and I went down later in the morning to meet our little prize for the first time.
There’s nothing quite like seeing your first grandchild for the very first time, unless it’s seeing your second, third and fourth grandchild for the first time. Miracles never cease. And babies are just that. Miracles. The joy doesn’t lessen one bit no matter how many you’ve welcomed into the world. They are each precious and loved one as much as the other.
It was such an awesome experience looking into the nursery and seeing that handsome little blonde-headed miracle as he appeared to be trying so hard to escape from that bassinet. As I said earlier, he was a big boy. Not fat, but he was a long and big healthy looking little boy. We knew that baby in that nursery was ours. He was the most wonderful little baby in that whole hospital that day. That long leg was extended, trying hard to get out of that bassinet, and he was really crying. He looked exactly like he was trying to escape. He had life to explore, and he didn’t want it passing him by.
All those other little babies in the nursery looked so tiny. Ours was filled-out and just perfect, active in every way. I smile now when I think about seeing him for the first time. I hope I never forget our grandbabies making their entrance into this world.
My message to you my sweet grandson: You’ve been so much fun watching as you’ve grown into a more mature young boy. I can’t wait to see how much more you grow over the years. You’ve made us proud to have you for a grandson. May you have many, many wonderful, successful years ahead of you. I’m sure you will. Happy Birthday, sweetie. Granddaddy and I both love you, Little Analyzer.
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