Christmas & Grandma Jean

Each year Christmas becomes more fun as Abi “gets it” a little more every year. She was really excited about Santa coming this year and loved baking cookies. Whenever we asked her what she wanted for Christmas she would always say something different and usually she just named something she had just played with or that she could see in the room. But I think my favorite request was that she wanted Santa to bring her a basket of eggs. What? Wrong holiday kid. I taught her a few Christmas songs and she loved watching Polar Express, Elf, Rudolf and Frosty. Madi, of course, has no clue what is happening, but she was a big fan of opening presents.

Christmas is hands down my favorite time of year. I love the decorations, the music, the movies, the baking, the crafts and spending time with family. But here’s my confession about Christmas: sometimes I hate it. It seems like we’re flooded with Christmas as soon as the Halloween candy has been passed out. No one even talks about Thanksgiving anymore. We are blessed to have a lot of family close to us. But sometimes it gets to be overwhelming. We went to EIGHT Christmas parties/gift exchanges/gatherings, whatever you want to call them. And that’s after we skipped one, one was postponed and one is this weekend.  We have so many people to buy gifts for. And so many people buy gifts for us. We are grateful beyond measure for the generous people in our lives. But our small house can only hold so much stuff. Our kids only need so much stuff. And that’s what it starts to feel like Christmas is about. Stuff. Not Christ. No giving to those without.

We try to reduce. But we don’t want to miss seeing our families and friends. And after five straight days of cookies, candy, an abundance of gifts, no naps and no routines we are left with two very tired, very cranky, and seemingly ungrateful kids because they just doubled the amount of stuff they own in a few days time.

We try to make Christmas about Christ. This year I made my own advent calendar. Each day Abi opened an envelope and instead of a piece of candy or another small toy that will just turn into clutter, there was scripture for us to read and a small activity for us to do as a family like do a puzzle, make hot chocolate, drive around and look for Christmas lights, etc. The girls had their own nativity scene to play with and we discussed the Christmas story pretty much daily.

We try to make Christmas about giving. We picked a child from the giving tree at church and Abi helped pick out clothes and toys for him. We tried to explain not every child is as lucky as she is to get lots of presents. I don’t think she really understood, but she’s still only three. Abi and I rang the salvation army bell with some friends. Again, we tried to explain what the money would be used for. She rang her bell with gusto for about five minutes and then proclaimed she was ready to go home. And again, she’s three.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking Abi must have gotten a ton of amazing presents and that she would have a lot of trouble picking her favorite. Her new sled? New stable? Stroller? Craft supplies? Monsters University? No to all. Her favorite gift? Chapstick.   

We are beyond blessed and made lots of wonderful memories.



the bell ringers



This year Abi and I made eight pans of homemade cinnamon rolls....mmmmmm.



cookie decorating

 



more cookies!

 

 

Christmas cuties





We actually had Christmas Day at our house on the 23rd. We wanted to
be able to open presents and just enjoy the day without having anywhere to go.
Plus the girls don't know the difference. It was great.



the aftermath




trying out her new shopping cart

 

fireman costume!



Santa brought Madi her own reading chair

 

Abi got the Playmobil horse stable from Grandma & Grandpa. It's super cute
but has lots of tiny pieces. So adam built her this table so she could keep in set up in
the office and away from Madi. She thinks its so cool to go in there by herself and play.




Christmas night at Dan & Jans. All the kids were wiped out.
Popcorn and a movie it is.



love these two



so sweet





The "babies." Stuffing their faces. Per usual.



Christmas Eve Mass



The best out of several attempts to photograph four adorable coordinating
kids under 3 years old at 9:30pm.



Mom gave each of the girls an apple juice in their stockings. And I realized Madi
had never had juice before. We let her have it and she was a big fan. She guzzled the
whole thing in about one minute!



new snow boots





Then three days after Christmas my Great-Grandma Jean passed away. She would have been 94 this month.  She lived a very long and very happy life. Her health had been failing the past few years and I’m glad that she is no longer in pain. And that she and Grandpa Homer are together again. My Grandma Jean, she was a special lady. She and Grandpa Homer were married over 65 years before he passed away. She was a farmer’s wife. If you know any farmers you know what that says about her. She has four daughters, eight grandchildren, fifteen great grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren (Abi & Madi). Being part of five generations is such a rare and special treasure. It makes me so sad to think my girls probably won’t have any memories of her. They asked for people to share memories at her funeral, but I just couldn’t get my thoughts together enough.

Whenever we came to visit Grandma Jean would always have a snack for us. She always gave us cranberry juice and graham crackers. I could never eat those two things without thinking of her. If we were lucky enough to go at meal time you could count on chicken and dumplins. The best.

Once when I was about eight years old (I think) we were at a wedding, or a dance or something. I can’t remember. But people were dancing. I looked out on the dance floor and all of a sudden there were Grandma Jean and Grandpa Homer dancing. Square dancing. And they were good. And they were smiling and laughing, but taking it pretty seriously at the same time. I asked my mom about it and she told me that they used to do square dancing competitions and would even wear matching outfits. I was so shocked. Shocked in the way kids are to learn the adults they love have other sides to them than the ones they know. Like when I would run into students at the store and they would ask why I wasn’t at school. I remember watching them and thinking, “wow, I didn’t know old people could have fun together.” They were probably in their 60’s at the time. I still think about that as an example of how important it is to enjoy life with your spouse. There is no doubt that helped sustain their love for 65 years.

Her funeral was New Year’s Eve in the morning. Not exactly the way you want to ring in the new year. We had plans that evening (which you’ve already read about) and I didn’t know if I would even be able to enjoy myself. But Adam said he didn’t think Grandma Jean would want me to not have fun because of her. And he was right. I never heard her say a bad thing about anyone. She was an example of Christ to anyone who knew her. She always took time to talk with everyone and to write a special note in cards. I consider myself so blessed to have had a great grandma until I was almost thirty. You will be greatly missed, Grandma Jean.



Madi and Grandma Jean last Thanksgiving




Five generations