Holiday Magic

Well, everyone has gone home...everything that was leftover is in the freezer (deserts) or in the trash...everything else.  Every slice of bread was enjoyed and every dish came out of the oven done and timed right.  It's a minor miracle every year.  I have two burns that I must have got in the last minute frenzy to get everything out before we gathered to say grace.  Once the food is on the table and everyone sits down to eat, I breathe a sigh of relief.  I'm sure that sigh is heard in kitchens all across the US.  It's also a sigh of thankfulness.  Look at all we have...not the food,  but the people.  My brothers and their wives.  My nieces and nephews. Our little bird, so much love and fun!  My husband, the best... a seasoned pro with his electric knife. (The first year I thought we'd
never eat;-) Our children, kids no more.

Our daughter, a Mom to be, and Doug, her partner and dad to be... our sons, good, kind hearts and Jon's Charlotte, a sweetheart.  It's worth all the work and worry, the time and the money spent, just to be together.  It's such a gift!

I took about 5 photos, a few more than I took last year...just too much to do to remember!

I'm  finding some serenity in my new role as a Grandma to be.  I can't change the fact that this baby will be born in NY and not here in Chicagoland.  I never strayed from home or my family. When we married we lived across the street from my parents...but that is not the reality of Kristen's life. We'll stay close with the technology available to us.  I saw her belly bump first on face time, and we are a phone call away.  While Kris was here I shared with her a record album called...Relax, Here's Your Baby. (Anyone go to class with Margaret Gamper, back in the day?) I used it when I was pregnant with Kristen.  I bought the baby it's first gifts.  The book, Grateful, that I featured on my Thanksgiving post and a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, one of Kris' favorites.  Along with it, I gave Kris a tag that says...  "Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." I'll have to be a traveling granny, which is fine with grandpa, as long as he can drive.  I still get to be a hands on great-aunt to our little bird and her little sister to be born in January.  That's a comfort to me, to be needed by the small ones in our family. I'll have to learn to deal with NY, and hope to be there for Kris when she needs us.  Just when I was getting the hang of our new reality (of grown up children), now we have the newest reality, Grandparent hood!

I wanted to tell you how we found out that Kristen was pregnant...  We were at the Country Living Fair in Ohio, and it was a Sunday morning.  The  hotel dining room was filled with travelers  like us, having breakfast.  My phone rang and it was Kristen...and with no warning she says, I'm pregnant.  Well, my reaction was to cry, and cry and cry some more while my husband, after informed that he was to be a grandpa, continued to eat.  I had to leave the table and walk outside, where a woman was sitting near the pool.  I could not stop crying and this dear woman, thinking I was receiving horrible news came and wrapped her arms around me.  It was the sweetest kindest thing.  Then my husband came out, (with my breakfast plate, as if...) and held me till I calmed down.  I was in SHOCK!  When we checked out it seemed everyone knew about the crying lady...including the front desk.  We went on to the fair and had the best day, telling everyone that we were going to be grandparents.  We could tell everyone because we knew no one, until I saw Carrie, from Hot House Market.  My husband drunk with being a Grandpa almost spilled the beans, so Carrie, if you're reading this, that's the big news!  We were under orders to keep things quiet for a few months!

November is just a blur, and December will come and go in a blink.  I'll be taking time to enjoy it all.  Thanks for all your kind words, and congratulations.  Enjoy this beautiful day.