Monday 26 November 2012

Where has it gone?

The last few weeks I mean. Where has it all gone?  We're less than a month away from the BIG day, and panic is starting to set in.

I must admit that I've decided there are some things that just will not get done for this Christmas.  Mainly, baking. Nope.  Don't need it, no one else needs it or wants it and the last few months of being laid up with my darn foot, has made it impossible to stand and actually bake for more than a few minutes at a time.  It's hard enough to keep my weight stable while not being able to walk, exercise, swim.

Sooooooo...we'll be much "lighter" come January 1st next year....hehehe.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it :)

Grandpa and I have been away a lot the last few weeks also....3-4 days each week. So it takes me until the next business to gain some energy back....vicious cycle....but I do love to stay in hotels, even if I still have to keep my feet up :)

This past Saturday GD Hailee was going to the movies with a friend, mom and dad had been invited out for dinner, so Hannah and Cade were bugging mom to bring them here for a visit.  We're not used to going for a week at a time without seeing any of the grandkids, so grandpa and I needed our fix as well :)

There are the usual 'things' that need doing when they come in....especially at this time of year with their Christmas decorations just waiting to be moved around and played with. Not to mention taking the photo ornaments off our Family Tree so they could be photocopied....who knows why, they just love doing it LOL!

Cade came out of the bedroom/playroom at one point and said "we going to Pizza Hut for supper Mama".....I guess he and Hannah had discussed this matter, and he was voted to come tell me LOL!  When the time came to head out the door I used my grandmother's wisdom and told them they had to pee before we went or we wouldn't be able to go.

Cade was having none of it.  He said he didn't have to go and if he did he could go at the restaurant.  Well...here comes the wisdom part....I told him that he didn't want to do that because restaurant washrooms are dirty. Remember that :)

He did close the bathroom door and came back out a couple minutes later with his pants all crooked, so I'm assuming he did try. Hands washed, coats/hats/boots on we headed out to Pizza Hut.

In their discussions they must have decided that we would go to the local ice cream shop for dessert, but as luck had it at this time of year....brrrrrrrr.....the little shop was closed.  The next best thing would be Dairy Queen which is right along the way home.

Sundaes ordered, lots of napkins on the table, everyone getting a taste of everyone else's sundaes and there was happiness :)  About halfway through my Sundae I had to get up and headed to the little girl's room.  About 15' from the table I could hear Cade yell out something, but I didn't quite catch what he said.  I looked back and grandpa and Hannah were laughing their heads off.

Yup....remember what I wrote above about not using restaurant washrooms?  Well.....when I got back to the table I asked what Cade had said to get them laughing and grandpa told me that after I said I was going to the washroom, Cade decided to yell at me "the washrooms here are dirty Mama" LOL!

Thank goodness the place wasn't busy and one of the girls that works there who was having something to eat just a couple tables from us, had her ipod earphones in, so I'm hoping she hadn't heard Cade....hehehe! 

Yup....grandma's wisdom and out of the mouths of babes!  Sometimes these two things do not go together :)

The gang is coming over on Thursday for supper....we had to make a date because everyone is so busy all the time.  So this grandma is going back to gift wrapping.  See you guys in a few days.

Grandma loves you
xoxoxoxo

Sunday 4 November 2012

Ring, ring, ring.....

Yup...that was the ever familiar sound of the phone yesterday morning when our DIL called to see if we were busy :)  Hailee has two dance classes on Saturday morning and the whole gang was going to go in and then do some shopping.  Well, little sister Hannah and little brother Cade did not want to go....so what's the next best thing....hehehe...call grandma and grandpa to see if they could come over :)

They were dropped off around 10:30 and the fun began.  I was wondering how to keep them busy when it dawned on me...they could help grandma decorate for Christmas!!  And that's what we did. Two excited kids hurrying down the stairs, with grandma following, to the secret room under the stairs (sorry, no Harry Potter living under my stairs LOL).

The boxes kept coming and coming and coming....calling for grandpa to help carry the heavy ones upstairs to the living room....huffing and puffing as Cade would help grandpa by holding one end of each box as he backed up the stairs...hehehe....and Hannah proudly showing me how she could carry one all by herself because "it's not heavy grandma...I can do it by myself." And she did! Great job guys :)

Of course their little minds are like an elephants...they never forget LOL! So that means they knew exactly what they were looking for when it came to decorations. "Grandma, remember this....grandma remember that?"  And so it began.  Tops flew off the boxes and the search started for the Santa that climbs up the ladder. They had the ladder but where was that darn Santa grandma?? LOL

As another top flew off a box, and another, and another, all in search of that Santa, the living room began looking like a Christmas bomb exploded....hehehe!  Grandma tried to 'control' the number of decorations that were being put here, there and everywhere....when their attention would focus on something else they saw in another box.

Then pay dirt! They found the box containing 'their' decorations. Yes, the box of all boxes....the holy grail. Their decorations....little nativity people, lots of musical decorations with those little people that "skate" on the mirrored surfaces, the two story Christmas house whose front opened to music, lights and little things turning in circles inside.....it was all there. But where can we put them?  The little white cupboard that is home to these decorations at Christmas time was nowhere in sight. Grandpa came to the rescue...yipeeee! He knew exactly where it was. All was well with the world again :)

As soon as it was set up, Hannah started organizing...her favorite thing to do LOL...and they were all in place within a few minutes. Of course the 6 or so musical decorations that Cade had on the ottoman weren't enough and he let us know after seeing Hannah's set up...."I don't have any decorations" was his battle cry as he made a move to the white cupboard....hehehe!  Luckily we stopped him in his tracks and the focus was back on Santa....remember? The Santa that climbs up that red ladder...hehehe!

Back downstairs for another box and sure enough, there he was. Santa, just laying on the top of the decorations when we took the top off. Hurry up grandma and get him on the ladder.  Cade being a boy, knew all there was to know about hanging the lights up with Santa and turning the button on the attached sleigh to magically send Santa on his way up the ladder, and back down again.

So the fun continued and I told both kids that we wouldn't open any more boxes right then. We did have to leave some for big sister Hailee after all :)  Plus, next Sunday will be tree decorating time when all 3 kids do our main tree...yeah!

What's that? The phone was ringing again.  It was mom. She wanted to know if grandpa and I would like to go to the movies with all of you.  Grandma's back has been bothering her the last week or so and there's no way I could sit for a couple hours in a movie theatre. So the next best thing, grandpa was going to drive Hannah and Cade to the edge of town to meet daddy while mom and Hailee finishe shopping at Costco.

Well...Cade decided he didn't want to go to the movie....no way was he going to be talked into it either. He was determined to stay here with grandma, and grandpa when he got back home from dropping off Hannah.  So that's what he did.  After a couple bowls of roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy and carrots, we went to lay down on our big bed....grandma was hoping he would fall asleep as he'd been yawning a lot, but he didn't. We watched tv until grandpa came back.

They played for a bit and then Cade wanted more beef again...hehehe! Only difference being, after this bowl, he laid on the couch saying he was really tired, and within seconds he was out cold :)  Mom and dad called after the movie saying daddy would drop the 'girls' at home then come here to get Cade.

Cade was not happy....hehehe...he wanted grandpa to drive him home, and he started pouting when we said that daddy was coming to pick him up. As normal, the grandkids rule the roost, and Cade got his way. Grandma called daddy to tell him to stay home....grandpa was on his way LOL!

So, another surprise visit, and a productive one as well. Thanks for helping with the decorations guys!  There will be more to come next weekend.

Grandma loves you
xoxoxoxo

Thursday 1 November 2012

Booooooooo......

Yes, it's that time of year again where not only do the ghosts and goblins make an eerie appearance at our doors, but so do the frankensteins, princesses, clowns, firefighters and everything else that we can think of, follow in pursuit of the goodies which people hand out on all Hallow's Eve :)

I have to admit with the weather we've been having from the remnants of Hurricane Sandy, grandpa and I weren't sure if we should even put any effort into decorating the driveway this year. When the rain seemed to stop around 1:00 yesterday afternoon we decided to make a start to see if we'd get rained on. Surely once we started bringing everything out of the garage, if it were going to rain on us this Halloween, then that would be the time, right? LOL! Wrong!



Grandma can't say it was a nice day, but at least the rain, snow and very strong winds held off for a few hours.  A couple hours later, grandpa and I were done with the driveway, and even though it didn't extend all the way down the driveway as I've been known to do...hehehe...it still looked great! Yes indeed, this grandma couldn't disappoint the neighborhood kids....this had to be done LOL!


The only thing we weren't too impressed with was the temperature. It was c-c-cold this year. In all my 61 years I can't remember it being that cold....brrrrrrr...on a Halloween night. Even the ever loved fog machine was having a hard time staying warm enough to spit out the fog. It's actually a good thing that there weren't as many kids as we had hoped for, because it gave the fog machine some time inbetween to get warmed up :) Grandma even wrapped it in a towel to help it warm up quicker LOL!

Having prepared for over 70+ treaters, and only getting 37, there is a lot of goodies left...all bagged up and nowhere to go. Well, nowhere to go except in a big trash bag and into the big freezer downstairs. Now I'm not saying it will all make it until next halloween....I mean that's a whole year away you know....and a girl (guy) sometimes need a little something sweet/salty to nible on, right? LOL!  At least all those calories are not sitting on the kitchen table where access was way too easy for us, and there will have to be a really good excuse to walk downstairs to the freezer to open that trash bag and root around for what we want and risk breaking a tooth on the frozen treasures :)

Grandma came inside just before 7:30 to warm up, and the phone rang. Perfect timing :)  It was Ryan....he was asking if we still planned on coming over to see the kids. I suggested we wait until today to head over as it was getting late and the kids were tired.  When he asked the kids there was a unanimous 'noooooo'.....they wanted us there then...well, at least they wanted the goodies they know grandma always buys for halloween...hehehe!

I went outside to tell grandpa that we were heading over to see the kids, and we did something we have NEVER done before in our lives....we left all the decorations, lights, and two big bowls of goodies all set up!  The question in both our minds was "will everything be okay, and will one kid come along and take all the goodies?" LOL!

We were pleasantly surprised when we pulled back into our driveway about an hour later. Everything was still where we left it, and the big bowls of goodies had a little less in them, but just a little.  Whomever came along while we weren't home only took what they expected to be given, and left the rest for anyone coming behind.

With a sigh of relief I started to think why we had such distrust in the neighborhood kids. Is it because we only hear bad stories on the news about young people these days?  Whatever the reason, we were very happy the our neighborhood seems to still be "okay" :)

We started taking the decorations down and a teen girl came up the driveway but was going to turn around and leave when she saw us dismantling everything.  Grandpa told her to come back and gave her a bag of candies...and she was the one who was pleasantly surprised.

I do have to say that when we drove over to the kids we were quite surprised ourselves at just how few people even had pumpkins outside to welcome the wee ones to their door.  Even on our own street there were very few lights on, and even those that were on had no decorations at their door. Maybe it's just the kid in me....hehehe....I love to see the reaction of the kids when they walk through the lights and fog. And even more surprising, there was only one young boy who was afraid to walk up the driveway this year. The poor kid didn't think he would get any candy and was surprised when grandpa told him to wait while he brought him a bag of candy and a bag of chips.

All in all it was an uneventful Halloween....thankfully....with the bright spot of the evening being spending a bit of time with the Girls and Cade :)

 
Grandma loves you
xoxoxoxo