Making Christmas Sugar Cookies with Grandma

I look good in flour, don't I?  Everything looks better covered in flour!  Like Snow!

This is only my 2nd time using a rolling pin.  Can you tell?

Taking time out to clown around.

Watching A Christmas Story while waiting for all those cookies to bake.

Waiting for the cookies to cool.

Yes, Gramma, the icing is great.  Now when can I use these super-cool flower-confetti decorations?

Chugging green sprinkles.

Chugging more green sprinkles.

Okay, I'll sprinkle some cookies.

And, if you insist, I'll try a cookie.

Not bad at all.  Really, you think I need a bath?

Christmas Bike

This email was sent by mother in December of 2001.  My father was the eldest son in a loving family of a sharecropper.  As prices and inflation goes, that bike cost this family a mint.  I remember him telling us that the handlebars of this bike fell off and he continued to ride it, using a broom in place of the handlebars. 

Jesse has been having a lot of fun this Christmas. How many of you remember him talking about THE Christmas for him as a young person?

He was 12 and had wanted a bike for a long time. Of course he was old enough to know how tough things were in 1934. There were already 5 children in the family and he knew how little tobacco had sold for so he knew what Christmas would be like, but lo and behold he got that bike! He says he took it to bed


with him or at least to where he could touch it all night. It never was left outside and he wore it out!!


He couldn't wait for Al to want a bike. Did he get you one before you even wanted one Al? I know he got you a train before you were old enough.


Anyway he bought another bike this Christmas.


He talked to several agencies doing things for children and decided want he wanted to do and then bought it and made sure it was a name bike not just any old bike and he hopes some child will be as surprised as he was.

By the way he found out later that that bike of his cost $30.00 and was paid for out of 2 tobacco crops. The only interest paid was in the form of vegetables his father gave to merchants.

I hope your giving will give you as much happiness as his giving has given him this Christmas.

She'll Do Great in the Vocabulary Part of her SATs

Not too long ago I'm sitting where one does in the bathroom and Bette Annie comes barelling in.  She's squealing and puts her hands over her eyes.  I ask what she's doing and she replies "I'm hiding from Momma, if I do this she won't recognize me!"

Recognize?  Really?  She's two!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nancyt1952/4082461619/in/set-72157622753641056

Two-Year-Olds Get Cabin Fever

Even before the Blizzard of 2010, Bette Annie has been showing signs of cracking under the strain of cold-weather cabin fever.  It's hard enough when you understand seasons and weather, but when you don't, it must be particularly frustrating.  

A few weeks ago she got into a conversation with her mother and started ticking off things (like she does):

• Get your bathing suit on.
• Find my bathing suit.
• Get my pail and shovel.
• Call Grandma and tell her to take us to the beach!

Confidence

Santa brought Bette Annie a tricycle.  I think Bette Annie forgot about it until she was at my house and saw one on TV. 

She turned to her mother "Where is my tricycle?"  Her mother told her that the tricycle was in storage until the spring.  Bette Annie cried.  We explained that tricycles didn't like snow.  I tried to make her feel better by tellin her that her wagon was in storage, too, because wagons don't like snow. 

She thought about this for a while.  She then grabbed my hand and said "Come on, Gramma!"

I said "where are we going".

She ticked off her schedule on her fingers on her way to the closet:

• We're going to put our coats and hats on.
• We're going to get the shovels.
• We're going to shovel all the snow away so I can get my tricycle out of storage, 'cause Momma's not going to do it."  

Wish I had her confidence in me.

The Right Incentive

Bette Annie was watching her mother in the bathroom.  She made the remark that she liked her mother's prettty pink (this girl is ALL about pink) undies.  Her mother (trying to hide her excitement) said, that Bette Annie could have pretty pink undies, too.  She said that Bette Annie could have undies in all the colors she wanted. She just had to agree to use the potty.  And if she used the potty everyday, her Mommy would buy her those undies by her 3d birthday (March 13).

Bette had 3 successful potty events that day!!!  And she continues to have many successes a day.

Grandma had tried the undie trick and even bought undies with Tinkerbell on them.

Timing and pink is everything.

Our New Mountain Retreat

Jimmy and I just fell in love with Asheville and Lake Lure, NC, when we visited last April, so we decided to build  little mountain retreat of our own in the area.  It's only 2 bedrooms, but we're proud of it and it looks like the grandkids enjoy it.  






We saved a ton of money using DIY.  Jimmy did the framing.  I did all the decorating, painting, wall-papering, carpeting, wood floors, and tile-work.  It was fun buying all the furnishings to match at one time.  We love the rooftop play-yard and are confident that the grandkids won't do something stupid to cause bodily harm to them up there.  






We do have one little flaw in our design.  Can you spot it?  






Scroll down to see the pictures of the house.....Don't miss the video showing Bette Annie's reaction to seeing the house for the first time.

Bette's Reaction:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/nancyt1952/4214075750/