Christmas Day with Grandma

Ryan and Grandma ~ Christmas Day 2005

After a yummy dinner prepared by the chefs at the catered living facility where my mom lives we took advantage of the beautifully decorated dining hall and snapped a few pictures.

Ryan flew in from San Diego on Christmas Eve day so Christmas Day was the first time he and his gma had a chance to see each other. Grandma always rolls her eyes and shakes her finger at Ryan when he shows up with jet black dyed hair, covering up his beautiful strawberry blonde hair. After he has been dutifully chastied, she laughs and hugs and holds him, her "Rowdy"...and he does the same...I think he dyes his hair just before coming home knowing he is going to get a rise out of "Rowdygmapa".

Momma and I then went back to her room and watched the original version of Yours, Mine and Ours with Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball on DVD, we laughed at Luci's antics...the false eyelash that roams around her face and the dinner with his family-when his boys get her so drunk that she causes an uproar at the dinner table, I just love Luci...and so does momma.

While momma and I laughed until the tears rolled down our faces, Ryan and Ed went target shooting....We had a good time and they had a good time, it was quiet.

I grew up in a large family, I have 4 siblings, by the time I was 6 years old my oldest brother was married. Nieces and nephews started arriving before long. For years we had large family holidays, (Christmas and/or Thanksgiving) sometimes on the holiday itself, sometimes we celebrated a weekend or two before the holiday. There was always something fun going on....always a joke to tell, or gag to play on someone, always a few kids playing a board game or bundling up to go play in the snow. Adults were gathered here and there around the house in conversation or watching a football game. Momma was in the kitchen with any number of people in there with her- - some actually helping, others sneaking a taste of this or that.

One Thanksgiving all three of my brothers, my brother-in-law and my husband showed up at my parents house with full beards....which was the most hilarious thing since my dad felt men should have clean shaven faces at all times. I loved all the kidding that daddy got, poor guy...couldn't grow hair on his head and didn't approve of hair on the face. I think that was also the year that the guys went fishing and came home with their limits...I wish I had a copy of the picture of these red-bearded guys holding up the string of fish...do you have a copy Nancy?

One Christmas someone attached some kind of bulb underneath the toilet seat, when some unsuspecting person went to sit on the toilet it triggered a recording of a gruff sounding man who shouted "HEY! Knock that off! I'm working down here!" Of course as soon as an innocent person walked into the bathroom the hallway filled with people who were "in the know" waiting to hear the reaction...we got a lot of mileage out of that devise...for several years and like the doghouse it is not to be found.

The Christmas my oldest son and my sister's son were born (2 days apart, no less!!) our parents gave us beautiful necklaces they had made for us from diamonds from momma's wedding rings. I still remember momma calling us into their room and them handing us these boxes. I cried, Nancy cried, momma cried...I think daddy left the room. That was in 1979, I can probably count on one hand the times I have taken it off (not counting the 3 years that it was "MIA" but that is another story for another time).

I remember the Christmas that Ryan and Traci (a niece) were just over a year old. Most of the kids were at that magical age of mystery and wonder. Traci was the youngest and her oldest sister, Leslie (age 13?), was the oldest. There were 12 grandkids running around, and who should knock on the front door of Grandpa Nurseries house??? Santa Claus himself!! He arrived with a red velvet bag packed full with a gift for everyone, even grandpa and grandma! The 4 youngest grandkids were wide eyed, the next 4 were in a state of shock since they had all just figured out that Santa wasn't real and now they were face to face with the man in the red suit they were denying, and the oldest 4 were trying to act cool when in fact they were thrilled to pieces! My momma always planned the bestest parties!

I remember the year my mom took "family group pictures" of each of us with our spouses and children. My brother-in-law had an afro that year...and I am not talking a close to the head afro, I am talking when he turned his head you ducked or got hit in the face with hair...my sister had never cut her hair, nor had she cut my niece Mandy's hair...both had beautiful long thick wavy hair...and then here was my nephew...bald as an egg...Oh we laugh and laugh about Mark's "faze" with the 'fro, but it was AJ's head that I remember most, poor little cue ball baby

And to be fair....

That is the same year that I was sporting my "Atom Ant" glasses....the lens were large enough that if you sat next to me we could both benefit from their size and read the paper together through my glasses, I think I could have gone to the auto supply store to buy windshield wipers to clean them!

I am from a large family, that made alot of noise when together...but made alot of memories as well. Holiday's now are on the tame side...no trips to the farm for 5 day Thanksgiving weekends where the city kids fed the cows and slept out in the hayloft when they got a bit older and everyone took turns taking scraps out to Peaches the Pig.

But, to be honest, I wouldn't trade a second of listening to my momma laugh at Luci for anything, because this holiday like any holiday before is the bestest one yet because it has been enhanced by all the holidays before!