Friday, February 11, 2011

Memories of my Grandma

My Grandmother just turned 90, on her birthdays we try to write down out favorite memories of her and we place them in a memory book for her.  In looking back over my life I find that there are to many wonderful memories of her to narrow it down to just one or two.
As long as I can remember my Grandmother sang to us, we loved to hear her sing, I still love to sit close as she rocks the newest babies of the family and sings to them.  When I got older I realized many of the songs were pretty morbid, but we loved them anyway, or maybe it was just hearing her voice we loved.  There was the bear song (the bear gets killed by a hunter) the prison wall song (he flies over the walls after his execution) Red wing (my favorite) they both drown swimming to meet each other, Mr Dunderbeck gets ground into sausage one night by his wife while she has a nightmare, one of the two little boys gets wounded in the war.

From my Grandma I learned not only to quilt but to love it, when I was very little I played under the quilt frames, when I got older I learned to tie a quilt and then she taught me to quilt, there was always a quilt on a frame ready to be worked on.
I learned to love and trace family history, Gram spent hours telling me family stories, and teaching me how to look up information, or helping me copy her pages.
Grandma's house has always been a sanctuary for me, many years of my childhood were not the most pleasant but whenever we were at Grams the world was a better place, to this day grams house is a place where nothing else in the world matters, all the stress and worries just melt away and it is a place where the outside world does not matter.
I loved going to the ballet with Gram, it was a treat sitting next to her, because she always kept treats in her purse, we had to open the candy sticks really quiet so we did not bother anyone sitting next to us.
Grandma loves turquise jewelry and once when I had on a new necklace I was showing her she ran off to the house and came back out wearing what must have been 90% of her turquiose, she had at least 2 rings on over finger, several necklaces and bracelets that she showed off to me and then told me the story behind every piece, it was so cute.
Grandma always made us home made valentines, they were perfect and every year we looked forward to recieving them.
My Grandma wraps the most gorgeous Christmas packages, every package is amazing and it is sometimes hard to open them, they are so pretty, on my tree every year is a bird she had made ribbon wings (to match the ribbon on my pkg) from one of my packages, I can  no longer remember what was in the gift but I remember how much I loved the wrapping.
My house displays many painting my Grandmother has done, she is a talented artist not only with paint, she has also made gorgeous feather and ribbon pictures and wreaths.  She is a talented florist, to this day I love the smell of eucalyptus because it reminds me of going to visit Grandma at the floral shop.
Grandma taught us all about flowers, I remember many nature walks where she would teach us all the different types of flowers.
I have been lucky to be blessed with my Grandmother, I am grateful that not only my children but also my grandchildren have been able to learn from her and to create their own special memories of a lady who has touched many many lives.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Weenie Roast Crittenden style

In my family we have "weenie" roasts, there is a fire pit in the yard of my Grandparents home and we gather there often, we have them to mark the beginning and ending of summer, always on Easter, memorial day and the 4th of July, or just when enough of us show up.  I have lived far away and they are one of the things I miss most about being home.
 While we were home last week we spend quit a bit of time with my Grandparents, on our last visit Grandpa decided to light a fire, not surprising since it was cold outside and the fireplace has always been the center of their home, a place we have all spend numerous hours.  However this fire was different since once it was lit Grandpa sent the kids out to gather up the weenie roasting sticks, he said since it was to cold to roast outside we would bring it inside, so for the first time in all my life we had a good old fashioned Crittenden weenie roast inside.  It was priceless, this was Bella's first one ever she was fasinated with the fire, my kids were all entertained with seeing who could cook the perfect hot dog first and I was just happy to be spending time with Grandparents who have always been such an important part of my life.
 It was a little crowded around the fireplace but somehow everyone got a turn and their fill of food.  Grandpa even made Grams famious punch (of course she had to come try it to see if it needed anything)
 No gathering at my Grandparents would be complete without Grandpa teaching us something, he is a fountain off information and we all love to listen to him teach us new things or tell us "life" stories.  We got a little of both this trip so it was wonderful
 Here he is teaching Levi all the ins and outs of a Spanish pistol, it is a gun that belongs to Stevie's boyfriend, he had us bring it along to have Grandpa look at it, He showed Levi all the ins and outs and then we all got a lesson on old time guns and some history of a few of the guns on display in the house.  These are memories my children will treasure for a lifetime.