A Fond Farewell, One Degree and Two More Days

Cute Xmas card from Keall and fam this year!
(front and inside)
***************************************************

We've been a whirlwind of activity lately. Most of which involves either the boys' Christmas concerts (adorable!) and/or me frantically finishing craft gifts. However, we did have to say goodbye to Skip's grandfather Daniel last week, so that forced us to slow down. He was a truck driver for a local grocery store chain and he was a proud member of the Million Mile Club. (That's a lot of time in a truck!) Grampa was super sweet and I just adored him.

Skip & I with Grampa at his 80th birthday party
(two years ago)
****************************************************

However, as is so often the case when you have kids, you aren't allowed to wallow for too long since kids' schedules continue whether you like it or not!

Oscar had his first Christmas concert on Friday and he was too cute. He's a little on the shorter side so he was in the front row and easy to spot. (The doctor likes to say Oscar is a square, since his weight is about the same in pounds as his height is in inches.) Anyway, he was too cute- sandwiched in between two girls in his class. They performed the same show as Owen's wing of the school, which was called "Melton, the Warm-Hearted Snowman." ("We'll call him 'Melton' cause that's just what he'll do!") Owen had several speaking lines in it, which he performed with a small amount of enthusiasm... You'd never have known how excited he was for the show or how much he loves singing to watch him, but he was pretty proud of himself up there and so were we.

from Aunt Laura and Uncle Butch-
a picture of their bunny, Luna, decked out as an angel
The kids loved this one!
********************************************************

We had a great "holiday" with my parents and sister and her family this weekend... And, as usual, it was all the smaller stuff that brought the kids the most joy. Someday we'll get smart and just stuff the tree with matchbox cars and be done with it!

Last night we had a delicious lobster and steak dinner with friends at their house- yummmm. We swapped gifts and drank wine and couldn't have had a nicer time. Rocco was thrilled to have a fresh selection of construction vehicles and cars to play with, so he kept himself pretty entertained for most of the evening- awesome!

So, I'm always a fan of having a white Christmas, but this is just overkill. It's one degree outside at the moment and the deck has about 18" of snow on it. I've already shoveled it twice in the last week and I'm putting off doing it again until this afternoon. I'd put it off longer, but it's supposed to rain tonight and I don't want to deal with that. At least at the moment it's pretty light and fluffy. Just a whole lot of it! Bleck.

Well, I should beat it now since I still have wrapping to do and this is the kids' last day of school before vacation. I'll be bringing cookies to Oscar's class party this afternoon, too. His teacher invited me to attend, saying "Please join us at our celebration on Tuesday. It's sure to be a hectic affair." Sounds like a cry for help, doesn't it?

Hope you're enjoying the merriment of the season where you are and that you can feel the love coming from our house to yours!

from Oscar's 2nd- grade, school reading buddies
***************************************************

Uncle Ben

That's what he always told us to call him. Well, maybe not always. I actually don't remember the "Uncle Ben" thing starting until I was somewhere around 4th-5th grade, maybe. I never understood why he wanted to be called that when he was actually our grandfather. It was lost on me. I guess it made him feel younger... But we always thought he was cool as Grampy.

Dad & Grampy
(You see where I get my nose!)
************************************************

Well, maybe cool is stretching it. But we did think he was hysterically funny and we loved him to bits! I loved hearing him talk to Nana when telling someone a story. In the middle he'd stop to get accurate details, "Hey, Ess... Ess, where was it now?... that time that we saw such and such?" I also loved how he always- I mean, without fail- called Skip "Big Guy" when talking to him.

Skip with Nana & Grampy
*********************************************

And I don't think my sister or I will ever forget our first trip to Florida. I was eight, which means she was five. Mom and Dad took us to Cypress Gardens with Nana and Grampy. It was there, while admiring the llamas that Grampy refused to heed the sign on the fence warning visitors about errant llama spit... Needless to say, he got coated in some pretty stank llama slime that day. I had never seen my nana laugh that hard before and I don't know that I ever did again after. While she was trying to catch her breath, Grampy, not to be deterred, attempted to sweet talk his way back into the llama's good graces... Let's just say it didn't go very well.

So, here's to Grampy- who always made me giggle.

I love you.
xoxoxo k.

Kiss