Grandma Vivian's Visit

The White house is much quieter today as we said goodbye to Grandma Vivian yesterday and sent her on her way to Austin, TX for her next stop.  This was Grandma's 3rd winter visit since we've been married and by far the best time we've ever had.  Every winter Grandma Vivian packs her bags and leaves for a 2-3 month tour visiting granddaughters, daughters, nieces, sisters and their families scattered throughout the US.  This year's travels take her to parts of SD, KS, TN, TX, GA and MN.  Several things always mark Grandma's visits.  One is the fafamilybulous baking that takes place.  This year, with the help of several of my nieces and nephew and a family friend we manufactured several dozen cupcakes, lots of buns and love knots, a dozen kuchen, 3 dozen bread bowls, noodles and a batch of brushkas.  In the process we dirtied literally every single baking dish, utensil and prep bowl in my kitchen and ended up with almost as much flour on the floor as in the bread ;)

 Grandma with Jake and our friends' daughter, Abby Deering

With this being the first Grandma visit since Jake was born I wasn't really sure what to expect.  I  have to say I was surprised by how wonderful Grandma was with Jake and how much they enjoyed one another!  I knew Grandma likes to cuddle babies and Jacob isn't much of a cuddler so I didn't know how that would pan out.  She was GREAT!  They both spent a lot of time down on the ground hanging out, playing and reading books.  I don't know who was happier - Grandma or Jake :) He loved having the company and she won tons of smiles from him. 

It brought me so much joy to watch them together.  Somehow Grandma even managed to bounce/rock Jake to sleep one afternoon.  I still do not know how this happened.  She has the patience of a tortoise when it comes to her great grandbabies. 

Grandma sat like this for the better part of an hour before he fell asleep

Some of the other highlights of the week included taking her to the Grand Ole Opry (it was as much fun for us to watch her in awe the whole night as watching the performances), Chris trying to calculate how may kuchen she's made in her lifetime (an accurate estimate couldn't be made; our best guess is in the 100's of 1000's), taking walks around the neighborhood and watching Jake figure out how to crawl.

There is so much more I could say about the great time we had with her here.  We've always enjoyed her visiting but typically we (Chris and I) were worn out by the end and ready to send her on to the next stop.  That wasn't the case this year.  We were all truly sad to see her go.  She is a special lady and I am so blessed to have the opportunity to spend time with her, laugh with her, learn from her and be loved by her.  When I am a grandma one day I hope to be just like her.  Here's a link to a slide show of Grandma on the farm.  Our wedding photographer took these pictures and put this together almost 4 years ago now.  I think it captures her spirit so well.  We love you Grandma Vivian!