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Blogs by Sue Hess
it's over! 12/26/2006 6:26:36 PM
Hey the biggest hump is over, I survived Christmas with enough left to buy groceries this week...what more can a Grandma ask for...
I discovered years ago that you don't finish shopping when you have grandkids, you just shop until you either run out of money or the stores close on Christmas Eve. But what the hell, you can't be the best grandma in the whole world for free huh. So my granddaughter got her American girl doll (I've driven cars that cost as much as that doll) and my grandson got his WII, although he had to get up at 6am and stand in line to get it...I have my limits. I will admit they aren't many when it comes to these two but 6am is not doable for me.
What did I get for Christmas? Besides a lot of gratification I got some nice clothes, some books, a teapot and calendar with lovely Thomas Kinkade scenes and way too much candy and cookies...so I made out pretty well. I always figure if I get enough that I have to carry more than one load in the house when I get home, I got too much. This year it was just right, all the people I wanted to feel loved by made me feel loved and isn't that what it is all about. I mean we can go buy ourselves the same things we get for Christmas and for much less than it ultimately costs us but that doesn't make you feel the love. That lovely teapot will probably never see a tea bag but my daughter thought about what to give me and she knows I love Kinkade and have a cup of tea every night before bed. Of course, I drop a bag of Sleepytime tea in a cup and microwave it for two minutes but the teapot was a nice thought. The books were from my grandson, he knows it is a delight we both share, this love of reading. He and his girlfriend exchanged books also. She got a large book of Gnomes (go figure) and he got a nicely bound copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe. It makes me feel good when I see him stroke the covers of the book as if it is an expensive box of chocolates ready to be opened and enjoyed. I know he learned that joy from me. He is going to Rolla School of Mines and majoring in computer engineering, something else he learned from me. When he was born my daughter lived with me and worked for the same hospital. She was in switchboard so she couldn't bring him to work and we couldn't bear leaving him with anyone so he came to work with me, the sound of the computers and disk drives lulled him to sleep in a crib I fashioned out of boxes that once held computer paper. As he grew older, I showed him how to push certain buttons to bring the system up or down, taught him which buttons to never push without my permission and allowed him more freedom that most kids have around large computer systems. He learned to love and respect computers. He continued to go to work with me off and on for the next 18 years and when it was time to go to college, he had no doubts what he wanted to do. This year he is designing 3D anatomy charts for a program and he has gotten interested in medicine...who knows, maybe there is a med school he can get in but probably not. He makes good grades but med schools are impossible, I know, the company I works for is associated with St Louis University and it is hard to get into. I won't get into that right now.
Well, I hope you all have a great New Year. I will have my butt planted on my sofa with a good book, my idea of ringing the New Year in right. However you chose to do it, do it safely and with a little common sense. Have one for me, and I'll think of you all over my cup of Sleepytime tea.
