Signs of the Times

Indications that the holiday season in our household is officially over....

1. My 'tiny dancer' sister flew back to Boston this morning.
2. My other sis grudgingly returned to work today....and starts nursing school on Wednesday!
3. My mom spent the afternoon frantically putting away Christmas decor (not too tearfully).
4. Our "Christmas displays" are cleaned up and we are using our new presents.
5. I received two phone calls and several texts related to work today.
6. I filled out our "weekly activities calendar" and did the meal planning and shopping for the week.
7. Logan and I packed up our belongings, dad loaded the car, and we returned home (to a daddy that has missed us much these last few days).
8. The DVR has started recording new episodes of our television shows.
9. I've stopped receiving "last minute/post-Christmas sale" emails from every retailer known to man (much to my hubby's happiness).
10. I baked two double recipes of Sinful Brownies, cut them into 200 bite-size pieces and prepped them for shipping to Atlanta Market for promotion of the new cookbook at our distributor's booth.

So, with my entree back to the the real world of groceries, laundry, volunteering and work, I thought it might be time to start blogging about the December festivities. I mean, the rest of the world did ring in the New Year four days ago!

I'll start the recap with the sad part of our holidays...the loss of Grandma Wilford, my mom's mom. After 91 years making us all smile and teaching invaluable lessons about life and love, she died just after Christmas on December 28th. The mother of 16 (yes, she conceived, birthed and raised 16 children!), grandmother to 51 and great grandmother to many, many more, if Grandma loved anything, it was babies. She was kind, resourceful (wouldn't you have to be to run such a large household), and despite the fact her brain didn't always work as fast as she wanted, she was as smart as a whip. She may have had to ask who a baby belonged to 10 times in 10 minutes, but she could share great stories about her own child-rearing experiences and give incredible advice about how to raise healthy, happy, God-loving children....the woman defined the term "matriarch." I have no doubt Grandma is very happily holding hands with Pa Pa in heaven (and likely holding her pocketbook tightly in the other hand :-).

A few of my favorite pictures of Grandma from the past few years:

Beth's High School Graduation (2007)

My all-time favorite picture of Grandma...can you just feel the happy?!?
Meeting Great Granddaughter Logan in July 2008.
Christmas 2008
Logan's 1st Birthday Party June 2008
Logan with both of her Great Grandmothers

Grandma Wilford was a "great grandma" indeed!