The Gift of Nana

Most who know us recall that we lived in Alaska for 5.5 years: the best 5.5 years of our marriage, hands down, I'd say...for reasons that are both great and not-so-great. But that's for another post.

Here, I'll start with that because those amazing years made the decision to move to Colorado an even more difficult one. But we felt God calling us to return here (Craig hails from the Springs) to be closer to family and, more particularly, to his mother.

One of the benefits of living here is having Craig's mom near. My mother-in-law, Sandy, is a friend, a daughter, a sister and a buddy. She's a reader, a cross-stitcher, and a card player. She gets a good chuckle out of a dirty joke. She hates beer and only drinks sweet wine. She's not crazy about any exotic food and has always wanted to go to Hawaii.  She works full time, and she's a widow with 8.4 grandchildren. So, yes, she's busy. She's lots of roles to lots of people, but at our house, she goes by just two names: Mom and Nana.

We have lots of traditions with her during the holidays, but there's two I'll spotlight here: making sugar cookies and attending her company party. Mom rolls the dough and the kids cut out the shapes. Later, they decorate them with frosting and sprinkles laughing uncontrollably while Mom reminds them about a hundred times NOT to lick their fingers. AT her party, we play Christmas bingo and make crafts, eat pizza, and drink cocoa. We do this every year because one gives her a chance to make a memory with the children. The other lets her watch them have fun while showing them off a bit: I give a thumbs-up, of course, to both activities.

Grandparents are supposed to be proud, supposed to indulge and gush and sing praises all day long of these little wonders they love so desperately but don't have to raise. Mom does a great job of teaching and training and rebuking as needed while holding onto her role of "the fun one." We never allow the children to forget what a gift she is and how they're not to take her for granted. So we make sure we don't, either.

We won't always have the opportunity to carve such traditions, so we seize the days He gives us, hoping that, in all we do, we remind her that she is, in short, the best present under our tree...all year long. And we all have the memories to show for it.

(left) One of my favorites of Mom with our children. This one's with Judsen, just days after his birth. A thousand words. A thousand words, indeed.