Grandparents.

It's wonderful when a child has an extended family to provide additional love and support, especially the kind of love that comes from a grandparent. Time spent with a grandparent forms memories to last a lifetime and our girls are fortunate in that they have three “young” grandparents and two great grandparents: Grandma, Grammy & Papa, and Mamaw & Papaw! A bonus is having Grammy care for our little crazy ones during the day - Grammy gets to watch them grow and develop while Sarah & I get peace of mind knowing our girls are getting the best care available. The only regret I admit to sometimes having is that my dad is not here to share the joy of watching our girls grow up. I have a sense that the girls would have enjoyed Grandpa's ability to make a child smile.

Since three of my four grandparents passed away either before I was born or when I was just a baby, I only have memories of my dad's mother who we called “Nana”. Memories of Nana are mostly from our Sunday morning visits to her house in Somerville. My grandmother always put ice cream, soda and candy on the kitehcn table when we arrived! I chuckle to myslef when I look back because my grandmother would always pull us into the pantry, and in a secretively way, hand us a bag of candy to take home. She would not say “don’t tell your mom and dad” but she did not ask permission from my parents either! Sarah and I hope that when our girls are older they have the same memories of their grandparents as we do of ours.

This Christmas was a bit different for us in that we were able to spend Christmas afternoon at Sarah's parents' and two days after Christmas we visited my mother. The video clip below contains a few highlights of the visits. Hopefully these visits to see Grandma, Grammy & Papa will continue for many years!