Anything Special Happen to You This Christmas?

[MIGrandma]

I had something very special happen to me this Christmas. It was spearheaded by our oldest granddaughter (she's 22). A few weeks before Christmas I let everyone know that I was not filling stockings for all of the grandchildren (7) this year, as I had been so busy with my Mom's stroke/hospital stay and going to live in a nursing home, cleaning out her apartment, etc. etc. Everyone was fine with it.

Our family Christmas was this past Sunday, at our house. After everyone had arrived, and before we had dinner our granddaughter loudly announced that "we should open stockings now." At first I thought it was a little strange, since she knew I didn't fill them this year. But then she got up and went over to the tree and picked up a gift and handed it to me. I was really surprised, but started to open it. I opened it from the back and started reading. It was a handwritten heartfelt note on canvas from our granddaughter. I immediately started to cry. She wrote about how our farm is her favorite place in the whole world, and how I've done so much for her and our other grandchildren, etc. After I finished reading it through my tears I turned it over and she had painted a snow globe on the canvas, and painted a picture of our house inside. She had gotten DH to take a few pictures of the house with his cell phone and sent them to her. Inside the base of the snowglobe she wrote our last name, and she signed the picture in the corner and dated it.

Then, as if that wasn't enough, she brought out this HUGE stocking (handmade by my daughter-in-law) filled with all sorts of wrapped gifts from her and the rest of the grandchildren. They had all made clay ornaments and painted them (ages 22, 19, 16, 13, 10, 10 and 6), and they all made and painted a snowman family with each snowman representing the grandchild who made it (and signed the bottom). There were also many of my favorite things like Bath & Body Works stuff, Keurig k-cups, a journal, notepad, candle, gloves, lip balm, novelty pen, doTerra oil and hand lotion, even a small bag of chocolate "coins" just like I had always put in the grandchildren's stocking toes.

She also painted a special coffee mug for me, and put the names of all the grands on the back.

I was overwhelmed, and of course very emotional. What a blessing all of my grandchildren are. To take the time that they did, to make things, to shop, to fill the stocking just for me. I'll never forget it.

So, did anything special happen to you this Christmas?

 

[Kitty 34]

How nice. I would love to have grandchildren. All three sons are married so I'm waiting (im)patiently.


Nothing extra special happened to me to answer your question.

 

[wishesuponastar]

Very sweet of your granddaughter. Nothing special happened to any of us.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

I had something very special happen to me this Christmas. It was spearheaded by our oldest granddaughter (she's 22). A few weeks before Christmas I let everyone know that I was not filling stockings for all of the grandchildren (7) this year, as I had been so busy with my Mom's stroke/hospital stay and going to live in a nursing home, cleaning out her apartment, etc. etc. Everyone was fine with it.

Our family Christmas was this past Sunday, at our house. After everyone had arrived, and before we had dinner our granddaughter loudly announced that "we should open stockings now." At first I thought it was a little strange, since she knew I didn't fill them this year. But then she got up and went over to the tree and picked up a gift and handed it to me. I was really surprised, but started to open it. I opened it from the back and started reading. It was a handwritten heartfelt note on canvas from our granddaughter. I immediately started to cry. She wrote about how our farm is her favorite place in the whole world, and how I've done so much for her and our other grandchildren, etc. After I finished reading it through my tears I turned it over and she had painted a snow globe on the canvas, and painted a picture of our house inside. She had gotten DH to take a few pictures of the house with his cell phone and sent them to her. Inside the base of the snowglobe she wrote our last name, and she signed the picture in the corner and dated it.

Then, as if that wasn't enough, she brought out this HUGE stocking (handmade by my daughter-in-law) filled with all sorts of wrapped gifts from her and the rest of the grandchildren. They had all made clay ornaments and painted them (ages 22, 19, 16, 13, 10, 10 and 6), and they all made and painted a snowman family with each snowman representing the grandchild who made it (and signed the bottom). There were also many of my favorite things like Bath & Body Works stuff, Keurig k-cups, a journal, notepad, candle, gloves, lip balm, novelty pen, doTerra oil and hand lotion, even a small bag of chocolate "coins" just like I had always put in the grandchildren's stocking toes.

She also painted a special coffee mug for me, and put the names of all the grands on the back.

I was overwhelmed, and of course very emotional. What a blessing all of my grandchildren are. To take the time that they did, to make things, to shop, to fill the stocking just for me. I'll never forget it.

So, did anything special happen to you this Christmas?

Awww...I LOVE your story!

 

[heath dog]

That's incredible! It says a lot to the type of woman you are and what you have given to your family all these years. Not just the material stuff but the stuff that counts!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Very sweet story.

My dad, my oldest dd and my other dd's BF did a music show.

My dad played the accordion, my dd played her sax, and BF sang Silent Night.

We had never done this ever. It was very cute and a nice memory.

 

[hereyago]

It was my dgd(3months old) Christmas. She wasnt aware of
what was going on, but that is ok. my dd and I had a blast trying to get stuff,lol.

 

[NewRVLady]

MIgrandma- that is so amazing

This Christnas Eve we joined new DIL's family get together- her mom has 5 sibs..the grands and cousins
The older ones have a new tradition of putting $$ they would have spent on gifts in a large bowl then play Wii bowling as a competition ( winning couple chooses a charity for the pot)... It was SO much fun watching and cheering...a great night

 

[Sabeking]

What a beautiful tribute to your love as a grandmother!!!

 

[Pooh2]

Thanks for sharing such a beautiful story! Merry Christmas to you and your family!

 

[Liberty Belle]

My goodness! I'm emotional just reading it. I bet you were just a mess. What wonderful ideas!

Nothing that special happened to me, but I did get a very heartfelt card from a co-worker who was leaving. She told me that I really helped her through some tough times in her personal life. I really had no idea.

 

[luvflorida]

MIGrandma, I love your post! What a well-deserved tribute from your very thoughtful granddaughter/grandkids to a very loving grandma!

Our Christmas was special because we brought back a tradition that we left behind seven years ago when we moved across the country. For years, my parents always hosted our annual family Christmas party, but as they got older, I took over the tradition and held the party every year at my house. Everyone always looked forward to our "gift auction" where everyone brought a gift and numbers were drawn and gifts were opened/taken/exchanged. It was always the highlight of the party and usually resulted in a lot of laughs.

Well, with our move and both of my parents passing away, the annual Christmas party and auction stopped. Well, I should say the auction went away, because we still have the family get together at Christmas, but since we moved away from most of our family members, the gathering has been smaller. Well, for the first time in seven years, we brought back the auction this Christmas. It was our older daughter's idea. This Christmas we had all three of our grown children and their spouses/significant others at our house (and our three grandchildren, but they're not old enough for the auction, yet!) and we enjoyed our auction tradition. It was really fun and brought back a lot of fond memories from years past!

Oh yeah...another special moment this Christmas...my husband and I found out that our fourth grandchild will be arriving sometime in August!!

 

[cijay]

That's a beautiful story. I don't have grandparents but I have an uncle who has a farm and ever year we go out there mid-summer and, like your granddaughter, it is one of my favourite places to be.

Christmas happened this Christmas. It's always special. This was my first one without being jetlagged for a couple of years. I do prefer being 'somewhere else' but it was nice to be coherent and not dopey all day.

 

[weeniecat2442]

what a great story!!

I had my high school friend, her husband and one year old daughter join my family's big Christmas. they just moved back up here for 10 years in Texas and have no family up here.
She was under the impression it would only be myself, my BF, my mom, stepdad and maybe an aunt and cousin...she was quite surprised to pull up to see all the cars in the driveway.
We have a really fun Christmas party and they had a great time. Everyone loved having a baby there as well since there are currently no little kids in our family.
It was nice to have a best friend and my family around!

 

[daughtersrus]

Op- I love your story!

We had a similar experience this Christmas. My 2 oldest DD (29 and 25) made ornaments for the family. A little backstory. My mom died in 2000 at 63, my MIL died in 2008 and my dad died the morning of MIL'S wake. My FIL is still alive.

My DD'S searched our house to find signatures of my MIL, mom and dad. They then used DD's computer to transfer the images to her Siloutte machine and cut them in vinyl. They put them on the back of an ornament. The other side had a poem. There wasn't a dry eye in the group (except my SIL that we don't get a long with anyway. She didn't get one because her parents are still alive ) I got one with my mom and dad's signatures. DH, his brother, sister and dad got one with his mom's signature, the cousins on DH'S side got their grandma's signature and the cousins on my side got grandma and grandpa from my parents.

The part that meant the most to me is that they looked through our wedding cards from 30 years ago and DD still had her baptism cards from when she was an infant for the signatures.

 

[MIGrandma]

Very sweet story.

My dad, my oldest dd and my other dd's BF did a music show.

My dad played the accordion, my dd played her sax, and BF sang Silent Night.

We had never done this ever. It was very cute and a nice memory.

Oh, that is so special, I hope you got a video of it!

My goodness! I'm emotional just reading it. I bet you were just a mess. What wonderful ideas!

Nothing that special happened to me, but I did get a very heartfelt card from a co-worker who was leaving. She told me that I really helped her through some tough times in her personal life. I really had no idea.

Yes, I was an absolute blubbery mess. And I'm not one to enjoy having the spotlight on me so I got very nervous and warm!

That was very sweet of your co-worker to write a special card for you when she left.

MIGrandma, I love your post! What a well-deserved tribute from your very thoughtful granddaughter/grandkids to a very loving grandma!

Our Christmas was special because we brought back a tradition that we left behind seven years ago when we moved across the country. For years, my parents always hosted our annual family Christmas party, but as they got older, I took over the tradition and held the party every year at my house. Everyone always looked forward to our "gift auction" where everyone brought a gift and numbers were drawn and gifts were opened/taken/exchanged. It was always the highlight of the party and usually resulted in a lot of laughs.

Well, with our move and both of my parents passing away, the annual Christmas party and auction stopped. Well, I should say the auction went away, because we still have the family get together at Christmas, but since we moved away from most of our family members, the gathering has been smaller. Well, for the first time in seven years, we brought back the auction this Christmas. It was our older daughter's idea. This Christmas we had all three of our grown children and their spouses/significant others at our house (and our three grandchildren, but they're not old enough for the auction, yet!) and we enjoyed our auction tradition. It was really fun and brought back a lot of fond memories from years past!

Oh yeah...another special moment this Christmas...my husband and I found out that our fourth grandchild will be arriving sometime in August!!

That's nice you brought back the gift auction tradition. We do that too. It's always been one gift from each person ($20 limit) but this year we decided that since we enjoy just playing the game that we would do TWO of them, with $10 limit on gifts. It's always fun to see what everyone gets, and people can steal from someone else, and then there is usually some trading at the end especially if a guy ended up with a girl gift and vice versa.

Oh, and congratulations on another grandchild on the way!! That's wonderful, and nice you found out at Christmas too!

 

[MIGrandma]

Op- I love your story!

We had a similar experience this Christmas. My 2 oldest DD (29 and 25) made ornaments for the family. A little backstory. My mom died in 2000 at 63, my MIL died in 2008 and my dad died the morning of MIL'S wake. My FIL is still alive.

My DD'S searched our house to find signatures of my MIL, mom and dad. They then used DD's computer to transfer the images to her Siloutte machine and cut them in vinyl. They put them on the back of an ornament. The other side had a poem. There wasn't a dry eye in the group (except my SIL that we don't get a long with anyway. She didn't get one because her parents are still alive ) I got one with my mom and dad's signatures. DH, his brother, sister and dad got one with his mom's signature, the cousins on DH'S side got their grandma's signature and the cousins on my side got grandma and grandpa from my parents.

The part that meant the most to me is that they looked through our wedding cards from 30 years ago and DD still had her baptism cards from when she was an infant for the signatures.



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What a wonderful idea for those handmade ornaments, and something to always treasure! Loved seeing the photos!

 

[Breezy_Carol]

MIGrandma, great story.

Daughtersrus, I love the ornaments.

I had two special things this Christmas. DS is in Federal Law Enforcement and had to work 7-3 Christmas Day. He is about 2 hours away and was just married in October. He called at 10am to chat and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. We planned to see him on the weekend. Then he called back at 11 and said he was being released early from work and could they still come for dinner. I of course said yes. So both kids and their spouses were able to join DH and me for dinner and gifts.

They second was a gift from DD that was similar to Daughtersrus's gift. DD gave me a hammered silver bangle bracelet. The inside was engraved with "Loads of Love, Mom and Dad" in my parents handwriting. My dad died in 1996 and my mom died in 2014. One weekend when DD was dogsitting at our house, she went through boxes of cards I saved to find their handwriting then got the bracelet made on etsy. I cried.