great grandini

my moms mom…aka the great grandini was the coolest! my favorite part of christmas itself was always grandma! she would come and spend the night at our house on christmas eve every year. we would go pick her up in the afternoon and come home to goof off, eat a yummy dinner of something totally untraditional like chili, or nachos, and almost always chili con queso. she would sleep on the couch in the sewing room and my sis and i would sit with her on that old yellow and gold floral couch watching the sound of music, the wizzard of oz or whatever else would be playing on regular tv. we only had one room in the house with cable and that tv was reserved for my dad and whatever ballgame was on that night. us girls were always banished to the sewing room with the tv with an antena and turn style knobs:)

my poor mom would retreat to her bedroom- i guess to wrap the rest of the presents, my dad would watch the game and we would stay up as late as we could! Christmas morning was always an event…we had a time limit of how early we were allowed to wake the folks…maybe 5 or 6 am?  prior to that time meggie and i would sit and talk about how excited we were and if santa brought us what we wanted. finally the time would come when it was time to wake up mom and dad. wait for dad to go start a fire, use the bathroom, brush his teeth and whatever else took him SOOO LONG… and  then turn on the tree. mom and grandini would join dad, camera in hand to see the expression of excitement and surprise as we turned the corner to see our gifts.

grandini was always what i remember seeing first. she always looked more excited than we were, just to be there with us! she did’nt need presents or special attention. she was happy to sleep on that old ratty (but very comfy) couch. and entertain us all night! it was hard for years after she was gone not to have her there.

and now it is my moms turn…to be grandini…nonni style. sleep in our spare room, eat chili con queso, play games, join in our silliness the way her mom always did. so as long as i am around and we are able…my mom will always be with us on christmas eve and christmas morning…because i just know it means as much to londy as it does to me:)