Feeling Nostalgic Tonight....

Several holiday posts on SMW have gotten me in the mood to walk down memory lane tonight. So I'm putting the Hurricanes on hold and am going to delve into MY childhood. I'd like to take a minute and tell you about the lady who was one of the most influential people in my life. My Mamaw (my mom's mother) lived across the street from me when I was growing up. She quit work when I was born to keep me while my parents worked. She was unlike the typical grandmother....She was my champion, my playmate, my best friend, and my world. She was always there for me, never too busy to listen to my problems and offer advice and a shoulder to cry on. She had a sense of humor that was out of this world. She LOVED sports....all kinds of sports. She's the only person I know who would actually watch golf on television!! You know, most kids spend the weekends with their grandparents...not me. I stayed at my Mamaw's house during the week and at my parents' house on the weekend.
The holiday season was always a big deal with my Mamaw. I remember that beginning about this time of year, we would start preparations for the Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts. My first experiences with cooking took place in my Mamaw's kitchen. We would pop some Lewis Grizzard (a Southern comedian) tapes in the tape player and we'd spend HOURS in the kitchen cooking and talking and laughing. Of course, then we had the presents to wrap. To all of you who complain about my excessive use of tape when wrapping gifts....blame my Mamaw, :D! She is the one who taught me the finer points of gift wrapping. And also, there was the tree to decorate. We'd spend hours making ornaments for the tree and then decorating it. Mamaw learned early on that she had to cleverly disquise my gifts or wait until the last minute to put them under the tree. I was (and still am) a sneaky little devil when it comes to presents. Daniel takes after me in that respect. Speaking of gifts...I thought I was the luckiest kid in the world. Santa came to see me at my Mamaw's house on the night of Dec. 23 and then came back to my house on Christmas Eve. And my trusting self, I never once questioned that arrangement. (Of course, who in their right mind WOULD question 2 visits from Santa?) Well, so ends my trip down memory lane for tonight.....thanks for taking the journey with me!