Grandma's Christmas Visit

Grandma Walker came over as "a Christmas present to herself" from the 17th through the 21st of December and it was really fun to have her with us. She came also to hear me sing in the choir cantata called "Jesus No Other Name" of which I have no pictures of since I did not bring my camera, but later I hope to get a DVD recording of it that I will post some of on YouTube to share at some point. I sang a gospel/ad lib sort of solo (channeling my inner black woman) called "What Did You Say Was the Baby's Name?" It was stepping out of my comfort zone a little to not have a written out plan for what I was going to sing, but it worked out well despite that.

Miss Naomi is flashing a big smile here as she plays piano with Grandma!



On Sunday morning, I posed with my two four year olds and miraculously they sat still long enough to get a good picture!

The girls of the family posed too and Miss Naomi is wearing her "Mommy's Lil' Christmas Present" shirt and red tu-tu. My mom and I went shopping on Saturday and I was able to pick up this new purple sweater and black skirt as well as another red top and black and white (pretty design) skirt for the concert the next day. I also got some new black and brown flat shoes to wear for regular use. Thanks Mom!

Daddy and Daniel were cuddling in the chair and it was a perfect time to capture two of the men of the family before church as well.

On Monday, Josiah had to take the M.A.P. test for his schooling (a standardized test to see where is his level-wise) and so Grandma took the other children out to buy small presents for David and I and for each other and later after Josiah finished his test, she took him out to do the same and to take him for ice cream to reward him for doing a good job on his test. Later that night he told me, "Guess what Momma? I learned that it is Jesus first, Others second, and Yourself third and that spells JOY! Grandma taught me that, did you learn that?" It was so cute! I was recovering from a bad cold (yes I sang through a cold on Sunday too) and so I rested a bit on Monday and Grandma picked up the slack for me. Thanks again Mom!

Tuesday, we went to the Care Center in Cheney to visit Great Grandma Betty (in another post), but on Wednesday before Grandma left, we went to the NorthTown mall to play in the play area and discovered they have a "pay to play" kind of place right next to the free one that was relatively inexpensive to play in and so we took the kids there instead as it had many more options for them. It also has the option to drop them off there hourly as well, so that it is good to know for future reference! It is a bit more expensive than to hire a babysitter here if you do it for very long, so it would be only used in a pinch! The kids had a blast there though!

Before we moved over to the other place though, I got a good shot of Naomi coming down the slide! At the other place she got to playing with this little boy who we found out was six, and I told my mom that the age gap between them is about the same as it is between me and David. It is funny to think that long ago if David and I had known each other that he could have been pushing me around in a little play car like this little boy did for Naomi. It was cute to watch them together.

Caleb also posed on the lion before we moved. It was really nice to have my mom here especially when I was feeling very sub par on the health scale! She had fun interacting with the kids too and made lots of fun memories. The kids really enjoyed buying and wrapping the gifts for us too and each time they got one wrapped Grandma sent them upstairs with the wrapped gifts to give to me. They were so proud! Daniel even wrote all the letters on the gifts himself and of course so did Josiah!

We were sad to see her go and as we left the airport Caleb cried and when we got home Josiah said, "I'm really going to miss Grandma." Thanks for the nice Christmas gift of your presence Grandma, we love you!