Grandma’s gifts better to give than receive
My grandmother will be celebrating her 86th birthday this week. We will be headed to Natchez this weekend to visit and help her welcome in another year.
I’m still not quite sure what to buy her for a birthday gift. Maw Maw is so picky that half the presents I buy her are failures.
I know they say “it’s the thought that counts, but with Maw Maw “it’s the look that says.” She will get this look on her face when she’s unsure or unhappy with a gift. She won’t flat out tell you she doesn’t like it. But it won’t shock you to find that same gift tucked away in a closet a year from now.
Jason and I returned from a trip from Gulf Shores one year with a present I was sure she would like. It was one of the large sea biscuits that you can buy at those tacky souvenir beach stores. It never dawned on me that a gift purchased from a store with a giant shark mouth as an entrance could be a failure.
“What is this thing,” Maw Maw asked, turning the piece over to inspect it.
“It’s a sea biscuit,” I said. “It’s kind of like a shell.”
“Well, what am I supposed to do with it,” she asked, glancing over at my mother.
“Well, I dunno,” I said, starting to question it myself. “I guess look at it.”
The sea biscuit is still sitting at my Momma’s house, where Maw Maw left it. She still has no idea, to this day, what a sea biscuit is. The only sea biscuit she had ever heard of was a racing horse.
What I find so baffling about this whole situation is that Maw Maw is so picky about gifts, but yet she purchases the wort gifts ever. I can say this freely because she subscribes to The Natchez Democrat and not The Yazoo Herald.
Maw Maw either thinks I am eight years old or 80, depending on the mood she is in.
“Here, I found this at the store and thought you would like it,” she said one day, throwing me a bag.
“Yeah, go try it on,” Jason said, with a sarcastic grin.
Well, when I came out from the bathroom, Jason’s face was blood red from holding in the laughter.
I was modeling a denim dress that dragged the floor with giant flowers embroidered on the front. The dress was at least four sizes too big. She also included a beaded bandanna-looking thing that I was supposed to wear around my neck.
“Well, it’s a little big, but it’s fine,” she said, tugging at the sides.
“Little big,” I thought to myself. “This thing swallows me.”
The giant, flower balloon remains in the trunk of my car.
Sometimes Maw Maw hands me some kind of personal gift that has no actual relevance to my life. She recently gave me a figurine celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary. It was a porcelain sculpture of children and adults gathering around the older couple. Jason and I have not even known each other a decade and yet she felt it was time to celebrate 50 years of wedding bliss.
Or how about the 10 boxes of chocolate covered cherries that she bought on sale for a dime. I don’t even like cherries, much less 120 of them.
I have also received a clock that doesn’t work. Jason frequently pokes fun of it.
And let’s not forget the flannel sheets I got from her only to discover it was the same set of sheets I bought for her the year before. With the same bow, I might add.
It is going to be difficult to buy a gift for someone like Maw Maw this year.
But who knows, I might wrap up that clock that doesn’t work. Maybe she won’t remember. Now if only I could find the bow she used.
Who knew grandkids could be so much fun?
The more I deal with my grandchildren the more I really love it. Having one close by really takes this grandparenting style to new levels.
Lilly Cate, my 21-month old granddaughter that lives in Yazoo City, has become best buddies with her granddaddy and granny. She spends the night with us on occasions and of course her bedtime is whenever she decides it should be.
I am not sure Grant and Mary Catherine appreciate the kind, affectionate, just generally good old spoiling attention we give her. When she is at our home she generally gets what she wants as do all of our other grandchildren when they come to visit.
The night of The Herald Christmas party, which was at our home, Lilly Cate kind of stole the center of attention and really warmed up to Ad Manager Heather Spiars. On this particular night Lilly Cate didn’t go to bed very early, in fact, she stayed up way past when we thought she should be asleep. Come to find out Heather had slipped her six pieces of miniature Hershey bars and if you don’t believe chocolate will keep a toddler awake, I am here to tell you it will.
Grayson, my four-year old grandson, lives in Hernando and had a reasoning session with his paternal granddad just before Christmas. David Rucker, his other granddad, told Grayson that Santa didn’t live at the North Pole but did have his work shop there.
Grayson immediately answered that Santa did live at the North Pole and that his PaPa was wrong. David decided to have some fun with the four-year old and carried on this confrontation for a few moments when Grayson blurted out, “Papa, Santa lives at the North Pole and I would know because I am an expert on the North Pole.”
We are not sure where he became an expert from unless it was with his Wii game. Each time he and I play this game, particularly the golf game, he always wants to play expert level. There is no problem with him at this level since he generally beats me at any level.
Linda got a call today from our daughter Jennifer that lives in Hilton Head, S.C. She informed Linda that Hayden, my nine-year old grandson, was upset that his granddaddy had not called him and told him he was getting another vehicle.
I am not sure where this came from, but I will be calling and talking with my grandson about future car buys I make. I certainly don’t want to buy one that he doesn’t approve of.
Madelyn, my 21-month old granddaughter in Hernando, just keeps plugging along. She and seven-year old Alexis of Hilton Head, are great little ladies and love their grandparents.
Now I know why my parents and parents-in-law always spoiled our children. I’ve been told many times by my father-in-law that if he knew grandkids were going be so much fun, he would have had them first. I have to concur.