A Little Grandma Memory

This snowy cold morning I decided biscuits, sausage, and gravy would be a great way to start the day and to warm up.  On these cold days I get in a cooking mood...........it is a good way to warm the house, and who doesn't need an extra layer of fat around their bodies so bring on the biscuits and gravy!  Baby, it's cold outside!!!  As I pulled out the Shawnee Mills biscuit mix package, I was reminded of Grandma Dawkins, her short fingers, stiffened with arthritis, mixing the biscuit dough right there in that large wooden bowl.  It was always filled with flour so she'd mix a little baking powder, salt, etc., right into the center of the flour, then she'd form a little well for the milk.  After the milk was mixed in, she'd knead the dough right in the center of the bowl, leaving the excess flour in the bowl for the next need for biscuits.  That took talent.  Just how did she know how much flour to use?  Not so much talent using biscuit mix. 

The last few days I have been cleaning, making lists, cleaning, and preparing to have my family, all 39 of us, at my house for a Christmas party.  I will not lie, I have been more than a little worried; worried about the size of my house versus the size of my family. 

As I was making the biscuits and thinking of Grandma, I remembered all those Christmases at her house...........a four room house.  You heard that right, four rooms, not four bedrooms.  We lived about a half mile from them and I was at her house a lot and I don't ever remember her ever saying a word about the size of her house.  She had that true Christmas spirit in her heart.  She was delighted to have us all there with her.  Not a person sat down at a table and you know what?  We had a wonderful time.  Memories.  

 

 

These are a couple of pictures I took of her and Grandpa on her last Christmas, 1971.  Grandpa with his pipe.  I remember it well.  In the first picture Grandma's eyes didn't have that normal twinkle.  She wasn't doing all that well by then.  She only lived another 2 1/2 months.  In fact, she died two days before my wedding.  That Christmas day, 1971, was spent at Aunt Norma's house, and I think most of us knew it wouldn't be long, but we celebrated Christmas.  We were together and that is all that mattered.  It didn't matter if we were at Aunt Norma's or if we were in that four room house.  We were together.  And look, Grandpa is setting right there next to her.  I don't remember that happening before.  Maybe, I just don't remember.  I find it very touching.

So with a joyful heart and glad tidings in my heart, we are going to celebrate Christmas at my house.  We will be together, all 39 of us............We will have food...........We may not set at the table...........We will be together...........We will celebrate Christmas.........For unto us a Savior is born. 

A little Grandma memory.  I love you.

P. S.  I didn't write this to make you sad, but happy that we had this wonderful woman in our lives.  I am sad to say that not everyone enjoys someone as special as my grandma in their lives.

That year Grandma gave each of us a two dollar bill in an envelope.  Two dollar bills were new back in 1971.  I still have mine.  I will never spend it, nor will I throw away the envelope addressed to me in her handwriting.  Rhonda has Grandpa's pipe in his ashtray displayed at her house and I have that cherished wooden bowl. 

PRECIOUS MEMORIES