Grandma Walker's CandyLand

When I was a young girl, Christmas time was a magical time. It’s always a bit more magical when you’re children than when you are an adult – or at least you don’t have to work as hard at finding the magic. But perhaps one of the most special times of Christmas was going to Grandma Walker’s house. What else would you expect of the epitome of grandmotherhood than the perfect place to have Christmas. Grandma’s house wasn’t big, but seemed to have an endless supply of nooks and crannies. And every one of them held some sort of treasure. Perhaps it was the little shelf in the kitchen that held the small iron stove and cookery that would keep me entertained for hours. Maybe it was Grandaddy’s closet that smelled like cologne, hay, and cigars and the hidden ladder to the attic that was strictly forbidden to one and all. There was the little room, just off the kitchen, where games and old toys could be found in the closet, and old clothes and knickknacks were stored in the dresser that no one had used in years. I think that I learned to snoop from visiting with my grandmother, because she just had so much stuff tucked away. Almost every item had some story – whether it was a yard sale item from someone who she had known since she was young, or perhaps it was something that had belonged to her mother, or my dad. And everything, but everything, was saved because it might have some purpose later. I think I also inherited that collecting gene from her as well – it seems that throwing anything away is really more sin than a matter of practicality.

One thing that I most remember about Grandma’s at Christmas time is the food. When I was younger, Grandma did most of the cooking. At least, I don’t ever remember arriving with dishes in hand, only gifts. The small table would be spread with mashed potatoes, chicken and stuffing, something we call porkstuff (I don’t really know what it is except that pork was involved somehow). There might have been beans of some type; for sure there were deviled eggs. But the good stuff was always kept in the sewing room or the back bedroom.

My grandmother’s house doesn’t have central heat and air. She had a wall heater in the kitchen and the bathroom and a space heater in the living room. So, in the winter months the other rooms in the house were always cold. Not quite see your breath cold, but really chilly. And after we walked in and stored our presents under the three, I would begin to work my way through these rooms looking for Grandma’s Christmas candy. In the large oblong Tupperware dish she would have chocolate covered peanut butter balls. And it was so easy to snag one or two without being seen or even making a dent in the final amount. Other dishes contained a myriad of confections. She would usually make divinity – with and without nuts – but it always tasted like stale marshmallows to me so those were safe. There would always be something peanutbuttery (cornflake candy, or perhaps candy made from crunchy lo mein noodles), sometimes peanut butter brittle. You could find fried apple pies. And if it was a really good year, there would be container after container of GOBS. Gobs were my grandmother’s home meade version of cupcakes. They were round chocolate cake that had been split and filled with homemade creamed icing. They were light and fluffy and you could eat about 12 without really feeling like you’d eaten anything at all. Wonderfuly gooey things that to this day make my entire family salivate.

And if you weren’t into home made confections, my grandma and granddaddy also had other sweet treats about. My granddaddy had a corner and a chair in the living room. It was his spot and only for rent when he was at work or out on the farm somewhere. My grandmother had made some little pockets to hang on the side of the chair and that’s where granddaddy kept his special treats. Spillover treats found their way to a variety of jars and dishes on his little side table. My granddaddy had simple tastes when it came to candy. He loved the keebler chocolate wafers and would keep a package of them beside his chair at all times. There would often be salted peanuts. He liked to put some in his Dr. Pepper – which I never really understood and thought was a little gross, but to each his own. He would have circus peanuts, chocolate covered coconut drops (which was not the name he gave them, he called them nigger-toes which is not at all politically correct or appropriate but the name that first pops into my head when I see them). And on the coffee table, or perhaps the end table, there would be a dish. No leaded crystal, but a fancy beveled glass my grandmother would keep some ribbon candy. This candy would invariably have melted together sometime in the past and become more one giant clump than individual pieces of candy. And the candy was always, but always, a last resort choice. If nothing better could be found in the house, the ribbon candy would sort of satisfy the need for sweets cravings that seemed to roar to life as soon as I stepped foot into my grandmother’s house. Grandma always kept a little something made up, and almost always had something on the stove. Her house was the house that everyone came to for every holiday. Her house was the house where everyone came for breakfast, lunch and dinner – she was always ready and happy to feed who ever came knocking.

My grandma doesn’t keep that dish out in the living room anymore. She usually keeps something sweet on the kitchen table, though that dish is now brown and pretty large. And like most things the vivid richness of the treats have faded and dulled. I know that logically it’s because she no longer has the home where everyone pops in. But the memory is still there and welcomes me when I walk in the door. The feel of her house is still there and clings to me, tugs at my inner child and reminds me that this house and this woman created magic for me, my brother and sister. And she is creating some of those memories for my children – for them she’s the cinnamon toast woman. Though she often apologizes that she can’t do like she used to, she will happily make him an entire loaf of cinnamon toast when we come down. So now, my children also have that come to graze mentality that hits everyone at Grandma Walker’s house. It’s not the same amount of magic that I was able to feel, but it’s something. More importantly, it’s enough. It’s enough that my children are able to partake in my grandma’s ability to cook love into every dish.

The Classic Sleepover

Instead of a birthday party this year, Elijah had some friends from school sleepover. Now, I admit that this wasn’t a suggestion that Elijah came up with on his own… I suggested it because I just didn’t have the wherewithal to plan a big birthday extravaganza like I have for the past 3 years – especially when only 4 kids every show up anyway.

There are a few basic rules that I think should be followed for any sleepover.

Rule 1: Always have an even number of kids – especially if it’s a party for girls. Kids tend to pair off. And if you have only 3 kids, or any odd number really, you will have one child who feels left out and unhappy. Sometimes that ends up being your kid – which no one wants as he can’t call his parents to come and get him early – he’s stuck there. So it’s best to have even numbers. The groups of two tend to change as the evening progresses, but everyone is generally happier.

Rule 2: Find some activity for the first evening that will make the children tired (preferably exhausted) before bedtime. We went to Chuck E. Cheese (with coupon for double tokens) and then McDonald’s indoor playground. We spent roughly 3 hours (total) in both places. The kids got to play all the games they wanted (no one came and asked for more tokens). They played long enough to be hungry when it was time to go. And they had enough tokens so that everyone had about 100 tickets and got two or three things from the prize boxes. At McDonalds, everyone played long enough that they had worked up a sweat and they all began to have that I’m getting a little tired look in their eyes.

Rule 3: Have good music that you can listen to loud in the car. I have found, especially for short car trips, having good music with a lot of kids in the car makes a difference. Without music they will begin to search in the crevices of the seat, the floor board and their pockets for objects that make quality projectiles. Said projectiles never hit the intended target who is sitting right next to them, but rather will hit the toddler in the car seat three rows over, the back of your head, or the windshield. I can only assume this isn’t the intended target because when confronted with angry mommy voice, the assailant will invariably claim that it was an accident. And being a strong believer in the inherent good in all, I will believe them – if they can make the claim with sincere voice and facial expression.

Rule 4: Keep them up late. In a further quest to make your evening go smoothly, when you return home, have some simple activities for the kids to do. We used playdoh and playstation. The evening isn’t the time for Jedi attack and running through the house – as you are going to be on the verge of grumpy and don’t want children returning to their home saying something like – Elijah’s mom shouts a lot!!!! Let every child know that they have until a specific time (I picked 845 – which was already past all bed times but Elijah’s) to play games. When the nerdy kid informs you that his bedtime is at 7:30 – make a big deal about being able to break all the rules at a sleep over. Of course, this only works with small children. Never suggest to a 10 year old that he can break all the rules – as he will not be content with the bed time hour rule alone.

Rule 5: Be prepared for the wind-down. Having kept the children up for at least an hour past their bed time it’s time for the wind down. The wind down is what I think is really the best part of any sleep over. It’s the part that most everyone remembers the most. It’s that time when everyone is in the bed and the giggling begins. This is the time when the parents have to go in repeatedly and say, boys keep it down. It could escalate until you get to “Don’t make me come in there!!” but if you’ve followed the previous steps well enough, then it shouldn’t be necessary.

Rule 6: The morning after. It never fails that, despite being up late the night before, the children will arise, en mass, not that hour of 9:30 as you had hoped, but exactly 30 minutes before you normally arise for work on any other day. Typically, this is not a gradual slow awakening where they are content to sit in bed, snuggle under the covers and watch television. Really, it’s much more as if the pause button has finally shut off and they are going to resume activities from the night before. It is almost always the two who were up the latest who will wake up the earliest – which is nice because then you know exactly who to blame for your own irritability the next day.

Rule 7: Serve a heavy breakfast. As you stumble about the house trying to function on a mere 2 hours of sleep – a nap really, your quest for today is to make the children as slow moving as possible so that you can survive the morning until parents begin to pick up their children. To facilitate this, you want to feed them a big, heavy breakfast. If the food itself doesn’t slow them down, the sheer weight of the meal should make them at least 10 lbs heavier so they are not as mobile as they once were. It also might result in extended visits to the restroom.

Rule 8: Kick them outside! After feeding them a meal that would harden even the cleanest arteries, send those children outside to play. If you time it well, then the parents don’t even have to come into the house (which will be trashed – mostly because you didn’t bother to clean it for kids – and they didn’t bother to clean whatever they played with the night before).

Rule 9: Force your child to admit through direct questioning that he did indeed have the best evening ever and pat yourself on the back.

Halloween

Well, another Halloween has come and passed. The good news is that we've found a really good neighborhood to trick or treat in. The houses are pretty close and they give out good candy - lots of chocolate - not a lot of penny / hard candy!

It was, again, Isaiah's halloween. He is so small - and Elijah's costume choice for him was absolutely perfect - so he got lots of accolades. I'm pretty sure that Isaiah would have been happy to go on for another hour or so. As it was, we spent an hour and a half, got enough candy to last until easter (not the chocolate of course, franklin, isaiah and I will work through it pretty quickly) and have officially left dinosaur world for outer space.

Hope you enjoy the video. -- though the music cuts out to early and the last title is missing - i'm tired of fighting my computer -- sigh...