Christmas in Illinois

Being a grandparent is all it's cracked up to be. You get to play with the babies until they're fussy and then hand them off to their parents. You get to buy them obnoxious, noise-making gifts and not be subjected to the chaos that creates. You get to laugh at their cute antics and not bear the consequence of the reinforced behavior that is no longer cute. All of that I expected. What I didn't expect was to experience grandchildren as such a strong link to my own family of origin, to Mom & Dad, to memories of Auntie Litz, Jim & Jane, Terry & Kari, Grandma Holst. Clara and Lucas loved Dad's car...the one he made in duplicate for Ben & Jonathan. As Clara learned to insert the ignition key in the right place and Lucas figured out how to open the hood without mangling his fingers I wondered if Dad was smiling over them.

We all went to the bowling alley on the day after Christmas for a family outing suitable for all ages (as long as there are grandparents to distract the babies). I saw the real bowlers with their wheely bowling bags and remembered Mom & Dad's '50's style bowling bags; Dad's efforts to teach me to throw a straight ball and my total resistance to learning anything from him.

I wondered if Mom & Dad got as much of a thrill out of seeing me become a parent as I get out of watching Suzanne, Jonathan & Peter with their kids? If it made them as happy to see Mary become Aunt Mary to my kids as it makes me to see Michael be 'Uncle Mike'? Did they come to love Jim the way I love Elizabeth, Amanda & Jay? Were they as grateful for Jim as I am for these 3 who love my children?

Katie is the best gift of all this Christmas. Every single one of us agrees that Mary is the greatest...she made her visit possible. Jonathan says that Katie reminds him of his Aunt Mary, in her mannerisms, an occasional look about her. All I know is that, like her mother, she makes us all laugh. Who else would have found 'obscene' bandaids to put in Jay's stocking? (you can imagine the words printed on the bandaids!) And like her father she can tell a story with perfect timing that has everyone in stitches.

Families can be hard, they can be painful. What in life isn't that way sometimes? But for this Christmas of 2008 I feel tremendously blessed...in my immediate family, in my extended family, in my family of origin. And very grateful.