Merry Christmas, Grandma Phyllis!

As a Christmas present to my grandma, us grandkids gave her our time for one day to help her clean her house, clean closets, clean her storage room, clean her Christmas decoration closet, clean her 'canning' room, clean her basement and anything else she needed! I don't think she thought we'd actually do it, so we set a date and time and told her we'd be there!

I called Grandma prior to coming and said, "Now, we don't want to be standing around so make sure you have enough jobs for us! We want to get after it!"  Um, well, we had no problem staying busy, that's for sure!

Here are a couple of pictures of the storage room "before" the clean.  By the way, I promised my grandma that I wouldn't share these with anyone. So, shhhhh.

Here's a photo of the storage room after we cleaned:

And, here are a couple of fun photos from the day....notice that my sister is sporting the infamous "sweater" that our family so loves and cherishes.  The funniest comment was when Jenny said, "You know, you make fun of that sweater, but it IS warm, isn't it? It's really keeping you warm and cozy, isn't it, Heather?" Once again, seeking validation for that sweater...

 Here's a photo of my sister looking adoringly at a group of bunnies...that's right...bunnies...made from a glove, wrapped around a plastic cup.  I giggle thinking about what Pinterest might have looked like fifty years ago....tin punches, flower bouquets made out of pop can rings, bunnies made out of gloves, large handpainted saws, crocheted table runners, needlepoint projects, wooden ducks....the list would have been endless.

Here is what we learned about my grandma:
* She likes plastic sacks. For everything.
* She loves packing with newspapers.
* She has odd organization rules....Christmas mugs in the guest room, appliances in the basement, candy in plastic bags in her closet, xmas wrapping paper in the storage room, cookbooks in the guest room dresser....but she knows where everything is!
* She loves appliances....she had food dehydraters, juicers, woks, ice cream makers, can openers, and more. 
* She loves cookbooks....and seemed a little disappointed when we told her we get our recipes online now, and really don't rely on cookbooks very often.
* She had a lot of handmade things from her friends or family, which kind of made me sad. I mean, our generation rarely "makes" something for each other.  We don't hand-paint china, or sew, or paint a wooden box....um, we're better at buying things for each other, I think! Often times, Grandma would say, "Oh, my friend Frannie made me that" or "I got that from my card club"....and, that's my other point...often times, the people who made her things had passed away, or we'd stumble upon something of my uncle Kim's (who has passed away)....and it was kind of sad.  It must be hard growing old and having a lot of your friends and family pass away.
* She loves herself some greenery.  She had fake plants and greenery everywhere and often times, Jenny and I would find some and stuff it in the "donate" box when she wasn't looking.
* We each got to pick out a few treasures....all of us got an old crock, I got a wooden bowl and an old camera of my great grandma's....Grandma said that the way we were all taking things she was worried we were going to poison her lunch so we could have more! We all got a kick out of that.  But, I love the little things I did get from my grandma!
* My dad apparently has a little grandma Phyllis in him....he'd catch us taking something and say, "Hey, don't throw that away!" and "I want that!" and "I'll take care of that- don't worry about it."
* I never knew my grandparents to be big travelers but they apparently like suitcases.

It was a fun day for all of us to be together and to help Grandma. We worked for seven hours straight and could have worked for seven more hours! But, it was a great start and decided this may be an annual gift. It's much more fun to organize and clean when you're with other people, so I was glad we got to help Grandma.  Grandma was VERY appreciative, so that was nice, too.

Every now and then, I'd stop and think about Grandpa....wondering if he was watching us, knowing how I promised him I'd spend time with Grandma and check in on her often and being proud that I've kept that promise to him, but I also just missed him and it made me sad he wasn't there with us. He would have laughed so much and loved that we were all together.  January is always a tough month for me....it seems so long and the dark nights and cold weather always wears on me.  January is when my grandpa got sick and I spent so much time with him.  So, I always feel a sense of loss in January, so it was nice to be with my sister and my cousins on this day.