Visiting Maw Maw in Edgard

From as long as I can remember until well into my twenties, my parents took us to see my mother’s parents on Christmas Day. I can still smell the turkey in the oven and see my cousin fishing in the pot of chicken stew to make sure there were enough mushrooms. It was noisy and crowded and opening presents took forever, but I’d trade my right arm to do it all again with my grandfather and aunt there.

Now that Becca, Erica and I are all married with families of our own, we have other families to include and new traditions to enjoy, but C, Olivia and I made a special trip to E-town to see my grandmother a few days after Christmas. It was a great visit and the day went by too fast.

When we were kids we got the idea one year to build a bonfire, and Paw Paw let us put it in the yard next door. To quote my cousin Jonathan, it wasn’t any taller than we were, and that was probably about 4 feet. Basically we burned a trash pile, but we were proud of it. He’s been building a bonfire ever since, and I’d say that this year’s was pretty impressive. He worked on it for three days!

 

These are some of the “yard dogs” that live outside my grandmother’s house. Olivia was so excited to stick her hand through the fence and pet them and be licked. She had a great time playing with the eight (8!!) dogs that live inside too.

My younger cousin, Jeffrey, raises pigs, and Olivia went into their pen to get a closer look at one in real life. Momma watched for a moment and then had to leave because of the smell.

Apparently, Olivia’s thumb went directly into her mouth after this photo was taken. Yum.

The fruit trees behind my aunt’s house were so full that we had to stop and pick some to take home. Maw Maw suggested that C could pick the stuff at the top of the tree that no one else can reach, so he went a step further and climbed into the tree and pulled down everything he could.

There was also lots of talking, cooking and rearranging of toddler-height knick knacks but I didn’t get any photos of that. After dinner we packed up (most of) our stuff and headed back to Alabama. Hopefully we can get back again to visit soon!