I had a blast at my grandparents home in Iowa the past 4 days. While the weather was bad on Wednesday, it cooperated with me until about 10 minutes before their house. By the time I arrived, I had ice accumulation on my rear view mirrors and hood. It was icy all night long, and I was able to get a few great photos of the aftermath (which, by the way, were featured on the WGN weather blog and on WGN TV that night. AWESOME!)
I spent most of the night as tech support for my grandma. I fixed the computer, set up her new printer, fixed the TV issues, and reprogrammed the 4 remotes into an all-in-one. I really enjoy being able to help her fix things around the house.
On Thursday, we visited my grandpa at the nursing home, and I was roped into able to attend an abbreviated church service with my grandparents pastor*. My grandma was very excited to have her “heathen” grandchild attend services. (PS: I also went to Christmas Day service at her church. #Iwinthegoodchristianaward). We went shopping for my grandpa’s present (a new electric shaver that he had seen on TV) and spent the night watching Elf and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. It was a good day.
I will post separately about the food on Christmas day (and my small but substantial epiphany) but the day was nice. We spent most of the day at the nursing home, opened presents (see pic below of my grandma’s face as she opened her new pay-as-you-go tracfone that I got her…she is so shocked!:-) Not the best picture of her, but cute anyway!)
The dinner table on Christmas day at the nursing home- my grandpa, his sister, her husband and my grandma. I got the seat of honor. 
It snowed the most beautiful Christmas snow most of the day—big pretty flakes that were amazing. I think we got about 4 inches of snow all said that day.
Above- I finally got a good picture of my grandparents—my grandpa is from the “no smiling in pictures” era…:-)
Saturday was pretty uneventful- we had a snowstorm again in Eastern Iowa that dumped about 4-6 inches of snow. My little Honda Fit had never seen snow, and while I am fine driving my grandparents van, my grandma didn’t want to drive to far out of their little town. The town they live in seems to forget to plow the roads (even the main ones) until about 2pm. The roads are snow packed and horrible most of the day after snowstorms. We spent the day putting together a god-forsaken 500 piece puzzle with lots of trees, sky and grass. Seriously, with both of us working on it, it took 12 hours to finish (with long breaks of course). I thought at one point my grandma was going to toss the table she was so frustrated. I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished product as proof, darnit! Even though it was evil, I had a blast. I love puzzles.
We got another 2 inches of snow overnight, so I spent the morning shoveling (though my grandma pays some dude to shovel for her—he NEVER SHOWED UP- not either day it snowed. I am pissed. She is 8o years old and should not be shoveling.) We ran over to the nursing home (on crap roads—we should have waited to go till later when they had time to clear the roads) and I got to say goodbye to my grandpa before I left for Chicago. It is always bittersweet saying goodbye to my grandparents—4 days is long enough, but they always enjoy my company. I will be back in just 2 1/2 weeks as my mom is flying in from CA and we will drive down to see them.
I drove home and made it back about 4pm this afternoon. Funny story- All week, I was bugging my grandma to fill her ‘blue juice’ as her windshield was filthy. This morning, we bought a jug and I filled her car up.
Guess who ran out of blue juice about 1/2 back to Chicago? Yep, this dunce. Talk about irony.
I have a lot of blog reading to do tomorrow as I had a super s l o w internet connection this week. I can’t wait to hear about your celebrations!
*While I am a spiritual person, I am not a big believer in church right now. I had some bad experiences as a child/teen with cattiness and un-christianlike behavior in a church setting, so I choose right now to not attend a formal church service. I am content to know that I will most likely find a church community I love when I am married and have children.
