Please note: per my daughters after reading this........the facts in this piece may have been "slightly" exaggerated to enhance the story. But it sure was fun to tell this way.
Gramma's Gravy Boat
When it comes to sentimental saps I thought I was the ultimate, but I think I have a daughter who is almost as bad.
I am one of those moms who saved almost everything from my daughter’s childhoods; the first blanket, the first dress, the dedication dress, the first shoes, all of the report cards and trophies. You get the picture.
When each of my girls had their first daughter, I very gently brought their precious little clothes out of the drawer where they had been for a very long time, and with tears in my eyes, I washed them all (by hand, I’ll have you know) remembering the exact day when each of my little girls wore them.
I wrapped them in a real box with real baby paper. (cracker boxes and old shoe boxes wouldn’t do for this magnificent gift I had to give them, but they do work for Christmas and Birthday gifts.)
As soon as the call came I was off to the hospita, flowers in one hand and “the gift” for my new granddaughter in the other. I remember those days with great clarity. My daughters are rather independent and they didn’t want their mother coaching them through birth. (They said something like “that’s what I have a husband for, besides you are too bossy. One of them even scheduled her C-section on a Monday but told me it was going to be on Tuesday.) So anyways, I had to wait like a whole hour before I could see my own grandbabies. Like I said, I remember the days with great clarity.
Since I had already missed one hour of the baby’s life, I had to sprint down the hospital corridor to where our new baby was. I was exhausted when I got there, but not too exhausted to tear that baby out of the arms of my sons in law. In my opinion, it was a fair deal since they had taken my daughters.
After I checked that baby over from head to toe, kissed every square inch of them, cooed at them until I was sure they knew my voice, wept with joy and declared them perfect just like their mothers, I remembered the gift I had brought them.
I watched all three of my daughters open those gifts and even though those three girls are as different as the seasons they all reacted the same way to my gift. They got this look on their faces like, I’m not sure how to describe it, maybe it was like the one you get when you bite into a lemon and then in this squeaky voice they said, “ohhhhhhhh, these are ……cute?” I honestly think they thought I bought my new granddaughter’s gift at a garage sale or the good will.
Even after I explained the gift to them, they were skeptical. One of them even had the nerve to ask, “do we have to wear these on our kid?” Can I help it if there were still spit up and stinky stains on some of them? Ok, a couple of the little dresses didn’t have elastic in the arms anymore and one of the blankets was a little raveled out.
I guess it was a good thing that under the old stuff there was a whole bunch of new stuff that I just had not been able to resist buying while I waited those long nine months for “my” babies to get here.
I tell you this story so you will know how very sentimental I am and yes, I am getting to the gravy boat. After the babies clothes fiasco, I decided I would not be saving any more treasures for my girls. I guess there really isn’t anything I have that my kids will be fighting over when I am dead. Unless it is their Gramma’s gravy boat. After our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday the sentimental one says she wants that when I am gone. The old ugly gravy boat? Well, okay then. I guess since she is my mashed potato lover girl, I better tell the other two, they are out of luck.
But since I am still a little upset about having to wait to see the babies I am not going to share my recipe for gravy with any of them. And it is the recipe for the watery lumpy kind that jells well after sitting for a few minutes. I am very sentimental about that recipe and I don’t want them making fun of it.
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