Grandma's and Giving: Part 2

This is the giving part of the post. My grandmas always take care of me in one way or another.
Not everybody has a grandma to do that. I've had LOTS of grandparents. I'm lucky. (Not everybody's grandma is as cool as mine but ideally, grandmas are nice. Mine were all nice to ME at least.)
In my lifetime (whether I remember or not...) I've met NINE of my grandmothers, including my German great-great grandma. That's a lot. It's ridiculous.
Many of the people who are the worst off in our country are people who don't have family to help them out, for whatever reason.
I have limited funds to help out, but I don't have limited friends. So I wanted to share some ways you can help if you feel so inclined. These are pretty much all Longmont-centric but they are the places I'd give more to if I could. For any of these, they always need volunteers if that's your preferred method of helping. If you have stuff you want to donate but don't want or have time to take it, let me know. I can pick it up. If you want to give but don't want to shop, I can definitely handle that for you!

First is H.O.P.E. - (Homeless Outreach Providing Encouragement)
http://hopeforlongmont.org/
I've given to the OUR Center in the past but I prefer these guys now. They go out and actually hand things to people. OUR Center is more a place that people go to for help, the HOPE people seem to do more seeking out. Here is a list of their most needed items right now: Half this list I probably have in my house, you might too. If you can spare something, why not give it to someone who will put it to good use?

Second, is the Longmont Humane Society
You can find their whole wish list here, but I'll share some of the most needed items. https://www.longmonthumane.org/?q=wish-list
Urgent Need Items:
Milkbone biscuits, small or medium
Large Blankets (for dogs) sized to fit into a standard washing machine
Canned Fish & Potato dog food
Kundara dog beds- there's a link on their page to a donation program



Last, but not least, is the Inn Between. They offer supportive housing, services, and youth/education programs. https://www.theinnbetween.org/
Rather than donating items for the residents and those they support, they are asking for Gift Cards this year. It helps to empower residents to manage their own budgets. They prefer big box stores such as Target or Walmart because of the variety of things they can buy there.

I asked specifically about their education center (school for children of residents, or homeless teens.) and the teacher provided me with this wishlist:
Single-subject spiral notebooks
Large pink erasers
Couple packages of pencil-top erasers
2 or 3 sets of Multiplication/Division flashcards to give or loan to the kids
Healthy snacks are always appreciated!
Juices or small bottled waters
Apples (She says the kids like them and she'll sometimes bring them in with peanut butter- I'm thinking maybe apple sauce could be a good alternative as well since they'll last)


I might just get a few things from the lists this weekend while I'm taking the nieces shopping for their Christmas. I think they'd like to help me pick stuff out.

 

Grandma's and Giving: Part 1

Most years around Christmas it was common for folks to gather at grandma & grandpa's house.
There were lots of people, not enough bathrooms, and every surface that could fit a human was now a bed. Some treats were already made, some already delivered by neighbors and friends, some were still in progress. Grandpa always made, and still makes, fudge. My mother practically doesn't consider it Christmas until fudge is involved. There was always banana bread, peanut clusters, peanut brittle, and more. Not that we NEEDED all the variety, but we didn't want to leave anything out!

We always stayed up too late. We played games, watched movies & football, went out to shoot stuff or run around the prairie if the weather was nice enough. (It used to actually snow in December, if you young folk don't remember that.)
Taboo and Catch Phrase were two of the favorite games. I'm half surprised we didn't have a running chart of people who we "banned" from being on the same team. It happened at least once every game. Every now and then we'd have to pause to figure out if we were following the rules or not.

Once it got late enough the children would start getting ready for bed, assuming their bed wasn't where the grown ups were still hanging out, and things would mellow out a little bit. Not to say there weren't frequent intervals of "MOOOOOOM....I'm thirsty." Or "Mooooooom, Eathon won't lay down." Or pajama'd creatures creeping around for some reason or another, one being sleep walking which seems to run in the family.
Those of us that stayed up would grab some hot chocolate or grandma's usual, Café Vienna, and talk about whatever came up. More often than not it meant laughing until you hurt. The later it got, the more some laughed. Grandma was certainly one of those. We have pictures to prove it.
Once you got someone to snort (cough cough Diney...grandma cough cough) then it's like you won the game and moved to a new level. I'm certain I have a pretty high score.

Breakfast, of course, was always an epic undertaking. Biscuits and gravy were/are a favorite. You had to be at the front of the line if you wanted bacon. There's never quite enough bacon. Because if there IS enough bacon then someone will eat more bacon and if you haven't had any yet then you're out of luck. Is there EVER really enough bacon?
I have the reputation for being the moody over-sleeper. Doesn't matter how early I wake up or how pleasant I may be, I am still that.

Now, if it's really Christmas or Christmas Eve then you get to fill the stockings after the kiddos go to bed, then breakfast is the 2nd priority Christmas morning. Being the oldest grandkid I usually got to help with decorations, stockings and assist Santa. I made some of the stockings one year (meaning, added the name in glitter glue) and spelled my uncle's name wrong. It's still like that.
Grandma LOVED the decorations. The more the better. She liked working herself nearly to death to create more food than any normal family should be able to eat. The fridge would be crammed full, the counters would be crammed full, extra snack tables would be brought out, dishes were pretty much non-stop, the oven was on half the day. There was a constant in-and-out and putting on of coats and boots and someone yelling to take your boots off at the door and someone yelling about stepping on an ice puddle or a goat head because someone didn't take their boots off at the door. The dog was full of fancier-than-usual scraps from dinner. He'd get all caked with snow but joyfully romp with the children and herd them around. There was sledding and crying. There was loud talking and laughing. There was taking up and down of tables and shuffling of beds, suitcases, presents, children, food, cars, coats, dogs.

This doesn't really happen anymore. Grandma's gone and the kids are grown up and have kids. We'd need a compound at this point. I went out for Thanksgiving about 3 years ago but I don't remember the last time I was actually at the grandparents house. I have city Christmases now. It has it's own charm I guess. My ideal Christmas now is a pizza party with cookies. I'm trying to get folks on board.
I want to be excited for the season and all but it's dull excitement. Issue #1 is Christmas itself. I'm not Christian so....small issue. But I fully celebrate Solstice and yule and the general merriment of things.
There are twinkly lights and GLITTER is on, like, everything. That part is awesome. Me and my honey may create some sort of tradition but don't really have any specifically. I do have a tiny tree for the first time in a while. It's pink and holds dinosaurs, I do holidays my way. I hoping to get some colorful lights but I'm waiting until we get new windows in a week.

The moral of my story here is that Christmas isn't quite Christmas without grandma.
Grandma Jessie was the biggest piece of that. For me, anyway. The joy she got from Christmas (not to mention anything and everything else) was infectious. She loved finding just the right gift for everyone.
Grandma Doris will have her tree up as long as she's able to get those decorations on. (I suspect my decorative aunties will help her if she can't do it herself.) She will always have cookies. Regular and "her kind" which means diabetic friendly. She always gives practical presents. She likes the lights and the decorations but could do without the cold. Just like me.
Grandma Nan keeps on making those skinny sugar cookies I love so much even though I'm pretty sure she's been saying for years that she's not going to make them anymore. I mean, you can eat like 3 times the amount of cookies because they're skinny! And she decorates EVERY single cookie.