Gaga and Mother Mc

Pics from Christmas 2005

My Great Grandmother, Mother Mack, passed away this past Sunday. She was 96 years old. And up until this past year she was still able to live at home with some help. I am so grateful to have known her and to have had her in my life all of these years.

Danny's Grandfather, Gaga, passed away in April. He was a wonderful man, a slow talker, but always had something to say that would make you laugh or smile. He would always call me "Sweetheart" and Grant "Precious."

They will both be greatly missed.

In dealing with these recent losses, we've had to figure out how to talk to a 3 year old about death. The best advice I found was to keep it plain and simple for his age.

As I tried to prepare Grant, I explained.... Gaga was very, very sick and very very old. He died and he won't be with us anymore. I explained that people will crying because we are sad and will miss him very much.

The next day I reminded him again that people may be crying at the service. And-- in his own little way of letting me know he understood-- he replied, "I miss Gaga."

My heart melted.

Destin

We are already wanting to go back to the beach. We tried something different this year and headed to Destin with our good friends Sara and Brian and their little girl Addison. And what a great time we had!

The kids were up 6:00am the first morning so we were out on the beach by 8:15am. The remaining mornings were thankfully not so early. Here's how pretty much everyday was spent... Wake up. Eat breakfast. Get ready. Head to the beach. Sun, sand, ocean. Head to the pool. Sun, splash, swim. Condo for lunch. Nap for the kids and sometimes the adults. Head back to the pool or golf course. Get ready. Out to dinner. The guys hit the golf course one day and the girls did the outlet mall another. Drop in a few Corona's and a pina coloda here and there and that was pretty much it. Just the way we like it.



The kids got along GREAT! Grant would chant Addison's name... "Addsin, Addsin, Addsin." And Addison would copy what ever was saying or doing. Grant was still a little fearful of the ocean. But he would stay in it all day if we carried him in. Him and Addison loved riding in their "Big Blue Boat." They would purposely fall out of the float as we scampered to catch them. We'll always remember the story behind these hats.



We were even able to capture some great family photos. A little fruit snack bribery never hurts.