Julie's Journal

We met Jami, Michael, and Fiona on Tuesday morning in Bethlehem, GA and transferred Fiona to my car to come spend 2 nights with Gramalie & Grandaddy. She was very excited! We drove down to the heart of Bethlehem to see if we could see something special – but nothing but a little post office where people come from far and wide to mail their Christmas cards! Fiona and I stopped by Publix before we got home to pick up a few things (I don’t know how you mom’s handle all this carseat stuff all the time). We came home, ate lunch with grandaddy, and we played the rest of the afternoon, went to the park, and took a long walk (with her in the stroller which also has to be buckled in like a carseat). We had supper and she wanted a bubble bath, then she asked to sleep in the crib. Of course, she could sleep anywhere she wanted to, so that was fine with us. She was in bed by 8:15 and slept til 7:00 a.m.

We had breakfast, got dressed and went to pick up Kelly and Claire. We all went to the Mall of Georgia which is huge! Fiona was in (and out) of the stroller (having to be buckled in and out). We ate lunch at some Pretzel place and just had cinnamon-sugar pretzels and soft drinks. Well, I had a pretzel wrapped hot dog, but the girls didn’t want one of those. Our main purpose to go to the mall was for Kelly and Claire to shop for their family presents. We were mostly successful with shopping in Claire’s (the store named after Mary Claire) and the candy store. They were all very good and Claire and Kelly were a huge help with pushing and buckling in and out Fiona.

We were home by 4:30, and had healthy snacks of apples, bananas, peanut butter, cheese, and milk since we had such a terrible lunch. We were all pretty tired, so the girls watched The Little Mermaid. Fiona was a little bit scared. After the movie, we had spaghetti and yogurt, and about 8:00 p.m. the girls voluntarily went upstairs and got dressed for bed. Fiona wanted to sleep in the crib again and Kelly and Claire slept in the twin beds in the same room. Fiona said they were going to talk and talk all night. So lights went out and they started talking, and before long Fiona went to sleep. Claire and Kelly sneaked out and came back downstairs and Grandaddy, the girls and I played Mexican Train for a long time. Lights were really out and everybody in bed by 11:15.

Fiona slept until 7:38 and, of course, we all had to get up when she woke up. The girls and grandaddy all piled in bed with me. It reminded me of that song years ago on Captain Kangaroo about the little dogs that went to bed and “they all rolled over and one fell out”. We had pancakes for breakfast, and the girls all got dressed on their own, then we had arts and crafts. They colored in the comics in the newspaper with colored pencils, and they looked like Sunday comic when they finished. They used dots to decorate and Claire made her own cartoon strip with “dot people”. They also played hide-and-seek.

We piled in the car about 12:30 to go meet Grant in Between, GA to return Fiona. Then, Grandaddy, Claire, Kelly and I stopped at Wendy’s and had lunch, and we had them back to their house by 3:30. It was a fun couple of nights to be with the girls. They are all so precious and good. I think they had a good time. We sure did.

Gramalie