A First Mother's Day

Mother's Day flowers

We were able to spend Mother's Day with our son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. It was a year of firsts, as Megan celebrated her first Mother's Day and I celebrated my first Mother's Day as a grandma. What a special time!

On the day before Mother's Day we went to a winery, and Baby W was as good as gold. Then on Sunday Andy surprised us with flowers, and the guys made us a nice steak dinner with all the trimmings. The kids also gave me a Grandmother's Journal. It contains a lot of questions about my family tree, childhood, teen years, adulthood, marriage, birth of my son, etc. I have been enjoying the thought-provoking questions. I try to answer a few every day so it is not so overwhelming. Hopefully my granddaughter will enjoy reading through it some day. How I would have loved to read about either of my grandmothers, in their own words!

We were able to spend several days with the kids, and it is so wonderful to observe the changes in the baby each time we visit. We are hoping that they will be able to come and see us next month.

Phase 3 and Holding

Last week Governor Cooper decided to keep North Carolina in Phase 3, which we entered on October 2nd. That was to expire on October 23rd, but with the increase (again) in cases, he decided to keep the mandates in place for an additional three weeks. 

Here is where things stand: Today marks day 159 of Safer at Home and day 216 of overall restrictions. The number of cases continues to be grim. To date, North Carolina has had 262,000 cases and 4,200 deaths. In the United States there have been 8.78 million cases and 226,000 deaths. Worldwide there have been 43.6 million cases and 1.16 million deaths. 

Experts are predicting that here in the United States we are going into a two to three month period where the growth in cases will be exponential. Part of the increase in numbers will no doubt be the result of holiday gatherings. Whether it is college students heading home or families congregating to celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas and other occasions, get togethers inside put everyone at a higher risk of exposure. But after eight long months of being separated from loved ones, it will be hard to convince Americans that they can't get together to participate in their normal holiday activities. After all, no one likes a Grinch.

Bring on 2019

We had a very nice Christmas holiday. Our daughter arrived on the 23rd, and she and Jim went to see A Christmas Story at the St. Louis Repertory Theatre. I'm probably the only person in America who cannot stand that show, and I have already seen it at both the Rep and the Fox Theatres, not to mention countless movie viewings. I was so excited that she wanted to go so that I didn't have to see it again.

Anastasia

Christmas Eve we drove up to Iowa to see my in-laws, and we didn't tell them that Katie was coming with us. They were very much surprised, and we had a wonderful visit with everyone. On the 27th we came back to St. Louis, and the 28th Katie and I went to the Fox Theatre to see Anastasia. It was excellent, and I had a fun night with my girl. Jim went out to dinner with us before the show, but he graciously let Katie have his play ticket.

cranberry cosmos

On the 29th Andy and Megan arrived after having spent Christmas with her parents and family. We opened our gifts that afternoon, enjoying our customary holiday cocktail (cranberry cosmos) as we did so. That night the four of them went to the St. Louis Blues hockey game while I finished getting things ready for an open house on Sunday. We invited my sister and her family as well as some old neighbors over for the afternoon so that they could have an opportunity to see our kids. It was a very nice afternoon.

New Year's Eve we drove out to a winery in St. Charles County, played some games, watched the local fireworks from our perch on the curb in front of our house, and then toasted in the new year. Katie flew back home the next day.

Aerie's Winery

Wednesday the four of us visited the newly reopened Soldiers Memorial in downtown St. Louis, and then had dinner at Cunetto's restaurant on The Hill. Thursday we stopped by the Audubon Center before driving up the River Road to Aerie's Winery in Grafton. This is the first winery I have been to where they charge by the glass for a tasting, and you can select any wine on the menu. Normally I don't do the tastings because I only like sweet wines and those normally aren't an option. At Aerie's I tried two different wines, and settled on getting a glass of one of them to enjoy as the others drank their selected wines. The views from the winery are incredible, as advertised. From there we hit Ted Drewe's for the requisite frozen custard stop.

Andy and Megan headed out on January 3rd, and actually drove straight through to their home in Virginia. We are trying to get back into the groove of not having company, and also getting back to healthy eating habits again.

The holidays were filled with great food, games, puzzles, laughs, presents and, most importantly, being surrounded by our family. It was a great way to end the year, and to get 2019 off on the right foot.

Happy New Year