I adored my great grandma, affectionately know as Granny, and known to me as Grandma NeeNee (I couldn’t say ‘Granny’ when I was younger; it came out as ‘NeeNee’). In fact, I think everyone adored her. She was just fun to be around and very adventurous.

She would play teacher with me, and, of course, always be the misbehaving student. She would wade in creeks, play in barns, climb in fishing boats on land, and walk in pastures with me. She would write letters-in-a-bottle and throw them in the creek with me, allowing me to believe the letter would actually make its way down the creek, someone would find it, and said someone would call us back using her phone number I included in the letter. She did all of these things well into her seventies. Granny was just, well, Granny!

Granny made rugs out of bread bags and grocery bags. Granny used the same gold, orange, and green diagonal striped wrapping paper for as long as I can remember. The ream of paper was HUGE! In fact, I’m pretty sure there was still some left even after she passed away. For most birthdays, Granny gave me what she thought was a couple of dollars worth of change, except I’d always have at least one nickel in my envelope of quarters. She would explain to me that nickels just looked so much like quarters that it was hard for her to see the difference :). I recently ran across a picture of Granny and my brother. My brother was about seven months old. He had a pork chop bone in his mouth, Granny beside him watching and smiling. This was Granny!

Granny made pillows using her scraps of material. The material never matched. The material shapes were never symmetrical. The pillows were literally made out of her scraps, whatever color and whatever shape those might be. I never remember watching her make the pillows, but I definitely remember the pillows. In fact, I have one and love it…

You can probably only appreciate this pillow if you knew Granny :).

This year is our daughter’s first Christmas. Somehow the idea came to me to make her a stocking using the same design (I use this term loosely – Granny didn’t ‘design’ anything! Lol) Granny used for her pillows. I used part of one of Granny’s shirts I remember her wearing and material my other great grandma used for sewing. With a little help (who am I kidding, A LOT of help) from my grandma, I sewed a stocking! It took us about three hours :/. I really wanted to finish it off with the X stitching that was famous of Granny’s pillows, but after three hours, I just didn’t have it in me. I have no idea how Granny had the patience!

I know it may not look like much to you, but this stocking brought tears to my eyes :). I absolutely love it! And, I absolutely love that I’ll always have the memory of making it with my grandma!