Thursday, February 7, 2013

90 Years

In January, my sweet grandmother, Annie Elizabeth, turned 90 years old.  
90 years.... I cannot even imagine all she has seen in her lifetime, but I am very grateful she is here to tell her stories.  And boy, can she remember everything perfectly! 

Some of my best childhood memories are with her and my grandfather.  
We rarely got one on one time with them since there were 10 grandchildren, but every year on your birthday you always got a date to any restaurant you wanted with just the two of them.  

And, they took each grandchild on a special trip around the age of 10 or 11.  Mine was a 3 week road trip to California, Colorado, and everywhere in between.  We covered 13 states in those 3 weeks.  It was amazing and one of the coolest things I have ever done.  My love for travel definitely came from my grandmother and grandfather.       


For her birthday she wanted a simple celebration with all her family together.  
And from all over we came. 
4 children, 10 grandchildren, 5 great grandchildren (+ 2 on the way).  

My grandmother is a Georgian (Atlanta) raised southern girl transplanted to Alabama as an adult.  She loves good southern food so we feasted on fried chicken, mac n cheese, pimento cheese, chicken salad, green beans, and sweet tea.  


They say people can be difficult and more demanding as they become elderly, but not my grandmother.  She is the most easy going and pleasant person you will ever meet.  She is up for anything and always a trooper.  She just wants to be around friends and family.  


As we celebrated her 90 years, she made a up a trivia game for us all to play.  25 questions about her and her life growing up.  Questions ranging from her favorite Christmas present as a child to who she was named for and where she took her first vacation.  Many of us didn't do too well in the game, but we loved hearing more about her life.  


I love that she knows my girls and my girls know her.  Caroline always associates Birmingham with two people: Mimi and Grandmama.  

She is kind, gentle, humble, patient, loving, faithful, and giving.


Happy birthday to one very special woman.
We look forward to many more birthdays with you!