I recently received a request for ideas of little gifts that grandmas can take when they visit their grandchildren. The message didn’t mention what age the grandchildren were or if they were boys or girls. So, I’m going to give suggestions of things that you can take for young grandchildren and older ones and ideas of things for boys and for girls.

Before I give my ideas, I thought that I would mention that when my mother-in-law visited, she always brought a stick of sugar free gum for the kids. Just one stick. She lived fairly close and we would see her several times a month. If you are in this situation (and also have many grandchildren), giving a little gift can get expensive. I think that’s why my mother-in-law gave just one stick of gum. It was inexpensive plus really easy to take along when she came over. And the grandchildren loved it. (It was also something she could easily put in a letter as she wrote to her grandchildren who lived far away.)

Ideas for little granddaughters:
• Barrettes
• Little anklet socks (that you’ve added lace, ribbons, bows, or buttons to)
• Coloring books, crayons and markers
• Books (and maybe a simple bag for your granddaughter to put her books in)
• Holiday knick knacks from the dollar store
• Stickers
• A pencil with a fun design on it or a pen with colored ink (like orange or green or gold or silver) and colored paper to write on

Ideas for little grandsons:
• Matchbox cars
• Bubbles
• Something from the Oriental Trading company — a sticky hand, glow in the dark bouncing balls, gliders, camouflaged dog tags, or glow in the dark slime (some of these things could be found at a dollar store, too)

Some of these things from the Oriental Trading Company come in a bag of a dozen (or more). This could be far more than you need for your grandchildren. So, maybe you could share with some of your friends who are also grandmothers. You can each get two or three different bags of things and then split them up among yourselves and viola! You have a variety of things to give your grandsons without having lots of leftovers.

Another idea is to take some craft items of things that you could make together. Not only are you giving a gift, you’ll be giving a gift of yourself, your time, and your attention as you make the craft together.

I’ve always liked Sculpy Clay. It fosters creativity and is lots of fun to use. You might want to poke around the site for fun ideas.

One idea I saw a while ago (and can’t find it now . . . rats!) was a set of utensils with red and white Sculpy clay wrapped around the handles to make them look like a candy cane. A personalized set of utensils for your grandchild. Fun!

Ideas on the Sculpy site that would be of interest to boys:
• A monitor lizard (which could also be made into a book bag buddy or zipper pull or magnet)
• Skinny the Skunk bookmark buddy
• Easter/spring ideas such as Easter Egg erasers, bunny pencil holder)

Sculpy Clay projects for older girls:
• Coneflower pens
• Picture frames
• House number plaque
• Candle ring
• I love you photo holder

Another idea for older grandchildren is to take a recipe on a fancy recipe card in addition to a recipe file box. This can be the beginning of a collection of family recipes. Or, you could print a couple of recipes on fun paper, put the paper in a plastic sheet protector, and then in a binder. Each time you visit you could take a new sheet of recipes for the binder. You could also take the ingredients to make the recipe and have some fun in the kitchen with your grandchild.

I stumbled upon a craft site that has lots of ideas of craft projects. Here are a few of the ideas:

Craft Bits
• Wish bracelet out of hemp and seed beads
• Butterfly bead bookmark
• Peppermint candy spoons
• Paper envelopes
• Soap and candle making projects
• Bead and ribbon bookmarks

If you have ideas of other small gifts you can take your grandchildren, please post a comment and share your ideas.

Have fun,
Digi-Gram

After a LONG struggle, our daughter and her husband are going to have a baby.  Yipee!!!

They found out on Tuesday that they were going to have a girl.  Here’s her picture.  Don’t all grandmothers pull out pictures (like this one) of their grandchildren and brag about them???  (Bragging here refers to the grandkids, not the pictures.) Our beautiful granddaughter looks just like her mother did at this age . . .

Now (for me) comes the fun part of shopping for pink and frilly things!

Now (for them) comes the difficult time of deciding on a name.  Being the brilliant, creative, wonderful, caring, soon-to-be-grandmother-for-a-second-time that I am, I came up with a good name for this little darling.

(Now, work with me here folks, as I take you through the process of how I came up with the name.)

This little girl’s great-great-great grandmother on her maternal side (that’s my side of the family) was named Ada.

My name is Nina (pronounced with the long ‘I’ sound as in the number nine).

During the late sixties on the Johnny Carson show, Johnny did a monologue about inflation.  The legendary piano player, Vladimir Howrowitz, also included a monologue about inflation during some of his performances.  (In my opinion, Vladimir’s monologue was MUCH funnier!)  They talked about inflation concerning words. So, instead of someone it would be sometwo.  Everyone became everytwo.  Wonderful became twoderful.

Feeling very smug, my older sister started calling me Tena (based on the number 10 and pronounced ten-uh).

So, drum roll please.  Here is my suggestion of what my daughter should call our first born granddaughter:  Ada-Nina-Tena.

(Did ya catch the play on numbers there? I thought that I’d better point it out in case it slipped passed you because it has been known that my sense of humor is not quite like a normal person’s sense of humor. I don’t understand why but that’s the word out on the street . . .)

Like it?  No?

Did our daughter like the suggestion?  Thanks, but no thanks, she said.

Sigh.  And I was so pleased with myself for being so creative!

Sorry I haven’t posted anything lately.  My husband and I took a little jaunt to Jamaica for eight days.  Loved the sun.  Loved the sea.  Loved the sand.  Loved the snorkeling. (Did not love coming back to the cold and the 10 inches of snow we received tonight . . .)

The food was really interesting: calaloo and codfish (what in the world is calaloo??), chicken and pumpkin soup, braised liver, fish tea, fried bammy (pray tell what is bammy?), cornmeal porridge, pickled mackerel, and boiled yams. Their steamed garden vegetables were fabulous (carrots, beans, squash, zucchini), great omelets, wonderful fresh squeezed orange juice, and a delicious custard that they served with every meal.

One meal Craig asked for a Coke and I asked for a Dr. Pepper. When they came, Craig had the normal soda pop. Me? I had what looked like tomato juice with lots of pepper. Thinking it was like V-8 juice I took a sip. The Dr. Pepper turned out to be a Bloody Mary . . .

My students challenged me to get my hair braided in corn rows while in Jamaica.  I was hesitant.  They took up a collection to help pay for it.  My boss donated to the cause.  Co-workers donated to it.  A professor donated to it.

What was I to do?  I couldn’t let them down. I had my hair braided.

Did I feel funny going to church with my hair braided?  Did I feel funny riding the public transportation to work with my unusual hairdo?  Did I feel funny on campus today at work?  Yes, yes, and yes.  How much longer will I keep it this way?  I’m not sure.  It sure is easy to fix in the morning.  Just floof my bangs and I’m done with my hair!

I took a book along to read for those hours waiting in the airport and for lounging in the sun: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks by E. Lockhart.  I must say that I absolutely LOVED that book!  (It was one that Stephanie Ford recommended in the video I posted last time.)

I made sure I shook all of the sand out from between the pages.  We mustn’t tell the librarian at the university that I took the book with me to Jamaica now must we??

If you have a granddaughter that is in her early teens and especially a sophomore in high school, I think this is a book that you ought to give her.  It tells of the usual angst of ‘do I look pretty’ to ‘will I be accepted by friends at school’ to . . . well . . . to the main theme of the book.  (I shan’t give it away because I don’t want to spoil the plot!)

As I’m trying to get caught up with laundry, the 250 e-mail messages from work, and from the lack of sleep (because of the beads in my hair feel like I’m sleeping on boulders), I hope to get back to making regular posts.