One of the priorities of this trip is to spend time together as a family doing fundamental things, like cooking meals together. Today was our first opportunity to do so. After our activities yesterday, we stopped by the local grocery store, which is about the size of a convenience store with a little bit of everything crammed into it. While today’s simple meal turned out well, it “wasn’t MaMa’s house.” (No, the meal wasn’t popcorn as shown in the picture. That was just one of the snacks we had after breaking our fast.) 

At the Craze home, we have a long-standing tradition of going to MaMa and PaPa’s (Frank and Sharon Craze) house for Sunday dinner.  Like many grandmothers, my mother dotes on her grandchildren. She cooks the meals they request. She makes them their favorite desserts. She helps them with sewing projects. She always asks them about what is going on in their lives. In short, it would be hard to wish for a better grandmother (or mother, for that matter).

What Tiffany and I particularly like, besides the great food, is the table manners and grammar lessons that MaMa can dole out.  I’m not sure why, but a correction from MaMa is better received than one from mom and dad. Perhaps it is the fear of falling out of her good graces, and consequently not getting their allotment of the Austrian Creme Cookies, Coconut Cake, or any of MaMa’s delicious treats.

If time and distance makes the heart (and taste buds) grow fonder, then our first Sunday dinner back at MaMa’s house will probably be the best meal they’ve ever had!

Below: MaMa loading the kids up with candy before they departed.