Beginning A Tradition

When you are blessed with seven granddaughters and are fortunate enough to have three of the girls in Calgary it presents some wonderful options. Now that Jaelyn's girls are getting old enough we decided to begin a tradition and that we would take each of the girls out for lunch and shopping on or near their birthday.

February 1 was the beginning of the tradition as Preslie (Jaelyn's second) turns 6 on February 4. So on Sunday we decided to execute the plan, after church we took Preslie who had been looking forward to the day, was a little apprehensive about this excursion and showed some reluctance when it came time to leave, but decided she would be OK with the idea with some coaxing.

So lunch at Earl's it was. She ordered chicken fingers and fries and a glass of chocolate milk and without much hesitation managed to drain the chocolate milk. She ordered a refill and managed to finish that as well with her lunch. She had her favorite toy giraffe along and managed to engage in conversation with the server, the hostess and Gerri and I. It was a great experience to have some one on one time with her and she talked and enjoyed her lunch and did a good job on finishing the chicken. We ordered dessert - ice cream with chocolate in a cinnamon-sugar edible dish to share and she and Gerri made short work of the dish.

Then it was on to the shopping part of the expedition. We set out for Market Mall and on checking the store list found that a favorite - La Senza Girl wasn't in the mall, so had to settle for Old Navy. We made it to the children's section and Preslie spied out a nice top which was her favorite color blue. Grandpa found a nice two piece orange colored cotton hoodie and caprice outfit and because the tops were a better price if you bought two Preslie picked out another top. On the way to the check out Gerri found a coloring sheet so we picked up three, one for Preslie and one each for her sisters Madison and Lacey. Just before we went through the checkout Preslie spied out a necklace with some glass balls and a blue string which was on sale (and quite inexpensive) that she liked so we added that to the purchases and went through the checkout.

A call to Jaelyn found that she was in the mall so we arranged to hook-up to return Preslie. You know the thing Preslie treasured the most was the pretty necklace - she couldn't stop talking about it.

Well it was real important to launch a tradition, and next up will be Madison in May and Lacey in July. We will also carry out the tradition with our other granddaughters - Ireland, Peyton, in Waldheim and Lauren and Ella in Moose Jaw. We'll have to be a little more creative because the girls aren't near by , but we will find a way to spend some one on one time with each girl and celebrate.

After the shopping trip was completed and Preslie was safely returned it was on to the Superbowl game but that didn't hold a candle to the time with someone special and the beginning of a new tradition. Preslie taught us an important lesson too - sometimes its little things like necklaces that make all the difference - she is a special little girl and I am blessed to have six more dates that we have marked on the calendar and we need to start making plans! I can't wait!!
Have a great week!!