Nana

Christmas day also came with some sad news as Mike's mom (Nana) lost her battle to cancer (and other things) and passed away.  While the news came as no surprise, it was no less devastating for us.  Nana was a special lady who we all loved.  Mike's comment on it was that this was our worst Christmas ever, but her best Christmas ever as she got to celebrate with Jesus.  It was a huge reminder that life on earth doesn't go on forever and that we're so thankful for the blood of the lamb and the truth he brought when he came.  We're thankful that Nana is in heaven.  We're also so thankful for the memories she left behind and the different things she did for the kids before she passed so that we'd have fond reminders of her as they grow up.

For the last few years, she had been working on putting together a story time video for her grandkids.  She was a children's librarian, and with that position came an incredible love for books and storytelling--and she could tell stories!  This DVD was a compilation of some of her favorites and it's such a blessing to be able to turn it on and have Nana there for the kids to see.  They certainly miss her and light up as her face fills the screen and she happily tells them to "wiggle their fingers high, wiggle them low, fold them together and hold them just so" (see Logan's hands?) before beginning a series of stories.

She also left us with quite a library of books!  Another perk of having a Nana who was a children's librarian is having tons of wonderful book suggestions.  And we've loved every one of them!  She started the kids' library before Logan was even born, but continued to help build it as they grew.  Anytime she visited, she took us to the bookstore and helped us pick out books.  She'd read them books at her house and we'd eventually have to buy them because the kids wouldn't stop asking to hear them over and over.  And more recently, she sent 19 of her very favorite children's books wrapped up for the kids to open every day before Christmas.  It was such a treasure to open each one and read a personal note about the book from Nana.  The kids were just as excited to open a new one each day as they were the day before.  We've got so many books from Nana that they fill a whole nook in our little bookshelf!  Logan calls it her "Nana library."  Here the kids are with their (recent) favorite Nana books.  Logan is holding "Dance Tanya"  (would you expect anything less from our little ballerina?) and Brody is reading "Puff Puff Chugga Chugga" which Mike and I can both recite from memory now.....and that's no small feat, it's a long story!

We are so thankful for her 57 years on earth.  I'm thankful that I was able to get to know her over the last 8 years and I'm so glad that she was Mike's mom.  Mike and I especially thankful that she shocked the doctors and outlived their short life prediction, and was able to meet 4 of her grand babies.  She will be sorely missed, but fondly remembered.