Grandma in a Sports Car. And Joy Boy.

Christmas means a table bedecked in red. Poinsettia. Tree. Candles.

Family.

And of course, this year Christmas meant a new addition to the Smith family.

A boy of joy. A boy who makes me smile with his sweet personality and his funny faces.

This Joy Boy got held by a lot of people during our Charlotte visit; at one point,Grandpa Smith was taking a turn holding him and was seen trying to sneak Noah some popcorn.  Noah wisely resisted temptation and continued to snooze.

Christmas is partly about eating good food and we had plenty of that during our visit. On one of the nights we were in Charlotte, Steve’s mom served a meal of ham with corn pone. Not corn bread, but corn pone. I think it’s a southern thing vs.a northern thing although I’ve never been sure of the difference.

Are you a corn bread-er or a corn pone-er? And do you serve syrup with your corn concoction?

Every year that we have celebrated Christmas with Steve’s parents, I have loved looking at this ornament that Vernie painted back in 1982, the year Steve and I were married. (In fact, this Thursday is our 32nd anniversary!)

Sarah and her Grandpa Smith hung out and enjoyed each others’ company.

And since Sarah gives very good feet rubs, back rubs, and neck rubs, Grandpa Smith took advantage of her skills.

At one point in our visit, a Smith Word Discussion popped up.  (Which happens often.) Sarah scurried to the bookshelf to get the dictionary so that we could find out the exact meaning of the word, “quark.”

After Christmas dinner, we had a Smith Show and Tell Event when Ken brought out the camera that his mother had used way back in the day. He also showed us the camera that he had used as a young boy.

As I took a closer look at the cameras, I was in absolute awe. I got the same feeling looking at those cameras as I get when I look at our antique Underwood typewriter.  People created art and beauty with those primitive pieces of gadgetry and my hat is off to them.

Noah fit right into the antique camera vibe.

After we had eaten and talked and finished looking at the cameras, it was time for the adventurous part of Christmas Day—a ride in a sport’s car with my brother-in-law, Jeff.  He recently bought a 1978 Datsun 280Z and wanted to show it off to all of us.

He said he would take it easy with me but we still had a mighty zippy ride. (At least it was zippy from my grandmotherly point of view.)

Although I thoroughly enjoyed my sports car adventure, I was glad to trade in the joy of zippiness for the joy of peacefully feeding my grandson. I loved how his tiny hand was shielding his eyes while he ate—so grown up.

I usually held him until he started crying and would then try (sometimes successfully) to comfort him back to a happier state of mind.  If I failed at that, I would hand him off to the one of the Professional Parents.  (After all of these years of not having a newborn in my life, I have downgraded myself to Retired Professional status.)

It has been such a joy to see Nathan and Meagan’s parenting skills; they are both fabulous with Noah and share in giving him wonderful, excellent care.

Toward the end of our visit to Charlotte, I held Noah in my lap while he serenaded me with a few bars of “Joy to the World.”

He has indeed brought joy to our world.