Happy Birthday to my Nan!

Today is my Nan's 87th birthday. 

This picture is from Thanksgiving 2012.  She still remembered us at this time.  We're no longer able to take her out of the nursing home for safety reasons, so we went and had Thanksgiving dinner at the nursing home with her. 

I grew up with my Nan.  I learned many things from her.  She ran a daycare out of her house after Papaw passed away and I helped every weekday before and after school.  By the age of ten, I was a professional diaper changer and baby wrangler! 

She also had the gift of hospitality.  Back when our church was still a small congregation, Nan would open her home monthly to have anyone over.  I can remember her making tons of food - think Thanksgiving dinner on steroids!  My job was always to fold the napkins and make the table pretty.  I learned a lot about how to speak to adults and carry on conversations, as well as how to be a good hostess from these dinners. 

One of my favorite stories to tell was when I was eight or nine.  I don't even remember what I had done, but I had to go out back and pick a switch off the tree.  I remember staring at that bush and thinking "What am I doing?  I'm young, she's old." and I took off running up the alley that ran behind our house.  All my neighborhood friends were out - we rode our bikes in the alley - and I kept on strutting up that road, waving to my friends and thinking all the while that I was a genius!  Out of no where - that women descended on me, snatched me up by the back of my neck and spanked my butt the whole way back home.  With all my friends watching.  I will never forget the sight of her running up the hill of that alley and catching me! 

Happy Birthday Nan!