After a 20 hiatus my daughter and I have become very close and sentimental. She has been having a lot of problems in her marriage and even though her husband is 'literally' a doofus (she called him a 'dreamer' and at out last conversation she was literally crying) I am uncomfortable in getting involved. Parents should not get involved with their adult children's relationships. Due to her mother leaving me for another man and taking our daughter, things became rough for her. Then they had another child and my daughter, Marilyn, became a scapegoat for her alcoholic step father. She told me she has lived the Cinderella life and is still looking for prince charming. I basically raised her until the age of 7 1/2. I also want to make sure she knows of what I have been through and what she has and is going through. Luckily, she immediately bonded with my late partner and shared stories with her that she did not share with me until much later.

One of my kids gave me and her dad subscriptions to "StoryWorth" for Christmas in 2020. Essentially every week we got a question about our childhood to answer, and they go into a book for our children and grandchildren. I answered all my questions. Their dad claimed he was "too busy", he is retired and only works on his hobby, a xian website hymnal. (And this is why I am divorced.) Daughter was not pleased with her dad. Daughter and I had a great time looking through tons of photographs for the books. I also made sure daughter had copies of all my pictures from my childhood, already digitized. Dad carted over about 10 large boxes of slides... The grands (well, the older ones, 5.5 and 4, the other two are 18 months and newborn) love to look at pictures of their moms and aunts when they were younger. I doubt if I have any pictures of my dad with my girls, my dad and stepmother were not people I wanted around my kids for very long. My mom passed when she was 45, I was 14. She would have been the most amazing grandmother. My kids have things that I have made for them, and more things I'm making for their kids all the time. Oldest G'daughter has asked for a quilted wallhanging to be made for her bedroom. I have some seasonal wallhangings in my house and she wants one the same size. So I have a new project, and I am choosing fabrics that aren't too "little girl" so it will be appropriate for her as she gets older.

My grandchildren are quite scattered. Starting last February, they've all been coming to see me. The California one will be here Friday. I asked her what the deal was? Did everybody think I am going to die soon or something? She informed me that covid had been keeping her away and now she was free! Unfortunately omicron is going crazy here now.

I'm pretty sure they're all sentimental. Two of them have chairs that used to belong to my husband and even though the chairs are getting pretty dilapidated, both of them treasure the chairs and say they think about Pawpaw every time they sit in them.

I used to send out recipe cards in my Christmas cards. Most of them were identified as Granny's recipes. They often text me to say they're making Granny's whiskey beef tips or cookies while you sleep.

I love examples of good mother/daughter relationships. 🥰