Season's greetings... and Christmas break!

/

Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas and an abundantly blessed beginning to 2017!

Merry Christmas card

In hopes of fully savoring the season, Grandma's Briefs is officially on break for Christmas and the New Year holiday. I'll be back Monday, January 2 with the very first GRAND Social link party of 2017! I hope you'll join me then.

In the meantime, I'll surely post now and then on social media and look forward to crossing virtual paths with you on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

Cheers! See ya next year!

What moms want from grandparents (guest post)

/

Dear readers: Tis the season of giving, and one of the best gifts you can give — all year long — is understanding. Here, my friend and fellow GRANDparent Network member Donne Davis of GaGa Sisterhood offers insight to help us grandparents better understand the mothers of our beloved grandkiddos and what they most want from us in our grand role.

What Moms Want from Grandparents

grandmothers, mother, daughter

As I was writing my book, When Being a Grandma Isn’t So Grand: 4 Keys to L.O.V.E. Your Grandchild’s Parents, I realized that in order to help us grandmas improve our relationship with our grandchild’s parents — especially their mothers — we need to hear what moms have to say about the grandparent relationship.

I surveyed over 50 moms and asked them what they want from the grandparents. Many moms...

Read More

Saturday movie review: La La Land

/

This movie review will be like no other. Because LA LA LAND is like no other movie — at least not any other movie released in the past several decades.

LA LA LAND is, though, similar to the magical musicals of the '40s, '50s and early '60s, those spectacular song-and-dance spectacles that swept viewers away. Made them swoon, smile, sometimes sob a teensy bit. Those cinematic wonders moviegoers experienced not simply watched.

Which makes LA LA LAND special, worthy of a special review.

la la land movie

So instead of telling you about LA LA LAND, I'm going to show you LA LA LAND. Or as much as I can find to share without...

Read More

5 reasons Parker is the place for festive holidays... and family everydays

/

visit Parker Colorado

I have lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado, more than thirty-five years. In all those years, I've driven to Denver — a smidgen over an hour or so to the north — a kazillion times. (Seriously... I've kept count.)

On every one of those kazillion trips up Interstate 25, I drove past a directional sign just south of Denver proper noting the exit for RidgeGate Parkway. That exit, No. 125, leads within minutes to the town of Parker, becomes, in fact, Parker's Mainstreet (yes, one word).

In 35 years, never did I take that exit. Never did I visit Parker. Never did I consider Parker a destination or go out of my way to get up close and personal with a place that seemed little more to me than a suburb of Denver.

Sheesh... What a dummy I've been. I recently had reason to visit Parker, to drive down Mainstreet and personally partake of the surprisingly charming community's festive happenings, tasty culinary offerings and more. All courtesy the Town of Parker, which had invited my...

Read More

Funeral finery

/
Funeral finery

My dad's funeral service was held last Friday. The Sangre de Cristo mountain range towering over Westcliffe and adjacent Silver Cliff — Dad's official town of residence — dressed in its most impressive best for the occasion.

Read More

7 things long-distance grandparents do that local grandparents don't

/

My name is Lisa and I'm a long-distance grandparent.

My grandsons live more than 800 miles away.

Following are a smattering of things — seven, to be exact — that I and other long-distance grandparents do that grandparents who live near their grandkiddos likely don't.

(Featuring photos from my grandsons' most recent visit in November.)

long-distance grandparents

SEVEN
Stock up on Priority Mail Flat-Rate shipping boxes.

The mailman delivers empty boxes to my house. Free...

Read More

Saturday movie review: Coming Through The Rye

/

I probably shouldn't admit this, but I never read Catcher in the Rye. At least I don't recall reading J.D. Salinger's classic.

I kinda sorta remember thinking a few decades ago that I should read it, because, ya know, it's a classic that everyone has read. In my hazy recollection of that time, I think I may have started reading it but didn't finish because I didn't care for it. Or maybe I did finish it but it didn't resonate with me because I was a young mom with three kiddos under the age of five at the time, not a cynical male teen.

Whatever the case may be, I don't know the story that resonated with millions.

COMING THROUGH THE RYE is about one of those millions who did read the book, one of those millions for whom the tale not only resonated but changed their lives.

Coming Through The Rye movie

The endearing coming-of-age film is based on true experiences of filmmaker James Sadwith, who...

Read More