Sleepover and Christmas Shopping!

This weekend was such a welcome break from all the stress I have  been feeling lately.
I picked up my little earth angel on Friday afternoon and brought her to my place for a sleepover.
Our sleepovers usually are quite busy trying to fit in the many things I had planned for us to do.
This time it was a one night sleepover so it was really quite busy.

I picked Gretchen up at 4:30pm and because it was getting dark we took the scenic route back to Havelock so we could enjoy the Christmas lights.
Gretchen was so excited each time she would spot more displays of lights she would yell out "more lights Grandma, look pretty!"
We would ooh and ahh at each beautifully decorated tree, house and of course when you are going through each town the light poles are decorated with many different decorations.
Our ride home was an hour long ride of beautiful light displays.

When we arrived home, first thing on her list of things to do was to greet her"friends" Winnie the Pooh,tigger,and her baby.
Once they were all set-up in her Winnie the Pooh chair she was ready to visit with her Poppa Dew.
Once the two of them exchanged jokes and plans for the evening she decided it was time to go next door and visit her Great Nanny and Great Poppie before supper.

Great Nanny was out doing her Christmas shopping.
Great Poppie was waiting for her to come in the livingroom as he heard her on the porch taking her boots off.
When she peeked her head around the corner of the kitchen cupboards to see if he was awake, he greeted her with a smile and a joke.

Gretchen spent about 20 minutes playing games and joking with him before asking if she could visit after she had supper.
Once we ate supper she spied Grandma's baking and asked for Poppa Dew to have some chocolate, peanut butter, marshmallow squares with her.

We also had a nice e-mail for Gretchen to view:
A magic video was created for Gretchen

To watch Santa's message:
http://magicsanta.ca/gateway.html?code=PB0QZB

Once we watched the video about 6 times and Gretchen was super excited about Christmas fast approaching we decided she and Poppa Dew should have some treats with their Christmas cartoons.

They enjoyed a square and watched christmas cartoons together until bath time.

Once we got a bath and Poppa Dew and her made Jiffy Pop together we all settled in to watch Polar Express.
We watched about 1/2 hour of that and then we went next door to say goodnight to Great Poppie and back home to brush our teeth and off to bed for songs and stories.

While we lay there in bed chatting Gretchen was stroking the side of my face telling me that she loved me and I told her I loved her too and thanked her for making my day so special with her visit.
She continued to stroke my face and say "Grandma, you are my bestest friend ever!" and gave me a kiss.
I not only welled up with tears I was so touched by her expression of love I was reminded of the tender moments I use to share with my boys when they were this age...I miss those days.
I told Gretchen that I loved her and she was also my best friend and that I always look forward to my Gretchen-time.
With that she kissed me goodnight and cuddled in for the night.

It was an early morning we got up and visited Great Nanny next door and had a short visit with Great Poppie when he woke-up.
Back to Grandma's and had some of her homemade oatmeal bread toasted with peanutbutter and some greek yogurt with strawberries for breakfast and a glass of milk.

We got washed and dressed then Gretchen picked out the cookie tin she wanted to put her left over popcorn in to take home to share with her Mommy and a small can to put chocolate,peanutbutter ,marshmallow squares in to take home.
She had a nice visit with her Poppa Dew and then we put our toys away,turned on the lights on the Christmas tree and she re-arranged the decorations just so while we chatted about the fact my Christmas tree has all home made decorations made by her Daddy,her Uncle Blair and myself over the years and how she was going to make me some decorations for my tree too!

We gathered up all the things that we were taking back to her house and said our goodbyes and loaded up to go to Peterborough to meet up with her Daddy to go Christmas shopping.

We arrived at his house and up the stairs we went to meet him.
As soon as she opened the door she rushed him with a big hug and proceeded to show me the Christmas tree she has at her Daddy's and the decorations she made for his tree last year.
Once we were ready to roll we could hear Gretchen in the car seat singing a song about going to Value Village to get Christmas Gifts for her Mommy and Daddy.

It was so precious watching her pick out the gifts she wanted to give to them.
Once we finished shopping there we went to the dollar store where she helped me pick out more cookie tins and some candles.

We all went out to lunch at Pizza Hut and once we loaded back into the car she was ready to go home for a nap.

We had a great outing and hopefully will make this a tradition to continue to do Christmas shopping together each Christmas season.