The highlight of the Christmas show...

Two weeks ago our immediate family unit (currently of 6) went to the Southern Christmas Show while it was in Charlotte. My sister and I have been going with our mom for as many years as I can remember now. As we've both added husbands to the mix, they have been good sports and obliged our tradition of season merriment. (I'm sure that the free food samples every few booths have helped!) Now Ian's mom lives here too, so we all go together.

It was obvious that all of our minds were on the new addition to the family. Mom M____ would see clothes and comment on how cute they'd look on her granddaughter. Traci would see a stuffed animal and think that her neice would need to snuggle it. I noticed "baby's 1st" things and wished that she would be here with us for her first Christmas. Ian and Adam saw food and thought that she would like to eat it... (just kidding guys).

And then Mama saw it! Early on she found the tricycle of all tricycles. She decided that her granddaughter would need to play with it at Grandma's house. She pushed it around the floor and was so excited that the handle directed the front tire. The salesman showed her that the pedals won't move if little feet are just resting on them. She got really excited thinking about putting her first grandbaby behind the wheel.

And then she regained composure and asked how much it cost. Much as she liked it, the price was too high, but she told the salesman (who wanted to move the product ~ it was the last one and already put together) to think about it for a while and be prepared to give her his best offer if she came back at the end of the night. (At that point, I knew that we would be loading it into the Highlander on the way home ~ I was glad we didn't drive the Saturn!) We continued around the entire show and mom kept talking about the trike.

At the very end we walked back and the sales guy seemed a bit surprised to see us. He and Mama went into some quiet negotiations and she returned to us with HUGE smile on her face as she wheeled the tricycle toward us. All the way out she used it as a vehicle of conversation. Folks would comment about how cute the thing was, and Mama would take the opportunity to proudly tell them that she was about to be a grandma.

How lucky are we to have a family so in love with a yet unknown child. And I'm sure Mama got a pretty good deal, but I also suspect that even if he only came down $0.01 that she would have taken it for her granddaughter. How lucky is our little girl?