Grandma's Chocolate Cake

Griff and I ended up taking a last minute trip to the panhandle last weekend to have a chance to see my grandmother again. She's been in and out of the hospital for several months now and just hasn't been able to get fully well. I am so thankful we ended up going, as she has taken a turn for worse and is being moved into hospice today.  While we wanted her to be comfortable and without pain, you're just never ready to say goodbye.

When I think about my grandmother, I think about:

Cousin's Week
          - hosting all eleven grandkids for a week of fun! my token cousin's week is when I was around 10 years old and when my mom came to pick us up, I bragged that I hadn't brushed my hair all week! (this is back when it was long and thick... it was a rat's nest! no rules at grandma's house though!) we always had matching shirts, made play dough and bubbles, slept in the garage [in the summer, in texas! how did we survive that heat??] and even braved palo duro canyon to camp outdoors! sometimes, when i'm exhausted after a long day with only one toddler, I can't imagine how they had the energy to entertain us all week!

Puppets
          - my grandmother had an amazing puppet ministry. I can't even tell you the countless shows she put on across the state and in Brazil. Lee Greenwood's "I'm Proud To Be An American" is a song that makes me think of my brother and her, because she always did a performance to it. As a young child, having a puppeteer grandmother was basically the equivalence of being related to a celebrity ;)


Games
          -Lots and lots and lots of games! My grandparents loved to play games and I am so grateful that she kept quite the social circle with her games after he passed away. I actually can't tell you the last time I beat her in a game of Wahoo either!


Chocolate Sheet Cake
          - Oh, Grandma's chocolate sheet cake! This will forever go down as my top dessert. It's so perfect.  It doesn't matter how full I am, what time of day it is or the diet I'm on, I can't turn down her chocolate sheet cake. Grandma knows my love for it and up until her health starting failing, every time I came to visit her she had my own 9x9 pan that she was pulling fresh out on the oven.  I am so grateful that almost 7 years ago for a wedding present, I had a family friend that put together a recipe book for me and had family members contribute some of their favorites. I don't have many from Grandma, but she knew what I would want.

Our family would appreciate your prayers right now. Though we are preparing for a lot of grief, I think we'll make her chocolate cake this weekend and celebrate the blessing she is to us!