Grandma’s Magic Snowballs
by Patricia Mendez

Last year my son and his wife decided to divorce. Their three children were 4, 3 and 1 year old. As you can imagine, this was a difficult and painful time for us. In October the children and their mom moved in with us. Emotions were high and there were a lot of sad faces and tears. Everyone was mourning.

As Christmas approached, I wanted to find ways to lighten things up for my grandchildren. I’ve found that helping them use their imaginations is a great way to give them a break from serious and complicated grown-up problems.

We all decorated the house together, but the 2 older boys really loved baking cookies. I’d measure ingredients for them to add to the bowls, and we all used our creativity when adding sprinkles.One day when we were making cookies I told the boys that the cookies were magic. Their eyes widened. Magic cookies!

“Grandma”, asked the 4-year-old, “how are they magic?” I replied, “When someone eats one of these magic cookies it is guaranteed to make even the grumpiest person feel happy.” They couldn’t wait to try them and agreed that they actually worked. They did feel happy when they ate one of Grandma’s Magic Snowballs!

During the last week before Christmas, if anyone in our house looked sad, the boys knew what to do. All of our visitors were surprised to find out that we had magic cookies! “Grandma hurry, Uncle Alex needs one of your Magic Snowballs,” the boys would cry out as they sensed any less-than-enthusiastic Christmas spirit.

God has given our children (and grandchildren) an amazing ability to adapt and move on. That Christmas and always, I’m thankful that children’s imaginations are a part of their wonderful personalities.

Patricia served in her local MOPS group for 4 years. She is the author of award-winning book, Easy Entertaining for Beginners (www.ezentertaining.net) and writes articles for magazines, newspapers and internet sites. She has 3 grown children and 6 grandchildren and has been married to her husband, Augie for 30 years. She is the “Easy Entertaining” Spokesperson for Lifetime Products Inc. and is serving as a judge in the 2010 Mom’s Choice Awards.