Beach House in the Burbs

There are lots of reasons I'm happy to be from the South--my family lives here, my job is here, my husband is here, but one of the biggest reasons is the weather. I'd die in a real winter. I'll take those hot, humid, miserable Georgia summers anytime. But I love, love, love that I can still get excited about a dusting of snow! It was so beautiful swirling around today. Tomorrow will be awful--the frozen stuff leaving roads slick and icy. But tonight all is peaceful and white. I know if I lived in the frozen north I'd be sick to death of snow already.

My grandmother, Nana , who passed away in December, left us one final Christmas present this year--one more round of "Shut up and Go!" Many years ago, Nana told us she'd come up with a new game to play after Christmas dinner. All day we (cousins, aunts, in-laws) bugged her about what this new game was, but she wouldn't tell. She dropped a few non-hints, like, "it doesn't have many rules, except that everybody has to play. Oh, and a couple of others that I'll tell you about later. Now, keep stirring that gravy." Then she'd smile and add, "But you're gonna like it." When dinner was over, she got a couple of the cousins to follow her to the back of the house while the rest of us gathered in the living room--a small space, that opened to the dining room. We sat on the sofa, on dining room chairs, and in the floor. In a few minutes the cousins came back toting big cardboard boxes. Nana had a basket with folded pieces of paper in it. The ...