This week’s Grilled Grandma, Jeanie, has been a regular visitor to Grandma’s Briefs for quite some time now. When she comments, her remarks lean more toward warm and wise than wacky and witty. Which is why it took me by surprise when Jeanie gave the funniest answer yet to my question of, “What is one word you hope your grandkids think of when they think of you?”

Her reply: “’Alive’ is a good one for now.”

Too funny ... and too true!

Whether she meant to or not, Jeanie further exposed her sense of humor with her advice to new grandmas, saying (in part), "Don't try to compete with other grandparents and especially don't try to compete with blogging grandmas. There is no way that I could ever keep up with all the craft creating, granny camping, goody bag toting, cookie baking grandmas I read about on blogs."

Her unexpected yet honest responses have brought Jeanie close to my heart. Surprisingly, she's also quite close to me in proximity, too. We recently learned we live only a couple hours apart. Yet even with a relatively short distance between us, Jeanie and I have never met in real life. I’m hoping to one day remedy that, maybe plan to meet somewhere between my place and hers to share a cup of coffee and – imagine this! – face-to-face conversation. And giggles, I'm sure.

It may not be the same as meeting her in person, but I do hope you’ll take the time to meet Jeanie online via her Grilled Grandma: Jeanie feature. She’s a sweet woman and I’m honored to call her my friend … a friend I’ve yet to meet.

Holiday question of the day:

Are you more likely to give someone a gift that they really want or a gift that you think they really need?