What's your favourite memory of your grandparents?

[SneakyGremlins]

I remember being ill at Grandma's and a magic bowl of her divine chicken soup appearing, with a bread roll from Birds. Then we'd watch Midsomer Murders together odd thing to watch with an 8 year old but I digress

How about you?

All mine revolve round food!

• Cups of tea with sterilised milk
• Crunchy nut corn flakes with sterilised milk
• The biscuit tin - it was a horrible 1970s thing but Dbro and I fought over it when DGran died!!
• Staying over on a saturday night and watching Blind Date, Barrymore, Brookside and getting the "luxuries" out - chocolate biscuits / everton mints / werthers originals
• DGran putting our pyjamas and clothes in front of the fire to warm up before we put them on
• DGran letting me use her Oil of Ulay and me feeling sooooo grown up

• Other DGran always used to invite us to have breakfast in bed with her. She'd get those individual portions of jam, all different flavours & butters and put a load of toast in a toast rack and bring it back to bed on a tray.

Going with my Grandma to check on her bees. She used to make me go and kick the hive to see if there was any activity :D And I remember using some weird whirly gadget to separate the honey from the comb... memories of my Grandma = summer and bees :)

Digging with my grandad in the back garden. He would throw the odd Victorian penny in so I would 'find' treasure. Only realised he did that long after he died, I just thought lots of people had dropped money I his garden .
My grandad used to spoon feed me when I was quite old enough to do it myself, but I loved him being a train to get me to eat.

Also sitting on my grandma's knee in the afternoon and listening to her singing nursery rhymes to get me (and then her!) to nap. And the smell of her hand cream oil of ulay.

My other grandpa was really involved in his church and I remember him telling us stories of when the organ caught fire during a service when the vicar was talking about he'll . And my other grandma giving us rich tea biscuits, it was such a treat.

I look back and feel we never really had a relationship with either set of our grandparents. They lived fairly close, but they never took us out for days, had us for sleepovers. Their houses was just somewhere where we'd have to go for an hour or so every other Sunday, be sat with a glass of cola and packet of Crisps and play with a set of toys from a box kept in the spare room bored out of our minds, whilst our parents chatted to them. Our children have a much better and closer relationship with their grandparents than we ever did. I honestly don't really have any close personal memories of being with my grandparents.

Basically all of them. I had amazing grandparents and I really wish they could have met my daughter.

Picking runner beans and red currants from the garden with my grandad. I’m surprised I remember it because I was very young when he died. I still buy red currants when I see them in the supermarket and think of him. Runner beans less so (horrible stringy things).

Lots more memories of my grandmother who lived until I was 11. She loved me very much. Sausage rolls featured a lot

The other set died when I was too young to remember.

I love this thread. I'm going to see my Grandparents at the weekend and so lucky they are still here. My best childhood memories are at my Grandparents house. Grass sledging and playing in the woods, picking flowers from Grandma's garden and making perfume with her, baking and drawing with her. She did and still always makes time for us. She would always stop what she was doing to play with us or chat. I feel so lucky that my children will have similar memories of her.

My Nan making us snowballs at Christmas.

Picking vegetables from the garden with my Granddad, which my Nan would then cook for dinner (I remember doing this with both sides).

When I stayed over, my Granddad would bring me a cup of tea in bed, then I would sit at the fold down table in their tiny kitchen, eating copious amounts of toast with more butter than we were ever allowed at home.

These are lovely

My Granny :

Her homemade apple juice
Jellybeans in the bathroom after you had washed your hands
Charcoal and the back of teabag boxes to draw on

My Granny died 3.5 years ago while I was pregnant with my son. My chest gets tight when I think about her.

I used to go and stay over quite often and she had this pink cotton floor length nightgown with puffy sleeves that she said was my princess nightie for when I stayed. Even though she had 2 other bedrooms, we would sleep in her double bed with the electric blanket on and we'd whisper until we fell asleep.

We watched Julia Roberts films together on VHS, Pretty Woman was her favourite. I asked her what a prostitute was and she said "Erm... a lady of the evening who makes friends with lonely men".

Her famous meat and potato pie was brought out at every event and everyone would be asking if she'd made it this time. She put on an amazing buffet and would never see anybody hungry.

The last time I ever saw her I told her I was pregnant and she cried and stroked my face. She said "I love your hair short, you look just like Audrey Hepburn" (I really don't, I look like Dudley Dursley imo). She went into hospital to have half a lung taken out due to cancer and she never recovered even though the surgery was a success. She died a week later. The night before, I dreamt of her waving us off from her house as she always did as we drove away. As we went round the corner, she would bend right over still waving.

I adored my Grandparents.
My own parents were very young when they married and had children and so often seemed to us more like older siblings than parents, with their fashionable clothes, music and nightclubbing
My memories of my GP's are simple old fashioned things. The home cooked food ('urrghh war food', as my parents called it). Going to allotments and picking fresh fruit and veg. Going to the bookies with my GF and listening to the races from an old radio speaker on the wall. GM making ships and houses out of an old wooden clothes horse and chairs pushed together, or playing shops with dried peas and old pans. GM talking about the war or how they managed living in small terraced houses with outside toilets and a large family. We loved one particula story about girls having ears pierced at home, using a needle and cork!
I still miss them but I'm a GM too now and often find myself doing the same things with my own GC. I love making toys from bits and bobs around the house. Growing runner beans in pots. Talking about old photos and the family tree and so on. One of my GS's has become fascinated by coal miners because we have an old coal miners lamp and photos of the 'olden days' mining relatives. We watch old footage on YouTube of steam trains etc and what life was like back then. I love that these simple pleasures, that money cant buy, are passed on

My dads mums home made stew. And scones . My mums mum had a box of stones we loved playing with.

Too many memories of my Gran to write down as I lived with her from 2 years old until I was 11. She made me feel wanted and safe.

I remember going to the allotment with her, picking blackberries for her famous blackberry and apple [from the garden] jam. We would shell peas and broad beans together in the kitchen where I would ask her all sorts of questions. I would watch her make flapjacks which cooked in with the Sunday roast, and also be allowed to lick the spoon when she made cakes.

At weekends I would get into bed with her in the mornings and play with my mother and aunts toys which she kept in a cupboard by her bed. Under the bed were apples kept to eat during the winter, they kept just fine as it was freezing in there.

When I was older her face would light up when I visited and I'd be ushered in to sit by the fire, toast crumpets on a toasting fork and I would stay talking to her for hours

It's so long since she died but I miss her every day, she was so kind to me and an amazing woman who had a difficult life in many ways.

Many memories of my two grandmothers, who were very different but each brought something special into my life. How often since they died have I mentioned how much a grandparent's love can bring to a child.

I adored my paternal grandparents. I lived with them from the age of 7.

The biggest one doesn't sound like a nice one, but it was. I distinctly remember the second time I broke something when I lived in their house. I froze expecting it to kick off, or at least to get a slap. My Nana called me a "silly billy" and cleaned up the mess. My grandad whispered in my ear "I always hated that ornament anyway" and I felt so safe. I realised that their reaction to the first time I'd broken something wasn't a trick, it was just normal.

Making trifle was a big memory too. One big bowl for everyone and one little bowl for me. Jelly in and then watch something on tv (a rarity as Nana didn't watch much tv) while it set. Then custard on both. Then help whip the cream for the big trifle (none on the little one as I don't like cream). After dinner she'd announce that they were having trifle and I was having trif as mine was missing a layer.

Hot chocolate being ready when I got home from school on a cold day. Sitting around the table drinking that while talking about my day.

My grandparents were my de facto parents for a lot of my childhood. God I loved my grandmother to the ends of the earth.
But my favourite thing: Saturday nights show and sherry (honestly a tsp).
My grandparents were a bit of a pub/club act so we did a lot of very bad singing and dancing and they thought we are fab! (This was strictly "in the parlour". We never had to perform for more than an audience of two!)
Actually, I am quite sad I've had to put all these caveats in

We used to spend part of every summer holiday as kids/teenagers staying with our Gran in Bath

The smell of my gran's bathroom - she used imperial leather soap and her bathroom smelt really strongly of it. I use the same soap now and even with a bar on the bath and one on the sink,it doesn't smell as good as it used to.

Going down to her garden literally on the bank of the River Avon to pick some mint to go on the new potatoes or peas.

Having the electric warming pan thingy in my bed when we stayed if it was a chilly night.

The smell of her perfume (Blue Grass or 4711) and face powder.

Her coffee and walnut cake was gorgeous and her own home made millionaire's shortbread - when we went to tea at hers (always on a Sunday) her kitchen table would be full of home made cakes,sandwiches with the crusts cut off,trifle and a pot of tea.

She was a real lady,always so smartly dressed,nicely made up and always smelling nice even if we weren't going anywhere

She died the month before my son was born 22 years ago and I still miss her like hell. I can't visit Bath without lovely,happy memories assaulting me,especially in the parks. Whenever I visit there,I usually end up in the neighbourhood she lived in.

Ooops,my eyes are leaking a little,but such happy memories.Thanks Gran,you gave us magical memories.

Lighting her fire and making buttery toast

My maternal gp's died before I was born. My paternal gp's were wonderful. My dgm was tiny (less than 5' tall) and my dgf was over 6'! A lot of my memories of them also revolve around food. My dgm did the best roast potatoes ever. They were huge and sticky and I could have eaten loads. At Christmas there was always a tin of Quality Street on the sofa that FC had left for me.

My dgm had a mangle and I used to "help" put the washing through it.

I also had 3 great aunts and uncles who were another set of GP's to be honest, they were very loving and supportive and I know they would all adore my dc.