Celebrating Grandparents Day

This time of year always reminds me of my Nana.

She grew an amazing vegetable garden in her backyard, and I'll never forget walking out to it in the August afternoons to pick the ingredients for dinner. Eggplant. String beans. Zucchini. Tomatoes. She had everything you needed to put a big Italian feast on the table every night.

My sister and I would run through her clothesline on our way back to the kitchen, and then "help" her make dinner. If she was ever bothered by two (or more) grandkids underfoot in her kitchen, she never let it show.

If it was an evening when we were using cucumbers, Nana would cut off the ends and stick them to our foreheads, making us look like unicorns. On our birthdays, she'd wrap an onion or a carrot as if it were a gift and watch us erupt into laughter as the out-of-the-ordinary present was revealed.

Nana has been gone for many years now, but I keep her with me in my kitchen by wearing her old aprons as I cook dinner for my own family.

And these days I get to watch my own daughters delighting in the funny antics of my mother and father. As they get older, I know my girls will share the same feelings of warmth and love when they think about time spent at their grandparents' house.

Did you know that Grandparents Day is just around the corner? It always falls on the first Sunday after Labor Day.

The press doesn't give it the same attention as Mother's Day or Father's Day, but that doesn't mean you can't make it a big deal with your family.

Need some ideas on how to celebrate Grandparents Day? Take a look at these suggestions:

• Give a gift. Susan Adcox, About.com's Guide to Grandparents, offers ideas for presents you can give grandma and grandpa, including photographs, books and items they use daily, like a special pen, that will remind them of their grandchildren.
• Dine together. Find out what the grandparents' favorite meal is or what they ate at their wedding reception, then host a family dinner on Grandparents Day. If you have two or more sets of grandparents, it could be quite a feast! Involve the kids in preparing the food and have them serve it, too.
• Spend time together--or apart! If the grandparents in your life don't get to see their grandchildren every day, arrange for an afternoon together doing something both the kids and the older adults will enjoy, perhaps such as going to see a kid-friendly play, attending an outdoor concert, or going to a park. If the grandparents help with your childcare and get their daily kid fix, though, you might consider treating them to some time alone, such as with gift certificates to a day spa, dinner at a restaurant or tickets to a movie.
• Make a memory book. With your kids, create a scrapbook that celebrates their grandparents, using photos and mementos from the past. Older kids can interview their grandparents and write passages that tell the history of your family.
• Go crazy! Celebrate Grandparents Day as if it's a birthday party. Hang decorations, bake a cake, wrap gifts, send invitations to aunts, uncles and cousins and throw a big bash.
• If you're thinking September is already jam-packed with back-to-school madness and there's not enough time to go overboard, most grandparents I know would be thrilled to receive a handmade card on their special day. You can adapt these ideas for kid-made thank you cards to Grandparents Day or simply pull out the paints, crayons and paper and let the children make something from scratch.

Happy Grandparents Day to the hard-working, full-of-fun grandmas, grandpas, papas and nanas out there. Enjoy your holiday.

P.S. This post is part of a blog carnival about Grandparents Day, and you can take part in it, too.

If you write a blog and wrote recently about grandparents or plan to do so by Aug. 30, send your link to Susan Adcox, About.com's Guide to Grandparents. She'll post links to all the submissions on her blog on Sept. 1. You can read more about the blog carnival on Susan's site.

The image above is of my Nana, Margaret Ruggerio Vendituoli, taken for her wedding engagement in the 1930s.

Update: Susan's blog carnival is up now. Head on over for more tips on celebrating Grandparents Day, personal stories about grandmothers and grandfathers, book suggestions and other posts related to grandparenting.