A look back at another favorite episode...

Angela hummed along with the Christmas songs playing on the satellite radio as her driver took her across town to her son's house early one morning. She'd looked forward to this Saturday for weeks. She and and her granddaughter Joy were going to spend the day together, just the two of them. It was a grandmother's dream come true.

She watched the wintry landscape go by, trying to brush aside the tinge of sadness that often colored the recollections of her childhood holidays. She had almost no memories of her mother, relying instead on what she had learned from others who had known the woman. Debbie Montenegro, a talented back up singer who had performed with several popular bands, had been killed in a car accident when Angela was just a toddler. For whatever reason, Debbie had ended contact with her parents a few years before she'd died, so her daughter had been left in the care of her closest and dearest friend, Billy Gibbons.

Being several years older than Debbie, and still reeling from a bitter divorce, Billy had taken a paternal interest in the young singer, who'd become pregnant as the result of a one night stand a few weeks before she'd joined his band. He'd watched over Debbie with a fatherly love, even to the point of being with her at the hospital the night her little girl was born. In return for his affection, Debbie had let him name her baby, probably never dreaming that he'd come with something as bizarre as Pookie Noodlin.

But a deal is a deal, right? Smiling fondly as she thought of the only father she'd ever known, Angela wound a strand of silvery hair around her finger. Billy had done the best he could by his adopted daughter, sending her to stay with his sister for a few years since he usually spent most of his time on the road moving from one gig to another. Aunt Betty's little white house in Austin was always full of laughter and friends...until she succumbed to a particularly vicious form of breast cancer.

His sister's death had left Billy in a quandary, with a six year old daughter to care for on his own as he toured with his musical group. His own parents had died several years earlier, and he had no one else to look after his little Pookie. Finally, he'd made a difficult decision. Pookie would receive her education at the finest girls' boarding school in Texas, and then she would travel with her daddy on the road to his various gigs for her summer vacation and other breaks from school.

So Pookie, or Angela, as she was now known, had grown up without any grandparents in her life at all. It had been difficult for her, listening to all her school friends talk about how much fun they'd had visiting their grandmas and grandpas, without having anything to add to the conversation. Of course, it was no one's fault...as her daddy had always said, 'you just have to play the hand you're dealt'.

However, the 'hand' she'd been dealt had made Angela very determined to be the best grandmother she possibly could be for her own grandchildren. She would make sure they had many fond memories of their Grandma A, no matter how much time or energy it took on her part.

Now retired, she had all the time in the world to enjoy her grandchildren. Jeffrey and his wife had two boys, and Angela and Hodgins flew to Denver every chance they had to spend time with them. They got to see Michael-Vincent's three children at least every other week, and sometimes more often than that.

In typical Angela style, she had thrown herself wholeheartedly into being a grandmother, and today would be no exception. She and Joy were going to have so much fun, and Grandma A could hardly wait for their visit to begin. They were going to make some gifts today so that Joy could surprise her family on Christmas morning.

When they arrived, her driver had pulled several shopping bags and boxes of craft supplies out of the car, offering to help Angela up the front walk, but she shooed the woman away. "I can get it…" She shouldered the bags of paints and other supplies before picking up some blank canvases and an easel. Pointing to a stack of boxes, she smiled. "Just leave those...we'll be back out to get them in a minute. You can pick me up at five…"

Practically bouncing up the sidewalk, Angela quickly rang the doorbell, listening to the sound of racing feet on the other side. "Grandma!", Joy laughed as she opened the door. "Did you bring the whole craft section of Priceco with you?"

"Don't be silly!" Angela winked at her granddaughter as Christine joined them. "I only brought half of it...I didn't want to be greedy." She smiled as she embraced her daughter in law. "How are you?"

"Fine." She gave Angela a hug as she ushered her into the house. "Hey, thanks for coming to spend the day with Joy." Christine studiously avoided using the term 'babysit', realizing that Joy would be irate at the idea that she wasn't old enough to take care of herself. "It almost never happens that the boys need us to be in two different places at the same time, but that's the way it is today...and this close to Christmas, too...so it's kind of a mess. Max has an all district chess tournament in Bethesda and Seeley has been invited to a weekend hockey camp sponsored by Villanova University. He and Michael-Vincent took the train up to Philadelphia last night…"

"It's no problem. We're going to have a great time, aren't we, Joy?" Smiling at her granddaughter, Angela pointed outside. "You'd better go get the rest of our supplies, Missy…" The women both laughed as they watched Joy race over to the boxes.

"I wish she'd be that quick about doing her homework!", Christine remarked as Joy carried the supplies inside. "Okay, Sweetheart...you and Grandma A have fun. If you need me…" She helped Max with his coat before turning to her mother in law. "...just call. I can be home in thirty minutes…"

"We'll be fine.", Angela interrupted. "See you this evening." Both grandmother and granddaughter stood side by side as they waved goodbye, watching as Christine pulled away from the house. "Okay, Sweetie...what do you want to do first? I have all sorts of felt and glitter to make Christmas ornaments with...or we can paint some pictures...or we can do some origami…"

"Hmmm…" Joy looked over the pile of crafting supplies as she thought about her Christmas list. "Well, I'd like to paint some pictures for Mom's office at the clinic and Daddy's office at his school...and I'd like to make some sort of bug cage for Max and a case for some of Seeley's collectible hockey pucks…and I want to make some Christmas ornaments for my teachers…except for Mr. Green, because he's Jewish...maybe I can make him a pencil cup or something like that…"

"Okay! Well...I guess we'd better start with painting the pictures first, since they'll need to be completely dry before you can wrap them." Angela set up the easel and put a small canvas on it. "Do you have any idea about what the subject of your paintings should be?"

"Not really…" Joy wrinkled her nose as she stared at the blank canvas. "I can't really draw very well, Grandma. It's frustrating, because I know what I want my pictures to look like, but they never turn out that way." She gave Angela a sidelong glance. "Maybe you could draw something and I could just fill in the colors…"

"Nope! If we did that, it wouldn't be your work, would it?" Seeing Joy slowly shake her head, Angela grinned slyly. "But here's an idea...why don't we make the paintings abstract? You can pick your mom's favorite colors and then make geometric designs, or swirls, or any combination of things. You know, there aren't really any rules for art...that's why I enjoy it so much."

"That's a great idea!" Pleased with her grandmother's suggestion, Joy painted with gusto before standing back to check out her work.

"That looks so cool, Grandma! I like both of them a lot!"

"They're beautiful, Honey." After carefully putting the canvases away, Angela noticed the time. "We'd better have some lunch before we start on the projects for your teachers…"

"Okay. Mom said there was some tomato soup in the fridge we could have." Joy opened the refrigerator and peered inside. "But I'm pretty hungry, and soup may not fill me up."

Pulling some bowls from the pantry, Angela smiled. "You know what? Your Pops taught me how to make his special grilled cheese sandwiches. Would you like to have one to go with your soup?"

"Yes! Can you show me how to make them, too?"

"Okay, but remember...you need to make sure it's okay with your mom before you make a mess in her kitchen…" Buttering some bread, Angela explained the process until she realized that Joy had been eating the cheese slices she'd laid out for the meal. "First we toast the bread like this…hey, I need that cheese for the sandwiches, Missy…"

Joy rolled her eyes at her grandmother. "We have lots! Here's some more...and Mom said we could have some carrots, and some chocolate chip cookies, too...as many cookies as we wanted…"

"She did, huh?" Angela smirked as she set a grilled cheese sandwich in front of Joy. "We'll have to see about that…"

The two artists enjoyed their lunch tremendously, laughing and talking as they made plans for the homemade gifts. It was decided that Mr. Green would get a hand painted picture frame and the rest of Joy's teachers would get felt Christmas ornaments in various designs. "With lots of glitter!", Joy insisted. "You know what they say...the more glitter, the better…"

"Maybe." Angela wasn't sure that Christine would appreciate having that much glitter all over her kitchen table and the surrounding floor, but creativity often involved making a mess. "Let's pick up our dishes, and we can each have a couple of cookies before we get back to work…"

"Hey, Grandma…" Joy paused as she pointed at the old photo album. "Did you know that there's a special picture of you in this book?"

"Well, I imagine there are a lot of pictures of me in there. I've been friends with your Grammy for a long time, and we had lots of pictures taken together."

"I'm talking about a Christmas picture." Flipping through the pages, Joy finally found the photo she was looking for. "See? You're standing next to Grammy and you're dressed like an elf!"

"Oh! I remember when this was taken!" Angela laughed as she looked at the picture. "This was my first Christmas at the Jeffersonian! Wow...look at how young I was...and how short that tunic was! At least I had good legs..."

"That was a long time ago, wasn't it?", Joy asked. "Back before you married PaJack?"

Oh, yes...way before I married PaJack. I really didn't even know much about him at the time. We were all sort of new to the place...none of us knew each other very well, except for me and your Grammy, and there were still a lot of things I didn't know about her, either."

"But why are you dressed in a costume, Grandma? Grammy isn't wearing one…"

"The Jeffersonian was having a Christmas party that day, and there was a prize for the person who showed the most Christmas spirit, so I dressed up like an elf, but I didn't win…"

"Really? Why not?" Joy was surprised as she looked over the picture. "It's a cute costume, and it looks good on you. I like your elf shoes and your hat..."

"Thanks, Sweetie. Let's start making the ornaments, and I'll tell you all about it, okay?"

After tracing out several stars on some felt squares, Angela continued her story. "Here's what happened, okay? I had gone to the party to check it out, but I didn't see anyone I knew, so I went to the lab to see if Grammy would come to the party with me. She was my best friend, and I was sure I could talk her into it."

As she glued some sequins on the ornaments, Joy giggled. "So then what happened? Did she go? That would be fun…"

"Your Grammy was kind of shy when she was younger, and she didn't really like parties...and definitely not Christmas parties. Anyway, she said she had work to do." Clearing her throat, Angela paused slightly, wondering how to adequately explain things to her granddaughter. She knows what her grandparents used to do… "Your Pops had brought her the body of a man that had been found in a basement of an old building, so Grammy decided she needed to look it over right away. I was frustrated with her, but she wouldn't give in. No way was she going to pass up a chance to work..."

"She wanted to look at remains instead of going to a party?" Joy shook her head in disgust as she sprinkled some glitter on the felt stars. "That's just weird…"

"Yeah, I thought so, too, but, you know...we were best friends, and I didn't want to make her feel bad about her choice. I knew she didn't really want to go with me, anyway. Your Pops and I went to the party for about thirty minutes, but we both felt bad that Grammy was left alone to work on the remains, so we came back to the lab...and then the real party started."

"What party was that?", Joy asked. "I thought you said Grammy wanted to work instead of going to a party."

"Well, PaJack made a mistake when they were examining the remains, and that exposed all of us to a lung fungus, so we had to stay in the lab over Christmas. That's why I missed the contest...we were quarantined, meaning that we had to stay so we wouldn't spread any diseases. Six of us were stuck there in the lab, without our families or our presents, so we had to make do with what we had if we wanted to have a good Christmas. I made a holographic tree, and we made handmade gifts for each other. It was kind of a weird way to celebrate the holiday, but I think it helped us become close friends."

"It sounds like fun...almost like you were camping out for Christmas.", Joy commented as she painted Mr. Green's picture frame. "And you're still friends with Grammy and Pops…"

"Yep, I am. It just goes to show...Christmas can be celebrated in lots of different ways, right? How we celebrate isn't the important thing. What's really important is sharing the holiday with people you love."

"So is that when Pops and Grammy fell in love?" Joy quirked an inquisitive eyebrow at her grandmother. "Pops says he's always loved Grammy, ever since he first met her…"

"Um...not really. I mean, he cared that she was feeling unhappy, but they weren't really romantically involved yet." Pursing her lips as she cut out some more felt shapes, Angela shrugged. "Your Grammy used to have a difficult time around the Christmas holidays." Unsure of how much Joy knew of her grandmother's youth, she decided discretion was the best course of action. "Some people become sad around Christmas because they have bad memories about something that has happened in the past...you know, like maybe losing a relative or something like that. Grammy was really sad for some reason, and she didn't want to spend a lot of time with any of us, so we left her alone and the rest of us celebrated anyway. Maybe that wasn't nice, but she didn't seem to mind too much."

"Oh." Joy's brows knit as she thought over this new bit of information. "She didn't celebrate at all? That's strange. Did you ever find out why she was sad?"

Nodding, Angela chewed her lip as she studied her granddaughter. "It turned out that she missed her parents. She hadn't seen them or her brother for a long time."

Joy paused, looking up from the felt she was cutting. "So if she didn't celebrate with you, what did she do? I think it would be sad to sit in a lab by yourself while everyone else was having fun."

"She spent her time in quarantine doing research, looking for the relatives of the man who had died, and she finally found them, so she was able to let them know what had happened to him. The woman was relieved, since they'd thought he'd left her because he didn't love her, but Grammy proved that wasn't what happened. It was sad that the man had died, but the woman was able to keep her good memories of him. Your Grammy said that was a more worthwhile way to spend Christmas, instead of celebrating with food and presents. She didn't do anything else to celebrate, although I think she saw your Pops at a restaurant later that evening, when he went to pick up Parker."

"But Grammy likes Christmas now...", Joy said, still puzzled as she glued some glittery felt stars together. "What changed her mind?"

"Well, two things happened...Grammy got to see her daddy and her brother again a few months later...and eventually Pops helped Grammy make some happier memories about Christmas. As Pops and Grammy spent more time together, Grammy got happier…"

"Because Pops loves her, right, Grandma?"

"That's right. He loves her, and she loves him."

Joy grinned slyly at her grandmother. "Do you still have that elf costume? I think you should wear it this Christmas..."

"What? No, of course not...that was a long time ago." Angela smiled to herself as she inspected their handiwork on the ornaments. I wish I did...I bet Hodgins would still enjoy it…

They were surprised as they heard the front door open. "Yoo hoo...hello?", Christine called from the foyer. "We're home…"

Glancing at the kitchen clock, Angela was surprised to see that it was almost five. "Well, we got a lot done, Joy, but we still have to work on your brothers' gifts…and we can't do that while Max is here..."

"I know." Disappointed, Joy's shoulders slumped a bit. "Okay…thanks for helping me with everything else, Grandma…"

"Don't worry, Sweetie. I've got an idea, okay?" Winking at her granddaughter held a finger to her lips. "Let me take care of it." Greeting Christine and Max as they entered the kitchen, Angela smiled. "How did the tournament go?"

"Max came in second. Not bad for his first tournament." Christine grinned as Max showed off his medal. Looking at the finished ornaments on the table, she nodded. "It looks like you two have had a busy day…"

"We did, and now I'm really tired. I was wondering if Joy could come home with me tonight to help me do some things around the house. I can bring her home in the early afternoon tomorrow, so she'll still have time to do her homework…"

"I'm sure that can be arranged. What do you think, Sweetheart? Do you want to go help your Grandma A?"

"Yes!" Nodding vigorously, she picked up the ornaments and put them in an empty box. "I'd love to go…"

"Okay, then...it's settled." Angela gave a sly thumbs up to her young partner in crime. "Let's get this place cleaned up. Ms. Simms will be here to pick us up shortly."

Within a few minutes the supplies were packed up and moved out to the front porch, where the artists waited for the driver's arrival.

"Thanks for everything, Grandma. You helped me make some really cool gifts today, and I had so much fun!"

"It was my pleasure, Sweetie. Hey, maybe while we're at my house tonight you can paint a picture for Grammy and Pops...maybe a smaller one for their apartment."

"That's a great idea, Grandma! Maybe they'd like a new ornament, too.", Joy bubbled. "I love making gifts for everyone…"

Listening to her granddaughter's happy chatter about the plans for the rest of the gifts she wanted to make, Angela chuckled softly. It sounded as if they wouldn't be getting much rest that evening.

She thought once again about how she'd grown up without grandparents. Things were much better in her life now, and she satisfied with knowing that she wasn't just a good grandma.

She was a great grandma.

Thanks for reading. If you have time to review, I'd appreciate it.