Emily Paine Carter

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It's that time of year: Grandparents are studying calendars, maps and costs. Would we rather see our beloved grandchildren decked in their Halloween costumes? Or gnawing a Thanksgiving drumstick? Or shrieking over Santa's bounty?

(Dang. Why do we even have to choose? Y'all come back now, hear? Seriously.)

As if such scheduling weren't complicated enough for all involved, consider divorced families trying to time visits from several sets of grandparents. Will anyone feel slighted? The horror, the horror!

Blessed are you close-dwelling families.

The rest of us could form a club: "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Grandparents." Both "dues" and rewards are huge. "Meetings" are by chance: One casually asks, "How are those babies? I'm sure you miss them." Both questioner and questionee just happen to have a handful of share-worthy photos.

("Sisterhood"? Of course, we also know many a doting granddaddy.)

You surely have examples aplenty. Here's a recent round from our Salem neck of the woods:

Laura Owen, daughter of Ann and Bob Owen, adopted Peyton Elizabeth from Guatemala when she was 5 months old. Now at 16 months, Peyton "is the light of our lives," Ann wrote in an e-mail.

Ann added that she and Bob were fortunate to see little Peyton several times this summer, but probably won't see her as often as they would like "unless somebody gets sick and on holidays...and on weekends if [Laura] goes out of town."

All that's required is the I-81/I-64 dash. Ann wishes that the girls lived here, of course, but wrote that she couldn't complain: Richmond is considerably closer than Laura's previous home in Denver.

Those interstate paths are also well-worn by exemplary grandparents Judy and Pat Minahan: "I think we could do 81 and 64 blindfolded," Judy e-mailed. Two or three times a month, they visit son Joe's family in Hagerstown, Md. Key attractions? Jack, 5, and Gracie, 3.

On non-Maryland weekends, they trek to Richmond to see daughter Katherine Ferguson and 11-month-old Thomas.

When they don't get to see the grandkids, they chat with them almost daily on the phone.

Since -- alas -- Judy and Pat doubt their grandchildren will ever live in Salem, they anticipate possibly moving closer to them someday. Judy has already established a social network in Maryland: Shortly after Jack's birth she started scrapbooking and taking periodic trips with Joe's mother-in-law and her pals. "So," wrote avid card player Judy, "it shouldn't be too hard to find bridge players" for those moments when she's not entertaining the young'ns.

Much farther afield is Lorain St. Clair Myer's daughter Wendy Evans Kollmann and little Ella Grace, now 15 months old.

Lorain visits as often as feasible, but of course never enough. So she's a big fan of the webcam; sometimes she uses that technological marvel to read stories to her faraway granddaughter.

Lorain e-mailed photos so we could "see why I love to 'chew on her cheeks.' "

There's nothing like a grandchild to turn even otherwise-proper ladies into kissing fools.

So, synchronize those calendars, and start gathering the goodies and the gifts.