Is Your Christmas Gift Good Enough?

Time management has always been difficult for me. I always have more things than I can do, and I feel frustrated when I can't do everything that I hoped I could do. Christmas time is especially frustrating as I would like to make it a good experience for the people in my life, but I find time and money limiting in what I can do. Sometimes I think I just need to relax and enjoy a few of the good things that I think of to do and stop worrying that it will be enough. When I think of what made for good experiences, it was when love was shown. One year we participated with a group in leaving presents secretly on a doorstep, ringing the doorbell and running so the family wouldn't know who left the gifts. Other times we have spent time visiting as we dropped off goodies or gifts. Sometimes the bigger gift is the time spent.
Our family were recipients of Secret Santa gifts several times. The first time was when I was alone with two little girls, and the doorbell rang after 9 p.m. I looked out the window and saw no one at the front door. I started to imagine that maybe someone was planning to break into the house and wanted to see if we were home. I decided not to open the door, but went through the house and made sure every door and window was securely locked. I went to sleep rather nervous about why someone would ring the doorbell that late at night and then not be there. The next morning when I went to go out the front door I discovered a package containing two beautiful dolls left for my little girls. I wondered why I could have been so suspicious when someone just wanted to give my little girls a surprise Christmas gift. There were years when boxes of food, clothing, and toys were left on our front porch. One year a friend gave gift certificates to me before Christmas so I could use them for Christmas shopping for gifts for my daughters. Another year a package arrived through UPS. There was no return address on the package. The driver wanted to know who had sent us the package. We didn't know anyone who was sending a package. There was nothing inside the package either to indicate who it came from. No one ever asked if we received the package that they had sent. We never knew who that package of gifts came from. Then there were the gifts that were handmade or specially selected. Some of the best gifts have been the sacrifices of time and money made to be together as a family at Christmas.
Maybe recording some of your memories of Christmas could be the best gift you could give. Why not write your best Christmas memories and share it with your family. If money is tight, why not write your memories and add photos and make a special Christmas book or make a video and post it on YouTube or Flickr viewable by family or friends as a special gift. Sometimes we don't think we have anything to give, but we can always give memories.

Christmas Newsletters

As Christmas approaches many people send out Christmas cards to family and friends. Many of my friends write a newsletter about what has happened in their family during the past year. They include the ages of their children, what grades they are in at school, what talents they have been developing, anything special they have accomplished. They include any significant changes in their lives such as moving to a new home, starting a new job, someone getting married and even illness and death in the family. They include photos of the family. They write about vacations or trips. In other words they create a short family history for the previous year. Such newsletters are great additions to your family's story.
After the rush of the holidays, take time to elaborate on the different events from the previous year. Write down memorable stories. Scrapbook photos from the family vacation or family-get-togethers. Write down what you learned from certain experiences. If you moved, did you find a faster or better way to pack up or unpack. If you were sick, did you learn something new that helped you get better faster. If you started a new job, what did you do to get the new job. Writing down what you learned may help you sometime in the future when you may have forgotten what you learned. It may also help another family member as they deal with a similar challenge.
If a new member was added to your family, write down what was exciting about their joining your family. If new friends or neighbors came into you life, write about them. Include pictures too. If someone left your life, write about them. Death, divorce, moving away, going to school all leave holes in your life that you can record your feelings about. Use this time of year when you reflect on what has happened over the course of the year to remind you of the things you want to write down so you can always remember them.

Damian - Fotolia.com

Thanksgiving

Here it is the week of Thanksgiving. Being grateful is a really good thing, but sometimes it takes something like a holiday to help us stop and take the time to think of what we are grateful for. As you think about your life, what are you grateful for that has happened in your life. Have good things come from the experiences you have had in your life? Have you learned from the experiences whether they were good or bad? What people are you grateful to have had in your life? Are you grateful for your ancestors and the choices they made?
We benefit from the things those before us did. Each generation has a little more than the previous because of what the previous generation did. We don't have to reinvent what previously has been invented, so instead we can improve on it.
This Thanksgiving take time to write down what you are thankful for in your life and what you are thankful for from your family and your ancestors. Let that feeling of gratitude bless your life.

As you collect and write down family stories, you may hear some pretty fantastic stories. Perhaps some of the stories sound like they might be made up or embellished. You might want to do some research to see if the stories are true. Still even with research you may not know for sure if the stories are completely factual. We do see the world through our own perspective. In one of my lines a father and a son fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill. A diary entry records the following: "In the memorable Battle of Bunker Hill, the 17th of June 1775, there they stood side by side and fought with about 13 Americans against 3,000 of the British for about two hours." When reading historical accounts of the Battle, the number of Americans fighting against the British were probably closer in number although the reported numbers vary in different accounts. Perhaps when writing the diary entry a couple of zeros behind the 13 were forgotten or not legible. But another explanation was given by my daughter after she moved to New York City. She explained to me that there are places in the eastern part of the United States where trees are so numerous that you can not see what is beyond the trees. Having lived in western desert areas all of my life, it is hard to imagine that many trees. She said perhaps it is possible there were trees blocking their view of how many fellow American soldiers were fighting in that Battle. I don't think the ancestor who wrote that statement intended to lie about the Battle. Perhaps from his perspective that was the way it was in the Battle of Bunker Hill.
As you record stories from you life, remember the perspective of future generations who may read your accounts may be very different from your perspective.
When you record stories of your ancestors, write them as they told them. You may learn something that will change your perspective and you may find their accounts are indeed true.

The Gratitude Time of Year

November reminds me of all the things I am grateful for. I love the beautiful colors of the leaves. I remember as a child particularly liking the golden color of the cottonwood trees against the clear blue sky in the fall. I still love golden leaves, but I also like the red leaves and brown leaves that have interesting patterns. I love driving through canyons and seeing large areas of gold, then red, then brown, orange or green. I've even found the tumbleweeds change color in the autumn--sometimes red or purple as well as brown.
I love harvesting tomatoes, zuchinni, swiss chard, beets, squash, grapes and other produce. The work of preparing soil and planting seeds in the springtime, watering and fighting weeds in the summer is rewarded with delicious food in the fall. Growing up, I helped my mother can many fruits and vegetables so we could eat them during the winter.
I am so grateful for heat and light as the days grow colder and shorter. I count my blessings to have warmth and light. Today I am grateful to turn a dial and have heater turn on. I do remember wonderful warm fires that my husband would build in the fireplace. I remember the coal-burning stove that my grandmother had that felt so good on a cold fall or winter night. I remember one October when the snow came early before the leaves and fallen from the trees. It was wet and heavy and tree branches came down all across the valley. Power lines came down with the branches. The power company worked hard to restore power. Main lines were back up within hours, but other lines especially ones in backyards took up to three days to be restored. I was so grateful to have a wood-burning stove to keep us warm, and I truly appreciated candles. My daughters, who were quite young then, thought it was a great adventure. I appreciated their enthusiasm for the new experience, as it kept me from getting too discouraged. I was truly grateful when the power line to our house was back in place, and heat and light were available again with the flick of a switch.
As you think back about your memories of this time of year, what things are you grateful for. Write down the memories that may help and encourage your family. Some times we forget how much we are blessed with. It is easy to focus on what we lack instead of on what we have. Our lives have a different perspective when we think of what we appreciate. Share your blessings by recording what you are grateful for.

Was Halloween Scary For You?

Halloween is fast approaching. What do you remember about the Halloween celebrations in your life?
I remember trick-or-treating in our small town. You would get apples and popcorn balls and assorted candy. At the home of my great aunt and uncle they gave out a gingersnap cookie. We took a clean pillowcase to carry our treats in. We never worried about someone trying to poison us or hurt us. The worst that might happen was being asked to do a trick before we could get a treat. I’m not very good at doing tricks. At our church there would be a party with a spook alley made in the basement. You got a little scared, but it was never gruesome. Costumes were always put together or home-sewn. You could be a witch with a black dress and a purchased black hat and maybe a broom; or you could be a tramp wearing worn out clothes, putting a colorful large handkerchief on the end of a stick and putting cold cream and black soot on your face.
Write down the kinds of treats you remember for Halloween. What kinds of treats have you made for parties? Including the recipes may make it especially nice for your children or grandchildren when some day they want to make the same treat. Write down how you decorated your home and your yard. Describe the jack-o-lanterns you made. Write down the costumes you wore and how you created them. Include pictures.
Did you ever help create a spook alley or a haunted house? What did you do to make it scary? How did people react to it? My daughter and I helped created a haunted house in the building next door to our house. We knew everything that was done to give the scary effects. My daughter dressed up and played the part of a widow telling spooky stories. It didn’t seem that scary when created, but some children ended up crying and needed to be comforted and reassured. My daughter discovered that some of her classmates at school did not recognize her, and they were very surprised to find out that she had played the part of the widow. We took pictures and made a slideshow video.
Write down how different Halloween was for you as a child and how it is for your children and grandchildren. If your parents or grandparents are still alive, ask them what Halloween was like for them and write it down for your children and grandchildren.

Harvest Time Memories

The fall of the year has always been a busy time for me. Growing a garden and then trying to preserve the produce from that garden takes a lot of time. It is especially challenging when the temperature drops 30 degrees in one day. All of a sudden tomatoes, grapes, and squash are in danger of freezing. So, my plans change and I'm picking green tomatoes and grapes and the squash that are big enough to eat until it is dark. Then I covered the remaining plants and hope they make it through the frost. Next week will be warm again. But now the grapes need to be made into juice or jam. The tomatoes should be spread out so they will ripen. I should make some zuchinni bread with some of the squash.
Every year the harvest is challenging. There is a lot of extra work to do in a very short period of time. Growing up I remember helping my mother as she canned peaches and apricots and pears. She made jams and butters from the fruit. She canned tomatoes, green beans and squash. She even made green tomato preserves when a frost came too soon for the tomatoes to ripen.
What kinds of things do you remember from the harvest times in your life? Did you enjoy fresh picked fruits and vegetables? Did you help can, dry or freeze fruits or vegetables for the winter? Did snow and cold come suddenly or gradually? Did you welcome the cooler weather or did you hate to see summer go?
Record in your life story the things about harvest time that you remember. Maybe you could even include a recipe for jam or jelly you made that was especially good. Write about the feelings you had during this busy time of year.