Box Full Of Love......

What started as just a thought turned out to be one the best gifts I have ever given my daughters....

It started when my youngest daughter told me about a women who was selling handwritten recipes on Etsy. She said that handwritten recipes were becoming obsolete and family recipes were being lost because people were now using the internet to find all there recipes. She told me I better write down all my recipes so she would have them.

It really got me thinking about all the great memories of the food we use to eat at all those family gatherings, Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, 4th of July and birthdays. I wanted my girls to have those memories too and wanted to pass on all the great recipes from the family so they would not become lost forever.

So I went to work... I started this past summer and wrote a letter to every relative that I had a address for and asked them to send me three hand written recipes. This is the letter I sent:

Hello Everyone, 

I hope you are all enjoying your summer. I have a request from each of you. My daughters have been telling me that hand written family recipes are becoming obsolete. They tell me that people now use the internet for finding recipes and no longer write them down and pass them on to families. My girls are always after me to write down recipes for them. So I am going to surprise them for Christmas and give them each a recipe box full of family recipes. 

This is where you all come in. I would love it if each of you could write down one of your favorite recipes on the enclosed recipe cards. It can be anything you want, a main dish, vegetables, dessert, salad, or appetizer. Think of those family favorites, the things you make for the holiday get together, the thing you are known for making. Think about the food you remember your Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad, Aunt or Uncle making for you and now you make if for your family. These are the recipes I want. I have so many great memories of the food we use to eat at all those family gatherings. I want my girls to have those memories too and hope that you can help me pass on those recipes so they live on in the family for years and years. 

I have enclosed three cards since I have three daughters so I can give them each a copy of the recipe you send back to me. I know it is asking a lot of your time to copy the same recipe down three times but I believe my daughters will cherish them as much as I cherish the handwritten recipes I have gotten from family over the years. I have also enclosed a self addressed stamped envelope for you to send them back to me. Remember to put your name on the cards so they know who the recipe comes from. 

Thank you all ver much for helping me with my gift to my girls. And remember it is a surprise so please don't mention it to them if you see them. 

Take Care
Sharon 


I was so very happy with the great response I got from everyone. I started getting recipes in the mail right away. People were very excited about my little project and lots of people even sent extra recipes. I also  got recipes that were passed on to some of my aunts that were my grandma's. I was so happy to get them.  I was also busy writing down all the recipes I wanted to pass on to the girls. I had  a lot so I spend many weeks writing them all down. I also had some recipes that I had gotten from my Grandma Trenda that she had written out, so I made photo copies of all of those and included them too. I got to thinking that I should also include some recipes from the girls in-laws so I started sending emails to all of them and now those recipes are included in there boxes too.

I got my Dad involved too. I put him to work making a recipes boxes. He was so happy to make them and did such a great job. They are perfect.


I was so excited to give them to the girls at Christmas. I had this whole little speech I was going to say before they opened them but I got all teary and could say it. Of corse as soon as I started to cry the girls did too. It was such a special gift that was not really from me but from everyone......It is a box full of memories and love.

The girls were so happy with it! They spent the afternoon looking through it and reading all the recipes and talking about some of the memories they have already from some of them.

I cannot thank everyone enough for helping me with this and keeping it a secret for all these months. It was I think the best Christmas gift I could have given them......

Later Sharon

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." -The Princess Bride

                             Rick made this cute cheese ball snowman for Christmas.

               Andrew and Kim making friends with Dexter at the Rugroden Christmas

                               Christa, Jese and Oliver at the Rugroden Christmas

                                                  Cassie and Nick at his graduation

                                                     The doll house is finally done!

         Cassie and Grandma wanted there picture taken and Grandpa thought he should be in it too.

             Christa thought she should join the picture of Josie and me also

                              Riley getting ready to open gifts at the Becker Christmas

               Josie decided that she could take a picture with Cassie at Christmas

Diane's family at the Becker Christmas

      Josie did not want any supper she just moved onto the ice cream and cookies....

               Sarah, Jon and the newest member of the family Kryan


So after a weekend of running Rick and I sat down to watch a little TV after getting home from Christmas at my mom's house. I was flipping through the channels and saw that The Princess Bride was on. To my surprise Rick said he had never seen it!!! I could not believe it! How could he have never see one of the best movies ever! So I made him watch it and of course he loved it too!!!

Well I guess I will tell you all about our Christmas weekend. It started on Friday when we went up to the cities to watch Nick graduate with a masters degree in business. He has worked hard on getting it and it has paid off with a new job that he started last week. Congratulations Nick! We all went out for a late supper after the graduation to celebrate.

Saturday we had the Rugroden family up to our house for our Christmas celebration. It was a good time and we all ate way to much. But it's okay since it is Christmas :)

Sunday we had a day off of celebrations so I spent almost the whole day finishing up Josie's doll house. It is a lot of work wallpapering a doll house! It think it turned out pretty good and I think she is going to love it. I am excited to give it to her.

Monday we went to New Richland to go to church with Rick's mom then we stopped at her house and had supper with her. After we got home we opened our gifts to each other. One of the things Rick got me was a cell phone cover made by a local company called Twig. It is really a neat cover and best of all he shopped local :)

Tuesday was we went to my Mom and Dad's house for the Becker Christmas. We were short a couple people because Adam, Eli and Nick were all sick. We did get to have CJ there for the first time so that was nice. By the time we got home we were both full and tired!

We have one more Christmas to go. On Sunday we are going up to Cassie and Nick's house for our Christmas with the kids. I am excited for the girls to get there gift. Christa almost found out what it was when she heard Nick's mom and I talking about it. Good thing she did not hear any of the important details......Now it is driving her nuts since she did hear that it has been a secret since August.....

Yesterday I managed to get all my Christmas stuff put away and get the house all cleaned. After I was done I went and picked up Liam, Josie and Eli so they could come play at our house. Liam wanted to come see me so I had to go get them :) Poor Eli is still not feeling go so shortly after he got there he went down for a nap.

After the kids left Rick and I went down to the range and shot for awhile. Rick changed the cams out on his old bow and got it to fit me so I am finally going to get a different bow. I have been shooting my bow for 6 years now. It sure felt odd to be shooting a different bow. I think I am going to like it once I get use to it. Best of all I now get to have cool string colors since this bow is white. My old bow is red and it was hard to have cool strings that matched red.

Today I am back at work :( It is always hard to come back after the holidays. Good thing I am only working two and a half days and then I am off for  5 days. Of course when I have to actually work 5 days in a row it will be hard.

Later Sharon

"There's no way around grief and loss: you can doge all you want, but sooner or later you just have to go into it, through it, and, hopefully come out the other side. The world you find there will never be the same as the world you left." Johnny Cash

 Rick and I finally got to go see a movie. I am a total Hobbit/Lord of the Rings geek so I was super excited to go see the Hobbit. I am super glad to say that the move was great! I can't wait for the next part to come out. After seeing it I want to go back and read the book again. Rick was pretty much laughing at me after the movie because I was so excited about it. I know total geek!

So I have pretty much been avoiding the watching any news the last week because of the school shooting. It is just too sad. It hits everyone so close to home when someone goes into someplace that we all hope is a safe place for our children. I really hate the fact that people are posting all the dumb ass stuff on Facebook,  making dumb generalized statements about gun control and not having God in school anymore. It really has nothing to do with either of these things. I read a great sermon that was given at a church by one of the host of  My Talk . It was so well written and express what I think a lot of us our thinking. Please take a moment of your time and read it. I like everyone else is saying a prayer for those families that have lost a loved one......

Change of subject again...So I made some delish caramels the other day. I have always made them on the stove top and they always take forever to make because you have to cook them so slow. Well a friend of mine makes hers in the microwave so I asked her for her recipe. I was surprised to find out that it was pretty much the same recipe I use only you cook it in the microwave. So I gave it a try and was pleased that they taste just like the ones I cook on the stove top. I was not happy that while making them in the microwave I ended up having a mess to clean up because my bowl was not big enough so they overflowed. Well I decided that I wanted to make some chocolate caramels too so I figured I would divide this batch into two bowls so it did not overflow. Well I maybe should have been watching the time a little bit better and adjusting it to the fact that the batches were smaller.... I was cleaning up the kitchen as it was cooking and I looked up to see smoke pouring out of the microwave! Lets just say I was lucky that I did not start the microwave on fire. So after I got the smoke cleared out of the house I made another batch and this time I did not burn it....



Remember to hold the ones you love close, give them a hug and tell them you love them....no one is promised tomorrow.....

Later Sharon

Desserts is Stressed spelled backwards....

 

  I still believe in Santa, because I believe in the spirit of Santa. The people in the above letter to there son could not have explained the spirit of Santa any better! What a great way to give your child the answer to that dreaded question about Santa. By the way the letter came from pinterest.

I was listening to MyTalk yesterday on the way home and the host was doing her random thoughts for the day and she pointed out that desserts is stressed spelled backwards! I had to laugh because it is so true that so many people eat way to many desserts when they are stressed.

I really don't know anything today so I am going to keep it short. 

Happy Friday

Later

Sharon

Getting Ready For Christmas....

                                       Josie helping me make sugar cookies in her tutu

                                                Working hard on mixing it all up!

                                     Liam got to help with the frosting too

     Eli did not get to help with cookies but he sure likes to eat them! Notice Dexter waiting for Eli to drop the cookie...

                                                     My new Christmas Picture


I am done shopping for Christmas!!! I went on my annual MOA trip with the girls this past weekend and the little bit of shopping I had left to do is now done! Since I had so little shopping to do for others I had to do some shopping for me. I look at the Christmas pictures at Kirklands every year and think how nice they would look over the fireplace. Well this year when we were there they were all 40% off and I was looking at the one I really wanted and just could not decide if I should do it. The store clerk saw me looking and said she would give me another 15% off so I had to do it. I was sure Rick would not be happy with me but he loved the picture and put it up as soon as I got home with it. I am really glad I got it, I think it looks great.

After spending the weekend shopping I was really glad that I had two more days off of work. On Monday I got to babysit Josie and Eli all day and then Liam when he got done with school. I have not babysat them in a long time so it was fun to have them again. Josie was super excited when I told her we would make cookies as soon as Eli went down for his nap. She kept telling me it was his nap time :) We made sugar cookies and then when Rick picked Liam up from school we all frosted them. We had fun.

Yesterday I decided that I was going to do some baking for Christmas. I have not done much of it the last couple of years so I decided I would this year since I am hosting Christmas for Rick's family. I baked pretty much all day yesterday. I finished at 8:00 last night. I got everything done but the caramels I want to make. They are so good but they take forever to cook. Maybe on my next days off I will be able to get them done.

Now about the only thing I need to do for Christmas is wrap and finish painting the inside of Josie's doll house. Oh I guess I also need to finish my gifts for our Pinterest Christmas with the kids.

Hope you all enjoy 12-12-12
Later Sharon

It is getting to look a lot like Christmas....

                                              Christmas decorations are finally up!

                                                           Josie's Christmas dress

                                                                     Family Pictures

                                                               Naughty dogs!

                                       Proof that I let Rick decorate the Christmas Tree

                                                  Christmas Concert in Waseca


As you can see by the pictures I have had lots of things going on the past few days. My days off flew by and like always I wish I had more.

We finally got the house decorated for Christmas. We spent most of the day doing it on Saturday. Rick always complains that I never let him do any of the decorating so this year I let him put up and decorate the whole tree while I did the rest of the house. I only had to move a couple of the decorations once he had them up :) Saturday night we took Rick's mom and my mom and dad to the local Christmas show. It is put on by all Waseca people. It was really good, there are so many talented people in Waseca.

Sunday we went to WI to Rick's bothers house for Andrew's birthday so that took care of all day Sunday.

Monday I spent most of the day sewing. When Cassie got married all of the bridesmaid dresses came with shawls that they did not use and I ended up with all of them. I came across them a couple months ago and thought I should use them for something. So I took them apart and cut out a dress for Josie. The cream colored fabric is leftover  from the cape that I  made Christa for her wedding. So all I had to buy to make the dress was a zipper. I think it  turned out very good. Josie is going to be very pretty for Christmas. I have enough fabric left that I can make another dress for her. I was going to make the top out of the cream and the bottom out of the red and use a black bow. That way she will have two dresses to wear for the Christmas season. After all every little girl needs two Christmas dresses :) Now I just need to find the time to make it.

This weekend is our annual girls weekend at the MOA. I am looking forward to going even if I am pretty much done with my shopping. It is always nice to get away for a weekend.

Later Sharon