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