On another post, I made the comment that I regret the lost opportunities I had to learn from my grandparents. It put me in mind of a birthday card I found at my mom's house last spring that I had never seen before. It was addressed to me and dated eight days after my birth, from a great grandmother I never knew. In an unsteady script, it reads: “You dear little great grand daughter. Welcome to the tribe and may it be a happy journey through the years as I am about to the end of the journey and trust your life will more than fill in the empty space I am making. With Jesus Christ as your guide, you sure will succeed. Your great grandma, Florence, May 10, 1973 I will be 94 on July 14, 1973. God bless all your (unreadable, ventures? endeavors?).” She died in '74. I'm not a huge junk collector, and I'm rather well-known in my family for not being overly sentimental, but finding that card was such a treasure! I want to remind us moms to tuck a few of these things away for our kids. To write down some memories. In 20 or 30 years, they might be very special. I'm curious, what do you do to preserve your family's past?
Wow, that really is special. Like you, I'm not real sentimental nor a collector. But I do regret the lack of cards and letters that my children will have in the future since so much is electronic. During the 8 years my husband and I dated, we were apart much of the time and wrote to each other tons. We both still have all the letters. Not that I want my kids reading those, but it's just an example of what they won't have. From their childhoods, I saved some early drawings. I wrote down, in not a very organized way, really cute things that they said. I take pictures, but again not a huge amount. I'm not a scrapbooker. I prefer to fill photo albums of things in chronological order. Before filling the photo album I always make sure to write on the back who and when. Just the other day my daughter laughed at me and said, "What? You think someday we won't recognize ourselves?" And I said, "Someday your grandchildren might not recognize you." So I guess I hope that the photos will be my biggest way of preserving things. That sounds so typical though. So I'm eager to hear other folks' more original ideas.
Karen, it sounds like you're doing some wonderful things to preserve some memories for your kids! They'll be so glad someday. I like to write down funny things my kids say, too, but it's also pretty unorganized, just a sheet of paper I keep in the cupboard where I can find it. I'm not very good with pictures, and I've found I hate scrapbooking; I'm more of a writer. I have a journal I keep for each of my kids and I try to write a letter to them in it once or twice a year. Kind of an ongoing record of their growing up, what we've done as a family and their achievement during the past several months.
Not family, but.... When my best friend got married, I made a cross stitch serving tray for her. When I put it together, I placed a letter to her underneath the stitching. She may never find it, or it may be found by her grandkids after she's long gone....
the other day I ran across a photo album page that was out of its book and it just said "famil"..... I figured I better go back in and write down the names. I have written a little "love note" for my husband in his lunch box....... he broguth them home in a hube bag one day because they were getting to thick in his tool box at work, along with all the drawings the kids put in too, I made a "photo album" of them on the earlier notes you can tell the earliest ones because they had 2 hearts........ then you can see 2 tiny hearts for the twins inside one, then the tiny hearts between the 2 big hearts............. then eventually 4 tiny hearts , 2 big hearts and a heart with whiskers
Wow, what a special find! I'm a scrapbooker... or I used to be, and now and then I pretend I still do it. :ninja:
