Saving Yesterday & Today for Tomorrow

Life goes by so quickly.  People we love are gone in flash.
Now that the holidays are closing in again - I hope some of you think about preserving a bit of the past for the other family members.
Memories are with us - and no one else can know what you experienced in life unless you document it.

One year G and I went through EVERY picture we could get our hands on (borrowed from parents too).  We categorized them and put them on the computer.  We then made DVD's for all the nieces and nephews and siblings of all those pictures for a gift one year.  They were thrilled.

My mother kept journals.  She used to tell me stories about when she was young and about her family who I never got to know.  So I told her once to start writing those stories down - because I would never remember all the details.  I bought her a blank book and she started writing.  I have 15 journals - written both sides of pages that she wrote before she died.
They got to be more diaries after a while.  She wrote up until a couple weeks before she passed.  I still haven't been able to read them all (too sad) and she passed in 2001!
BUT I have them and they are her handwriting and her words and thoughts.

The same goes with family recipes.  Do you or your loved ones have  lot of recipes that are family favorites?  Holiday specialties?  WRITE THEM DOWN!!
Make index cards or put together a small cookbook for family members.  Have everyone contribute their favorites.
What a wonderful Christmas gift that would be.
I have many of my Mom's, my sister (who has passed), and my grandma's recipes.  I made up a little recipe book for the nieces one year for Christmas. I used a small 4 x 5  photo album with plastic protectors for the recipes.  They can add to it for their kids.

Those of us who blog, are kind of leaving a bit of ourselves out their for the world.  I guess we can look at it as our journals.  Our thoughts, memories, recipes, joys and heartaches.
I still think it is only right that we ALL leave some personal things for the rest of the family now and in the future.

I know many young people don't have a care at all about that stuff - BUT SOMEDAY they will and we will all be gone.  Leave them your legacy.

    Mom and Daddy the year before I was born.  I can't imagine not having my pictures of the past!
NOW is the time to get busy on these kind of projects.  Pictures, memories, family history, recipes, your craftwork, or whatever it is  - pass it on.
Once you and the folks older than you are gone - so is all the information - forever!!!!!!

If you don't know stuff - ASK QUESTIONS NOW!!!
DOCUMENT IT!
Life is such an individual journey, different for each of us.  Someday other generations will learn from us - much as WE have learned from days gone by.

Another great idea for holiday gifts - pass on heirlooms to those who will appreciate and keep for years to come.  We all have things we have received - but when we leave this earth - what will happen to them?  Gift them now to others who can enjoy them for years to come.

Just a few ideas to work on and get ready for the upcoming holidays.

Passing on the 'past' is the best gift we can give the future.