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January 26 – Tradition/Heritage (Journaling)

WOOHOO!!! The last one for MOC6!! I love MOC but man am I glad to be out from under that performance pressure!! Thanks for the great challenge! My grandfather recently died and now I have boxes of photos like this that need to be scrapped while I can still find people that can ID them and tell me stories. This made me start to tackle them.
 
here's my entry. it's about the family holiday meal traditions that we have today, i tell about how they began with the 2 of us in 1986 and going further back into our mothers' stories. think the photo in front of the tree pretty much ensures it is from the 1908s :) it was a fun challenge



journaling

Many of our family traditions center around the Christmas Holidays, specifically the Christmas dinner. We started sharing our families’ holiday traditions back in 1986 when we first started dating. We spent time together on Christmas that year and have celebrated every Christmas except one since then.

Given that both our mothers are from other countries, England for Margaret and Canada for my mom, it isn’t surprising that many of our traditions we continue today are British in nature. Margaret always makes Yorkshire pudding for Christmas and Thanksgiving. They are a yummy muffin like dish that you top with gravy. She is supposed to show all of us how to make them in the next year. It took her many years to perfect what she has with lots of trial and error. I first had this dish when I attended Christmas dinner that year.

That same year, 1986, Gavin had a first at our house as well. We always have a shrimp cocktail as an appetizer to start off our holiday meals. Gavin had never had shrimp before then, and he became and instant fan.

Another Bower tradition we have in our house is to make cranberry ice. It is basically a cranberry granita. We serve it as a palette cleanser at the beginning of dinner or as a dessert. Basically, you boil cranberries and add lots of sugar along with citrus juice. You then separate the pulp of the cranberries from the liquid and freeze the liquid. After 24 hrs. you soften the frozen cranberries and beat them in a mixer and refreeze in the serving cups. It is a yummy light dish and you get the added side effect of having homemade cranberry sauce.

One last holiday meal tradition are the English crackers. You pull apart a gift wrapped cardboard sleeve. Inside is a crown which you then wear for the meal and a little prize, like ones that are found in the cracker jack box only a little nicer.

The other family tradition is frosted sugar cut out cookies. I remember these growing up in the 70s and 80s and Margaret still make a big batch for all the families each year. The Santa with the sack on his back is my favorite and I am always on the look out for this cookie cutter, it reminds my of my Grandma Bower and the one she had when I was little.

Love all our family Christmas dinner traditions and I hope Connor keeps them going when he has his own family. He has been enjoying them since his very first Christmas.
 
I loved looking through old pictures...thanks for the challenge!
Journaling in gallery, 167 words.

 
This is my last & final layout to complete MOC!! Hooray!

Thanks for this challenge! It simpered me to do more documenting of my own childhood and get ALL those photos out of the old photo albums from the 80's :D

 
I hope I got this one. It was fun once I got going but finding something older was SUPER hard. Then I saw this kit and got inspired.

Word Count: 276
Journaling reads:
Baking cookies is a holiday tradition at my parents’ house. Okay, well, baking cookies anytime is the tradition but especially at the holidays. My mom bakes chocolate chip cookies and fudge. It’s her go to thing for any family get together. Baking cookies with mom and my sisters and my niece is a lot of fun. There’s always a battle to keep one sister out of the raw cookie dough, she will eat it by the spoonfuls. One of us likes to be in charge of scooping the cookie balls onto the baking tray. One of us likes monitoring the baking part and runs the timer. One of us enjoys the mixing of the cookies and being directed for what’s next by mom. The kitchen at my parents’ house is small so I don’t remember us all gathering together at the same time and working together to make one big batch of cookies. I’m not sure we’d get along well enough for that, but we do take turns coming in and out of the kitchen and helping here and there. Now that we are older, this is usually the case. Often, it’s just one or two of us. We also have found our places in the scheme of the cookie making. One of us likes to bake, one of us likes to mix and make our own style cookies, one of us likes to eat the cookies. We all like to eat the cookies but especially one of us. It’s fun to see how as we’ve gone from kids to adults how one of the few constants we have is the baking of cookies with mom.
 
Here is mine!
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Credits:
Pause Kit
Memory Pockets Monthly Add-On: Foundation
Dahlia No. 3
Sahlin Studios Sweet Storytelling Freebie
Photoshop Tools:
Stylin' # 214 Glittered Wood
Stylin' # 62 Shimmer
Glitter Sprinkles II
Stylin' #227 Frosted Glass
Font:
Lemon Milk
Mom's Typewriter

Note: I had to use a stock photo of the books for this, because my camera is being funky. I'm at work, and can't get home to take a new picture before the timer on the challenge expires. (I'm on PST.) I"ll update the page with my own photo later tonight.

Updated: They're not as pretty, but they're mine!
https://the-lilypad.com/forum/galleries/moc18-day-26.338313/full
 
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The tiny red car, a 1970ish volkswagon bug, is one of my clearest memories of my childhood. As an adult I can't imagine what it was like for Grandpa to drive those distances by himself in such a little car. Being in rural Alberta our house was no where near the direct route from BC to PEI.
 
The story of how I came to live in the city I do! Thanks for the challenge! (Word count is 308)
 


60th Anniversary

Wedded Bliss - Digital Scrapbooking Kit by Kristin Aagard Designs
https://the-lilypad.com/store/digital-scrapbooking-kit-wedded-bliss.html

Create Crate Monthly: Snow Much Fun Designed by Bella Gypsy Designs, Kristin Aagard and Mommyish
https://the-lilypad.com/store/Create-Crate-Monthly-Snow-Much-Fun.html

Word Count: 152 words

Great Grandma Marlene & Great Grandpa Ron first met at the Bellingham School in Bellingham Minnesota, and had their first crush when Great Grandma was in 6th grade and Great Grandpa was in 7th grade at Bellingham School in Minnesota. They went on their first date on Halloween night in 1952, they got engaged at Christmas time in 1953. In the fall of 1954 they set their wedding date for January 20, 1955, unfortunately Grandpa Ron’s dad passed away on January 11th, so they rescheduled for March 5th. They married in Bellingham, MN at ages 18 & 20 on March 5, 1955. They had 4 children, Linda, Debra (your Grandma Hoppe), David & Steven. Great Grandpa Ron worked for a phone company and Great Grandma worked at Rainbow Foods. They love to fish together! We celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in February of 2015. We got together with many family and friends!
 

Little girls are stereotypically supposed like dolls. I, however, was not that into them. I honestly don’t even remember having one. I am sure I did, but it just must not have been an important part of my childhood. Instead when I was little you could not see me without some sort of stuffed animal. I always had one with me, and at bedtime I always slept with them. I named them all and they were all a big part of my life. Maybe this was especially true since I was an only child. They kept me company and I often had parties with them or made them assorted meals.
My favorite stuffed animal was my Snoopy. I am not sure who got it for me, but I took him everywhere. He played a big part in my life. Sadly, Now that I think about it, I am not sure what happened to him. I guess the next time I talk to my parents I will have to ask.
 
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