Memories Image: sxc.hu

Seniors have so much to offer. They have time, wisdom, energy, and stories to tell. Having grandchildren around is often a great gift for them. This allows for them to speak freely about things they remember from when they were young. Some grandparents may benefit from visiting grandchildren because their memories come back to them when they see the smile of their grandchild. Working the memory is a good thing for older adults.  So the next time you are around Grandma, ask her something about the holiday season when she was young!

We also don’t realize how much we wish we had written down these memories or recorded them in some way.  After grandparents are gone, we don’t recall their stories in enough detail.  However, jot down, in words and pictures, what they’ve told you.  Spend time with grandparents and their memories. 

My daughter has admonished, “Mom, write down your memories…for me and the grandchildren.”

We also can record the present events (which will become memories) by recording them in a journal.  One lady told me she’s compiling a Holiday Journal.  Here she writes down what she and her family do for each holiday.

What about you?

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Reader Shares Thoughts of Seniors’ Memories

Chrstmas ornaments image: sxc.hu

• Keep a journal and record the various holidays activities that are occurring in the family and at school.
• Take pictures of the various crafts and activities and put these in a slide show on the computer.  So many youngsters are learning how to make slide shows for school projects.  So this could carry over at home
• Print off pictures and put them in an actual scrapbook.
• Make holiday collages with pictures from magazines and write about the holidays on this.  These could be lone collages or be compiled into a scrapbook.
• Find old Christmas cards saved in the family.  Put these in a scrapbook and write something about the memories these evoke.  My grandmother saved hristmas cards for years.  I’m trying to jot down notes about any of the people I know who sent these to her.

What holiday memory projects does your family do?

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Holiday Memory Project for Tots

We’d adjusted to the idea that our granddaughter, who attends college 500 miles away, wouldn’t be home for Thanksgiving.  Imagine our surprise with her arrival Tuesday evening.  She’d been able to arrange a ride with a classmate and his parents to their home about 75 miles from us.  Her dad secretly met her and helped with the surprise.

Thanksgiving image: sxc.hu

I remember my parents arranging a surprise trip for us to visit my aunt and uncle in another state for Thanksgiving when I was a youngster.  They didn’t tell us children until they knew the weather would be good and Father could get away from the farm tasks for the weekend.  That has remained in my memory for years, especially when I come across pictures taken at my aunt and uncle’s home.

Savor the Thanksgiving memories and blessings, whether they’re surprises or not.  Compile journals and scrapbooks for future generations so they can glimpse your family’s holiday experiences.

How are you saving your Thanksgiving memories and blessings?

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Thanksgiving Surprises Create Memories

Pincushion Image: sxc.hu

 I’ve saved a number of these and find the memories joyful.  ONe is a pincushion my daughter made by herself and gave me as a surprise Christmas gift when she was about eight years old. Even though she’s grown with a daughter in college, I still use this and treasure it.

My daughter has Christmas ornaments her son and daughter made in art class in elementary school.  Each year she puts them out for display.

There are other items children make, some large and some small, some at school and others at home, that parents and grandparents treasure. Sometimes these gifts have no use at all…other than  bringing  back fond memories.

What are some of small treasures and memories?

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Children’s Small Treasures Appreciated

Image: D Sharon Pruitt

Perhaps we can’t choose what comfort foods our kids crave, but when they do crave it, it would be ideal to cater to their craving. It gives them a signal that we are here to provide them comfort. It gives them a signal that they can always rely on us when they are in need of security and familiarity. Food can help fulfill that longing.

What’s your family comfort food? Is it a bowl of macaroni and cheese, prepared by your Mom on Sunday mornings? Is it the Chinese noodles Grandpa cooked with you growing up? Is it a bowl of raw cookie dough, much like the one you and your sisters ate when you baked together? Comfort food, especially one associated with family memories, warms not only the tummy but also the heart.

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What’s your family comfort food?

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Some ideas:

• Make shadowboxes with memorabilia from past and present family members
• Create a CD or slide show of family pictures and documents.  Several family members said they’d like the photos I have in the family history album on a CD.
• Make a quilt hanging using some family photos and scenes.
• Create postcards and notepaper from photos of family homes.
• Make a collage representing the different family lines.
• Start a journal of family stories, with various family members contributing.
• Write biographies of ancestors
• Collect family recipes and food stories for a recipe book

What have you done with family and family reunion art and crafts?

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Creating Family Reunion Crafts

• Keep a journal of your travels.
• Make a scrapbook with photos and words
  

  Image: sxc.hu

• Collect postcards and assemble them in albums
• Make a memory shadow box of memorabilia collected
• Write down memories of past trips
• Look at the challenges and disasters with the humor the years bring.
• Write a blog about your trip, complete with pictures, to share with others in the family.
• Design a quilt or wall hanging with travel memories or of a special place you’ve visited.
• The travels can be close at home or at a distance.
• Crate a mobile with photos and items collected on your trip

What do you do for memory crafts?

Related Post: Memorable Travels with Kids about our travels with our daughter and how you can create memories, too.

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Travel Memory Crafts

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When Beth was 10 months old, we traveled by Model A Ford  from Sacramento, CA to Denver, CO.  Jim had taken a new job and parted with our modern car because he couldn’t leave behind the Model A Ford he’d restored.  Even though it was a challenge to travel this way, we look through the photos and recall the lovely countryside in early October and our experiences.  This included Jim pushing the car the last few hundred feet up Berthoud Pass because the Ford had a struggle mustering up the energy.

As Beth grew older, for several years, she wasn’t such a good traveler.  So we had to find activities to occupy her while we periodically drove 275 miles to visit parents.  That’s when we found games, made up games, sang songs, told stories until Beth was old enough to read and would lose herself in a book.  This was in the days before electronics and all the games and gadgets parents tote along now.

Our first camping trip, to try out our new tent, was frought with heavy rain just as we were putting it up for the night.  Fortunately it was water tight, and we remained dry as we ate cold food and slept to the drumming of rain on the fabric.  We awoke to lovely sunlight and a wonderful day for hiking back to our car.

When Beth was 12 years old, we drove from NH to Wyoming for a pack trip into the Gros Ventre Mountains, south of Jackson Hole.  Even though it meant long days of driving, we enjoyed the diverse countryside.  Then our trip into the mountains was filled with adventure.

Make memories of your travels with kids.  Take pictures, take notes, make up scrapbooks so you can relive those times.

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Memorable Travels with Kids

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It contained too many memories for me to give it away, but I didn’t have time to refinish and uphoster it.  Actually I didn’t know how. 

Today at a yard sale, a lady remarked on its nice lines and sturdiness.  It would be great if finished, she informed me.  But she didn’t know how either.  As my daughter and I hauled it back to storage, I started relating the memories associated with it.

This was my paternal grandmother’s rocker.  I recall her using it when I was a child.  When my maternal grandmother visited, she used the chair, too.  My mom enjoyed it as well.  When Mother developed Alzheimer’s and I had to sell her home and move her to another state with me, I discovered the old rocker, used and worn and filled with memories.  So I simply  moved  it, too.

My daughter decided she’d research the old rocking chair and how to refinish and upholster it.  I’m trying to recall the type of cloth used…a dark red upholstery (not exactly like the picture above), I think.  I’ll search through some family photos and see if there are any of  it.

Do you have some old furniture associated with family memories?

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Saving the Old Rocking Chair

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There are fireworks in a neighboring town on Friday night.

A parade also is held there on Saturday morning.

We prepare special foods that have become a family tradition, including a barbeque. 

If the weather is good, we also may hold a yard sale this weekend.  Yard sales have become traditional over summer holiday weekends in our town.

I’ll see what photos and memories I can find from my childhood, my daughter’s and the grandchildren.  I should begin compiling them into a scrapbook/journal. 

When I was growning up, my mother’s family always gathered on July 4th.  In later years, as the older generation passed away, my parents established traditions at our home.  I shouldn’t let these family heritage memories disappear into the past.

What do you do to save Fourth of July memories?

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Happy Fourth of July – Saving Memories