Memories & Recipes

This Christmas was the first for me where both of my children, Nathaniel and Molly, were off in their own apartments instead of living in dorms on campus at North Dakota State University. I wanted to do something special for them that would remind them of their childhood and our traditions as a family. My gifts to them this year were homemade food stuffs,

things that were their favorites. I baked bread from loaves of frozen dough and made French toast, which I froze for quick microwave meals; a pot of chili, prepared in a slow cooker, was frozen up in individual servings. My mother makes strawberryrhubarb jam, which is my daughter’s favorite, so I tucked a jar of that into Molly’s package. Nathaniel is a peanut butter man, so he got peanut butter. Finally, they each received a tray of their Grandma Rosie’s sugar cookies.

I wasn’t sure how all of this would go over, but the glee they both expressed when they found what I’d made to take back with them to their new homes left me sure that we had established a brand-new tradition.