Traditions...

For years growing up I stood in my kitchen watching my mom making homemade Apricot jam. Ever summer she did this. She LOVED to can her own veggie & fruit. But jam was her favorite thing to do. Not freezer jam but cooked jam. I guess you never can take the country out of the girl... You might ask yourself why would I make that statement. My mom was raised in a small town in Oregon. Then moved to L.A when she got older where she met my dad... So she showed me how to make jam, homemade cinnamon rolls, bread & cookies. I still have some of her old old recipes!! To this day I make jam every year... Now my favorite is Raspberry jam & for the last 17 years I have done this for my family & friends. See my mom got sick so when I moved from CA to WA I continue to do this for her... Now this in my tradition to pass on to my nieces. I hope they will embrace it like I did. I know it made her very proud each year when I would send home that box filled with goodies for them all. I love you mom & miss standing by your side in a kitchen doing this. But I can feel you watching over me as I stand there smelling the sweet smell of the fresh berries of WA.

Other tradition I do each year is Christmas baking. We have our family fav's & some people laugh when they see the Chocolate marshmallow drop. The really don't look great but when you bite into them & you taste the chocolate covered marshmallow... yummy!!!

I guess today what I'm saying is I love how we learn & pass down our traditions. Each of us have them... If it is from that same family outing each year or taking that family picture every year. I am blessed that I had a great role model in my mom to show me this. I love that I had & have the pleasure to pass this on to our girls in the family. Some of them will do this & some will not. But they will have other traditions to pass onto their kids. Which is what this is all about... TRADITION!!!