Preserving Family Traditions | Geralin Thomas | Raleigh Cary NC

Preserving Family History During the Holidays

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As our families gather together during the holiday season, we are often celebrating and reenacting traditions that have been passed down for generations. The house has been tidied up; the whole family is there, what a perfect time to dedicate a few moments to preserving our heritage!

You might still use Great Grandma?s gravy boat, or as we do in my family?s case, ceremonially mix the gravy with the old heirloom metal spoon that has been completely worn down on one corner from years of stirring. Perhaps you are all gathered in Grandma and Grandpa?s house, cooking traditional Thanksgiving foods, but with your own family?s cherished recipes. Here are some suggestions for preserving these wonderful memories you are creating:

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Preserving Family Traditions

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If you have a photographer in the family, ask them to be your photojournalist (in between snacks, watching the football game, and dinner, of course!) Or, grab those teenagers with their ubiquitous cell phones in hand and have them take photos of the cooks in the kitchen, the yellowed index card with your famous stuffing recipe, the heirloom table ? set for dinner, and also loaded up with food, even Uncle Andy napping. Each family has unique things they celebrate and hold dear: the path to the creek, the old photo album, Aunt Suzy?s kitchen table, the cowlick all the grandsons share. Whatever it is that makes your family smile, be sure to find a way to include it.

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Several phones have video capabilities, so here?s a great way to put those kids to work: Write down some interview questions and have the kids take turns asking some questions of the elders in the family about their holiday traditions. It doesn?t have to be perfect, it?s the spirit of sharing and documenting our special times that makes these moments shine.

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One year in our family, I took out a notebook as we were all gathered around and asked each person their full name and how they got that name. Of course I knew my family members names, but I didn?t know that Cousin Marlon was named after Marlon Brando! Everyone calls my husband by his nickname ?Trip?, but he?s really Louis Wilcox Mitchell, III, named after his grandfather, and all three of those are names that are important in his family history. We had a lot of fun, and all learned a little bit more about each other.

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You might suggest that relatives bring in some photo albums to share at the get together. In addition to researching history, I am a professional organizer who has a love of family photos, so my computer holds a library of 16,000 photos including all of the branches of my family. Many of these pictures are those I was able to borrow at a family visit to scan at home and return. If relatives aren?t comfortable about that, they probably won?t mind you taking a picture of their photos, even those that are framed up on the wall.

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With my family scattered far and wide, as our family historian, any time we are all in one place I take advantage of that time to share new things I have learned about our heritage. Something I have heard repeated many times in different families are the cherished memories of late at night after the party has mostly ended, when the grownups all sit around and tell stories. Sometimes the children would be shooed away off to bed, or sometimes they were welcome to lean up on someone and doze off with the comforting sounds of familiar voices telling family stories. I make sure I have a notepad with me because I want to capture some of those stories before they are lost, and follow up with research in case new history comes to light.

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Before everyone goes home, pick someone to be the secretary and gather up phone numbers and email addresses so that the family can contribute those photos and videos and stories they might have collected at your gathering. Many photo sharing websites make it easy and secure to share photos, videos, calendars and even messages among families. ?Everyone can see and share, order their own copies, even create books! For many years I have been into scrapbooking, and I save my pictures and memories in a book for each year. Now when we travel to see the family at Christmas I bring along my Christmas scrapbook, and we all get to relive those memories together. Why not pick a few ideas to try this year for engaging your family in preserving your special memories. It might become a wonderful new tradition itself!

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Here are some suggestions for sites to share photos and history:

Shutterfly.com ? Families can share photos, videos and calendars as well as order prints and custom gifts

Ancestry.com ? keep your family tree online, add photos and stories, link to records from around the world, even publish it all in a book from this site.

Facebook ? make an album of your family fun times and share it with the family. (Note: Keep it in the Family! Always consider your privacy settings, and respect your family?s privacy by not posting publicly without permission.

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Sasha Mitchell is a Professional Organizer and Family Historian at Memory Cottage in Asheville, NC.? A busy mom of three sons, and a licensed foster mom, she loves sewing, reading, genealogy, scrapbooking and baking ? and keeping organized is the only way all of those things can happen!? Finding ways to manage the stuff of life and juggle many responsibilities while incorporating the things she loves into her work have made life sweet. Sasha is happy to share tips and spread that joy around to her clients. Connect with her on Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter.

About Geralin Thomas

Welcome to Metropolitan Organizing or "Metrozing". I'm Geralin Thomas CPO-CD?. I specialize in working with chronically disorganized clients in Raleigh, NC and we'd like to help you declutter and organize your home and your home office. If you're a DIY-type, I've created a Spanish-English Housekeeping Task list to help get your household chores under control. Learn more and purchase them on my products page. If you are a professional organizer, you'll want to explore the many ways I can help boost your business and take the worry out of organizing your organizing business. Feel free to call me: 919 380-7718 and meet the Metrozing team on my website.

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