Family Recipe Books

A copy of our Beaver family recipe book

One of the yummy recipes in the book

Since our family, immediate and extended, seems to be growing by the day, we mutually decided to just buy gifts for the little ones this year and forgo our usual exchanging of names. I still wanted to do a little something for everyone but was having difficulty coming up with what would be an appropriate gift for everyone. Being in my first trimester, I found myself craving my grandmother’s vegetable soup recipe, followed by her slippery pot pie recipe, followed by my other grandmother’s jam tarts. After becoming really bummed out that I did not have recipes for either of the three items, I knew what had to be done…every family would receive a recipe book for Christmas filled with all of our personal recipes!

I began the process by letting my family members know my plans and asking each family to submit two or more of their favorite or most famous recipes. I included a template to make it a little easier for them to type in ingredients and directions as an attachment and asked them to send it back to me a few weeks before Christmas. After I assembled all of the templates, emails, and hand-written recipes (for my non-tech-savvy family members), I made copies for each family. With the help of my awesome mother, we cut and bound the recipes and laminated the front and back covers of the books about one hour before Christmas celebrations were to begin!

Although the books were a lot of work, I was so happy with how they looked. Now, not only do I have something nostalgic that I can cherish for years to come and pass on to future generations, I can satisfy all of my cravings any time they hit!

The recipe book for the Dalby family

Another delicious entry to the recipe book

Children's Craft: Family Fun Jars




Family Fun Jar and contents


A cute and inexpensive craft project done with the girls in my Girl Scout troop is a “Family Fun Jar.” I found really cute flip-top glass jars at a dollar store for $1.00 each. Each of the girls were given the opportunity to decorate the outsides of their jars using glitter alphabet stickers (also purchased at the same dollar store for $1.00 per five sheets of letters) with the phrase “Family Fun,” their last names, or names of the people in their families. I had pre-printed a large list of ideas for families to participate in together using a number of various websites and had the girls cut apart each of the items, fold them, and place them into the jar. They were then able to wrap them and give them to their family members as a holiday gift. The idea is for families to take turns choosing an item out of the jar when looking for fun activities to do together on the fly!



Flip-top jar




Front of family fun jar




Back of jar




Inside of jar-filled with ideas for families to spend time together



Special Occasions Board-Magentic

My husband and I both have large families, so keeping track of everyone's birthdays and anniversaries can be challenging, and I happen to find calendars super BORING! So...I decided to come up with a way to commemorate (and help remember) all of the special occasions in our lives. Here's what I came up with:

Materials:

-metal, serving tray-$1
-scrapbook paper-on hand
-double-sided tape-$1
-circle cutouts (store-bought or machine-cut)
-hole punch-$1 or on hand
-adhesive hooks-$1
-alphabet stickers

Directions:

1. Cover the metal, serving tray with scrapbook paper using double-sided tape.

2. Adhere alphabet stickers to the top of the tray to spell out "Special Occasions."

3. Stick eight, adhesive hooks onto the scrapbook paper, leaving space between each hook.

4. Use the hole punch to punch a hole in each circle cutout (I used my Cricut machine to make around 100 circular shapes...told ya' we had a big family) and write down a name and birthdate on each circle.

5. Add magnetic strip to the back of the tray, if you wish to stick it on the fridge, like I did. It could also be hung on a wall or propped on an easel, depending upon your preference.

6. Hang circles on hooks (I organized and bagged the ones that did not occur in the present month hung up the ones that did. When this month ends, I will simply go to my drawer and retrieve the next month's baggie)

I LOVE it, and it beats the heck out of a boring old calendar!!!