MAKING MEMORIES FOR YOUR FAMILY

Think back over the years and try to remember some of the best memories you can recall?  Are these memories about things you got or about experiences you had?  For most of us our memories consist of things we did and experiences we had. 

When my children were growing up I wanted to make memories for them; Memories different from the regular memories of growing up.  We all have those, but I wanted something extra special to stick out in their minds when they got older.  Something they would remember with fondness.  I found that in making memories for my family, I created wonderful memories for myself and I had so much fun coming up with ideas and implementing them.

The types of memories I am talking about are the totally out of the ordinary kind – not the kind that become traditions – although that is o.k. as well.  These should be things that normal families don’t always do; things that stick out above all the rest.

Here are a few examples of some memories I created with my family.  

After taking a course on being a “Total Woman” our challenge for the week was to make sure that the last thing our husbands saw in the morning before he left for work was a bright smiling face, after all if anything bad had happened to me or him that day, his last memory would be one of me smiling. 

I was never a morning person and rarely got up when my husband left for work in the wee hours of the morning but I was determined to meet the challenge.  I would drag myself out of bed, get ready, give him a big hug and kiss, and would walk him to the car. I would stand there smiling and waving as he drove away – even if it was raining.  It put a smile on his face and he really appreciated the effort I made.  It was something totally out of the ordinary but it was a gift from my heart to his. 

When my oldest daughter was about seven I decided to put on a ‘restaurant night’ for her and her grandparents.  I typed up a menu.  She got to chose which foods would be served and she got to invite her grandparents over for the special event.  We decorated the table and used the fancy dishes.  My husband and I were the maid and butler and we did not eat with them.  This was her special night with her grandparents and we were making a lasting memory for her. 

One year I decided celebrate Christmas in the summer to make memories for other members of my family.  I invited them over for dinner on a certain day and didn’t tell them what I had planned.  I served a full turkey dinner on my best dishes and then invited everyone down to our rec room.  There I had set out a fully decorated Christmas tree and I had presents waiting for them. (I bought a few dollar store items for each person and wrapped them in Christmas wrap.)  I had Christmas music playing softly in the background. As I handed out presents I would wish them a Merry Christmas and explain that Christmas should not only come once a year.  I still hear comments from certain relatives saying “Remember the time you had Christmas in the summer?”  We all had a lot of fun and some great memories.

Memories are made of experiences and not so much of things.  They come from our hearts and minds.  It’s o.k. to put little notes into your husband or child’s lunch box every now and then but if you do it all the time, before long they take this for granted and it doesn’t really stick out in their memories. It becomes more of a tradition.  

Try to think of ways to surprise your family with the totally unexpected. Make sure to include teenagers and get them involved in ideas and planning as well. At first they may scoff at the idea but eventually they may come around and enjoy themselves.  Make sure to take plenty of pictures and video so you can enjoy these special times together in the future.

Here are a few ideas to get you started. 

Pick one member in a family and make that person King or Queen for the day.  For one special day, that person doesn’t have to do chores, gets to choose their favorite foods to eat, picks their favorite movie to watch, etc.  Everyone in the family has to do something extra special to honor that person for the day.   Make sure every member of the family gets their chance at being king or queen for a day but spread this out over the year so it does not become a regular event but sticks out in the person’s memory.  A twist on this could be a day to celebrate an Un-Birthday half way through the year.

Throw a picnic in the middle of your living room or in a park in the middle of winter.

Have a family pajama party and everyone sleeps together on the living/rec room floor, or make a tent with blankets and sleep there for the evening.  

Have each child invite one friend over for a family night of charades, board games, pizza making, cookie baking, or crazy menu night (see below).  Make the evening different and special so the friends will remember it as well. 

Make a coupon book or coupon jar and hand it to family members for a job well done.  The coupons could include things like a free back rub, free hugs, a favorite meal, an extra hour before bedtime, or any number of things.  Use your imagination and make it fun.

Plan a “Help our neighbors” night.  Get the family together to do something good for your neighbors.  You could shovel their walk, mow their lawn, rake leaves, pick weeds, etc. Another spin on this is to do something for someone else ‘anonymously’.  Leave a bouquet of hand picked flowers tied with ribbons, some groceries, a plate of cookies, a card, or a special note saying something nice about them.  Don’t let them know who did it.  Leave it on their doorstep and run.   This will create memories and encourage family members to be more thoughtful of others. 

Invite one of your children out on a date.  You could go out to a movie, out for a meal, to the zoo, museum, etc.  Make it a special evening just for that child.  This works great with teens. 

Make a Scripture/Bible Cake and make a game of it.  Get the family to look up the verses and find the ingredients.  The recipe can be found here: http://www.abetterhope.com/funpage.html

Plan a “No Electricity” night.  No T.V., radio, electronic games, etc.  Turn out everything you can that runs on electricity. Make sure to unplug or turn off telephones.   Light candles, serve a cold dinner and have everyone pitch in with clean up.  Hand wash dishes as a family then sit together and tell stories. 

Have a crazy menu night.  Menu items are disguised so no one knows what they are getting.  Here are a few examples:

           

1.  Themed after a favorite T.V. character or show.

Mickey’s Marvelous Munchies

Minnie’s magnificent magic marinade

Daisy’s delectable dairy

Donald’s dingy dragon soup   

Pluto’s pompous poison

Goofy’s grand and gross grunge Etc.

2.  List food items in a foreign language so they don’t know what they are ordering.  The following are a few examples in Italian.

la mela – apple

il burro – butter

la cena – dinner

Here’s one site that has some food names in French, Spanish, Italian, German and Swedish. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/themes/food.shtml

3.  Numbers and letters menu.  Pre-choose a food item and assign a letter to it, the same with utensils.  If your child picked the letters c, p, a, and f for their meal and the number 3 and 6 for their utensils, this is what they might get:

C = soy sauce

P = wiener

A = glass of water

F = raw vegetable

3 = large serving spoon

6 = napkin

Now they have to eat whatever they have chosen with only the spoon and napkin.  This will cause giggles all the way round when they see what they have ordered.  Of course you can serve a regular meal afterward.

4.  Create a menu with the craziest, grossest or funniest names you can think of. Kids seem to enjoy eating their food so much more if the food has the craziest names.  Get them to help name foods for other meals and you will see them gobble their food up on no time and they will have fun doing it.

Scrambled wiggly worm spaghetti

Dead fish eyeball soup

Lazy lying lousy leftovers

Greasy grimy garden greens

Ewieey gooey  chopped and mangled potatoes

5.  Here’s a site with a crazy menu.  http://www.theidearoom.net/2010/03/blog-sway-with-idea-room.html

I hope you enjoy these ideas and have fun making memories with your family. Please feel free to share your ideas as well.