Today as I make their recipes I get to remember the love that they gave me and remember their joyous lives.....

I get to make my Grandma Gladys date loaf but once a year.  It is a candy after all and no one needs it on a regular bases.  She made it for her children as they grew and all of them that I have ever spoken to about it know what it was and that it was made with her special love.  Last year I was speaking about making it and her foster daughter in law's mother asked me for the recipe so she could give it to her daughter.  She knew that having the recipe would be a special blessing and memory of our dear Grandma Gladys.  She made it and I don't know if she made it up or if it was a recipe handed down to her.  I do know I have never had anything like it and have never seen a candy that even resembles it.  My Daddy became the holder of the recipe in our branch of the family and for all I know maybe most of the whole family.  He found over the years that sometimes it would sugar faster than it should have as it aged before Christmas so he and my Momma decided to tweak the recipe.  I remember as child my Momma saying that she had added corn syrup to the recipe and that that helped it not sugar as fast.  I was away and a Momma on my own when they tweaked it more here and there.  It now has twice as much of the dates and nuts as it did when I was a kid, and when my Daddy and his sibling were kids.  I do know that it now lasts longer and the date taste is more intense but the love of my Grandma Gladys is still all over it so it is the candy my Grandma Gladys made with such love for her kids, her grands and all the other people she invited into her home and loved with all of her heart.

I am also making my Momma's fudge and the fudge that I always made for my kids, I guess they will call it their Momma's fudge.  They are different but they both share with the next generation the love of a Momma for her wee ones that all to soon become Momma's and Daddy's to their own and even their own grands..... I am making my Momma's English toffee that for the most part I rarely have ever made because it was a dish that my Momma made with one of my Sisters and she made it to share with all of us for many a year but as she can't eat it any more she rarely makes it.  I think that I make it now to remember the love I saw my Sister and my Momma share and it makes my heart happy to embrace that memory as it cooks away.  I will finish up with My Momma's divinity that now may actually be the recipe of my Other Sister's mother in law,  The feeling is the same and the memory in tact but the recipe is just a little better and change and tweaking is a family trait, don't you know.

I don't think the exact recipe is always the most import in the end, but it is the recipe of love shared that is the true secret recipe and the love shared to a new generation.  I pray you are enjoying your family traditions.  I pray that the Lord Jesus is the center of those traditions.  If not he can be and he will gladly embrace you into his family.  The season of Christ's birthday is upon us and you could worship him in love and believe.  He is always there awaiting you with open arms and he awaits with anticipation the day you will come into his arms.  Nothing more wonderful than the arms of a loving parent. We all can remember the love of those arms but the loving arms of Jesus are so much much more. Today you can embrace him and believe, and think of the memories and traditions that would begin for your generations to come .... tomorrow.