Last night I pulled a bag from our pile of holiday gear that my aunt Sue had given me last year. I wasn’t quite sure what was in it and since we’re starting to decorate, I figured this was the best time to go through it. What I didn’t expect to find was a little treasure from the past that left me feeling full of gratitude for my family.
Included in the bag was a little black book that my Grandma Lowman had started writing in to document her experience as she started the tradition of baking gingerbread houses for her grandchildren to decorate. This is a tradition that I grew to love as a kid, always the day after Thanksgiving and always a day of candy. I’d share the decorating of a gingerbread house with my brothers and we’d have it on display until New Years Eve, when we’d blow it up with fireworks.
Other notes were sprinkled in this little black book, along with writing from my aunt about what frostings work and how the basement is a little too damp to work. Lots of information about different baking times for gingerbread parts and the extension of the bases the house would stand on. From what I remember of decorating the gingerbread houses, it always was such a fun time to be with my cousins. I had no idea what really went into it all.
It wasn’t the notes about the gingerbread baking that floored me. Tucked within this book was a typed list from my grandma of all the cookies she baked from each December from 1978 to 1980. Included on the paper, as you can see, is a list of people who helped and how many dozen cookies were baked. (Hey look! There I am, in December of 1979 as a little question mark!!!) Barry couldn’t believe it when I told him the numbers of cookies made, but I know these numbers are no stretch…we must have had cookies for months after all the baking.
My very favorite part of the whole typed note – and the one that made me start to cry – is the little descriptions from her notes on December 12, 1980. She mentions everybody that was there and the phrase ‘I am high on grandchildren tonight’ is EXACTLY what my grandma still says to this day when something makes her happy, proud, excited and grateful. So to see it typed out, and knowing that most of us – her family – were the ones making her happy, makes me bubble over with gratitude.
Also, to add another twist to it is this: this little treasure was passed to me by Sue, my dad’s sister….and this note was written by my mom’s mother. That’s how my family works. Eventually my aunt Sue took over the baking of the gingerbread houses and she inherited the little black book. She saved it all these years and passed it back to me, not knowing how much I’d love it.
And one final piece? There is a handwritten piece from my grandma about having Phil, Nate, Ben & me to visit overnight. They took us to the mall and my grandpa gave us each $5 to spend. We each picked out a toy and brought it back to their house before getting ready for bed. Such random things to document, but I love the idea of us Lowman ‘keeds’ all spending the night with our beloved grandparents and them cherishing the time we’re there.
I don’t consider myself a sappy person, but finding these notes and reading about those December days all those decades ago, makes me wish I could remember being a part of the family that baked 73 dozen cookies. I suppose I’m still a part of that family…just not watching from the high chair anymore.
what a treasure.
I am so glad you love the black book. I kept it an re-read it for years. It brought me back to that cozy Larch Way house on the hill. I keep lists of my holiday baking, decorationg and menus each year inspired by Margaret’s holiday chronicles. I did know how much you would love it. Last year I could tell it was time to pass the book on to you. Sorry Hannah, but you are sentimental! That is how this family works-
One of the things I did right in life is to pass the cookie book on to you Sue.It couldn’t have fallen into better hands. My memory often goes to that time in my life. Grandpa enjoyed it as much as I did……Ben went with us to a candy store in Bothell….one year.He was very selective on which candies he wanted to decorate with.Gingerbread is still my favorite cookie!