I hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas. We were blessed
to have had another wonderful Noche Buena with lots of food, laughter and
presents. They say it’s better to give than to receive…a motto I like to live
by. So instead of talking about the favorite gifts I received, I chose instead
to share with you some of the favorite gifts I gave this holiday season.
My Time
This past Sunday my daughter, my boo and I went to the DC
Jewish Community Center to help wrap gifts for the needy and the homeless. It was
an enjoyable and needed change of pace from the hustle and bustle of the
holiday season. It was also a wonderful bonding opportunity for us as a family
in a different but good way. As I was assembling gift bags for the homeless
with basic necessities such as toothpaste, a toothbrush, soap, lotion, shampoo,
warm gloves, hats and socks; it really hit me how blessed we truly are to have
what we have. I really appreciate the
DCJCC putting together a wonderful volunteer program that made it so easy to
find opportunities for families to work on projects together. I wish more
community programs made it this easy for busy people participate in giving back
to their communities. If you want to learn more about their program please
visit the DCJCC website for more information here.
Preservation Of Family History
I’m super, super blessed to still have both of my
eight-something year old grandparents with me. As an added bonus, Mima and Pipo
as I endearingly call them, are still in fairly good health and live close by.
My daughter has gotten to meet and grow up with her great-grandparents—what a special
thing! I’m very close to both of my maternal grandparents as they raised me for
several years while I was still living in Cuba. But, like many of us I find
myself often taking these amazing things in that happen in our everyday lives
for granted. This year, I gave my grandparents—and my whole family really—a gift
of family history preservation.
I can remember being a little girl and my grandfather
telling me stories about his grandfather. But it wasn’t until recently that it
dawned on me—wow, he can trace our family history back 6 generations! We’re
talking the mid 1800’s here!! So, my gift to him may seem a little weird to
most... I got him a tape recorder. I found the simplest old school tape
recorder I could find on Amazon and bought him an entire pack of blank cassette
tapes (didn’t know they still made these). I asked him on his downtime or
whenever a memory or thought of the past came to mind, to pop in a tape and
press record. I explained that his memories and life experiences were treasures
that he could leave for us and our family for generations to come. I intend on writing
a family memoir someday (but probably not for a long time) and without these precious
memories of his, it wouldn’t be as meaningful. Unfortunately, our family emigrated
from another country fairly recently, so sites like ancestry.com won’t really help
us trace our family history. He is
our ancestry.com I explained. He laughed. I think it made him feel special that
I appreciated his wisdom and years of experience and that they really meant
something to our family.
And I can’t leave my Mima out of this project. I asked her
to also add anything she felt was pertinent to this ad-hoc documentary and I
also gave her a blank recipe book. For obvious reasons; I mean who doesn’t love
their grandma’s cooking? At first I felt weird about giving them these somewhat
morbid gifts, but think the way I explained it really helped them understand
that it wasn’t intended to be morbid in any way. I just really value their
wisdom and appreciate them as the matriarch and patriarch of our family.
So there you have it. Another wonderful Navidad we were
given to share in the presence of family and friends. What were some of the
favorite gifts you gave?
