Do you have any family memories that you know will stay with you for years
? Each of us remembers certain things from our childhood with a special amount of emotion. Even my brothers have different favorite memories than I do and we all grew up in the same home. One brother fondly remembers a special vacation to California while another thinks his time spent at little league games was much more enjoyable. I like to think back about my memories from time to time and try to discover what could be the reason they have stood out in my mind so well over the years.
One of my fondest memories from growing up with my family would have to be when we would all gather in our basement to watch old slides and home videos. My father would hang a white bed sheet from the ceiling on one end of our basement and set up his slide projector on the opposite end. My mother would let me help her make homemade popcorn. I loved seeing the popcorn kernels get hot and then pop right out of the machine! Then, we would put it in a brown paper bag to butter and salt it. She always knew the right amount of butter and salt to make that popcorn delicious. Once in a while, we would add caramel to our popcorn for a sweet treat. I will always remember spending time making popcorn and watching slides and home videos with my family.
My husband also told me that one of his favorite memories from his childhood was stringing popcorn to hang from the family Christmas tree. I never did this as a child so it seemed like a funny way to treat your popcorn. My husband told me that it would take the whole night to get all the popcorn threaded onto the string and wrapped around the tree, but that time was when his family could talk with each other. Christmas music was usually playing, but they really enjoyed spending time listening to each other and eating popcorn as they decorated their tree.
It is funny how two of our childhood memories involve popcorn. Even though it is usually thought of as a movie theater snack, popcorn is a great treat to make at home no matter what activity you may be involved in. We all like special aspects of our family time growing up, but we all agree that we enjoyed having time with our family no matter what we were doing. There is no replacement for the memories each of us has made.