Many years ago (at least 13) we started a fun tradition in our family.
As the holidays were approaching, I was trying to figure out a way to teach my small children about
sacrifice and being charitable.
It was the Sunday before Thanksgiving and I had just gotten a wonderful recipe from my sister in law for Pumpkin Cheesecake.
I got the idea to make 6 of these cheesecakes.(Ambitious, I know!)
The kids watched me labor in the kitchen on Monday and make these cheesecakes and their eyes kept getting bigger with each one I made. I did not talk to them about why I was making them, but I did let them help by licking the spatula so that they could get a small taste of the yummy flavors that I was putting together.
Monday night, I got the whole family together and put a full pie in front of each one. The kids eyes about popped out of their heads as they considered the possibilities of an entire cheesecake being set in front of them.
I talked to them about sacrifice and about being charitable and how sometimes, we need to give to others even when it means that we may have have to sacrifice and go without something that we REALLY want.
Then I asked them each to pick a family that they knew that they were thankful for and would like to do something nice for. Each of us wrote down the name of a family and then I explained that we were going to take our cheesecakes and deliver them to the families that we each picked. (Yes, ALL of them.)
They were hesitant at first and felt like they had been tricked and really didn't want to give all the pies away. (Later in the week, I made another one for us to enjoy, but they didn't know of my plans at the time) And so began our longstanding tradition of the Pumpkin Cheesecake.
Every year since then, I have made 6 pies and the Sunday or Monday before Thanksgiving, we pick 6 new families and deliver our pies.
It is no longer a sacrifice for them to choose a name, in fact there is often a race to pick a family before someone else picks that family. They start thinking about it earlier and earlier each year and looking around them to see who will be the recipient of their "sacrifice" that year.
We have maintained a few rules throughout the years....
1. They can't pick someone who will be sharing it with the giver.
2. They can't pick someone who has been picked before.
(This starts to get challenging after a few years living in the same place)
3. No one outside of family gets to have the secret recipe. ( I have broken tradition a bit this year and shared it with a few people who I consider "family")
So... if you have ever been the recipient of one of the Pumpkin Cheesecakes, you are likely someone who has had a positive impact on someone in our family.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your example!
If you have not... fear not....
even though the family is growing up and moving on,
the tradition remains strong.
We still do 6 pies every year and everyone who is near, still participates in the delivering of the pies.
Even if you don't get one this year, that doesn't lessen the impact that so many of you have on our family and it doesn't lessen our gratitude for your amazing examples.
YOUR TURN WILL COME!
