2010 Debby's Dare DARE YA!

Growing up I sat with my parents and brother around the dinning room table to eat and talk. I learned table etiquette, we shared are daily adventures.  It was fun for me to listen to mom and dad talk. My mom is a great cook and we had wonderful meals minus the liver and onions!

While dad served in the Vietnam we lived with my Grandmother and Grandfather in a log cabin. The kitchen was separate from the rest of the house and only connected by a long southern porch. My Grandmother Thomas moved around the kitchen like she was born to be there. Her cooking was over the top southern goodness. The most fun was watching her make biscuits. She told us her recipe once. Grandma told us about the flour, the buttermilk, etc. lastly add 11 children and 50 years. One fun thing about my Grandfather is that he always drank sweet tea mixed with red Kool-aid. What fun!

Family reunions in my family are another time for gatherings that involve an abundance of food. Our Fourth of July Reunions consist of Mom and Dad Lewis’s reunion with make shift tables set end to end with everyone bringing their special dish for which they were well known. Dolly Cake, Mom’s yellow rice and chicken, Bill’s fresh caught and friend fish. The best Southern Fried Chicken on earth. There are fresh vegetables galore. Although the food seems to be the center of activities, it was actually seeing family we don’t see once or twice a year and to see our immediate family all together. Kids running around. Teens playing video games, moms, dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and long time family friends spend their time catching up and showing off new babies and sharing photos of weddings, graduations and so much more. Photo moments are a must. No hiding from all the cameras.

Our family will watch our favorite movie together around the television. Sharing laughter and conversation. A time to sort of wash away the day’s work and school to spend time being a family.

I cannot even begin to tell you the funniest stories I have with my children or my Dad when we went out to eat! I’m smiling as I type this.

I have at least 52 stories about my family both past and present as it centers around family meals.

For Debby’s Dare 2010 -- I DARE YA! to participate in

“52 Weeks of
Homemade Families.”

Here’s what we will be doing:

• I’ll post a Dare Prompt each Monday.
• You make your TWO-page layout. 
• The layouts are to be 8 x 8 
• The first page will be a photo of family time centered on food. A meal at home, a meal out, reunions, church, festival’s, fun stories of your grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, great-grand parents, etc. etc. etc.  
• The second page is a page is a FREE downloadable layout (the first page is made from the book “Paper + Pixels” by May Flaum & Audrey Neal). It is a place you can write out a recipe that goes with the story or one that you want to preserve. THIS IS NOT a working recipe book. It’s a place to preserve your recipes. I will send you a new page every quarter. Although the page is digital, you can add your embellishments to make it your own. 

(No grey Dare Ya! on your copy)

• Post your layouts each week so that we can all see and encourage you as well as be inspired. If you post to a private gallery such as Fiskateers I would encourage you to continue to post there, but also add a post to your favorite public message board or start your own Dare Ya! blog. It is very simple to start. You will be so encouraged to see it grow.  

I’m working on guests to come write about Homemade Families, Recipes, Photographing families at family meals and photographing food for your recipe cards. I’m sure I’ll be adding more as the year moves on.

We will not have weekly drawings BUT we will have monthly Dare drawings for this Dare.  That gives me room to do RAKS inbetween especially for those who are not participating. 

I’m excited to see the New Year come with this Dare. Once completed you will have 52 recipes preserved. You will have a mixture of a heritage book and a current history book. Most of all you will have a scrapbook your whole family will love to bring out at family gatherings and laugh and tell more stories. It will be a treasure for years to come.

The Free Downloads will go out via email starting December 1st. You can sign up for the “52 Weeks of Homemade Families” by emailing me at DeborahL591@yahoo.com. Include your name, your signature name for comments and any questions you have. Your questions will be helpful for me to be better prepared. PLEASE put "Homemade Families" in the subject line of your email.

You will be getting more information by December 1st.

Join in as a scrapbooker, as a family, as a group of scrappers. Join, as you will have a beautiful book by the end of 2010. It does go by fast!

Gratitude List
 1. The Kindness of God
 2. God’s Will is my joy
 3. God’s wonderful love and grace for me
 4. Seeing my Hannah during Halloween
 5. Peace