As I’ve been packing my house I keep finding these little treasures - items I forgot about, thought I lost, or were a victim of divorce division. Pictures of Mom, pictures from our Sliding Parties at Jeanne & Ken’s old place, pictures from Bonnie’s college graduation, and a video of my high school play were among some of my favorite treasures.

I’m packing up my kitchen tonight and laughing at myself as I was putting my bajillion cookbooks into a box - laughing at the fact that I really do own a bajillion cookbooks but I always go online to find a recipe. While I was pulling some cookbooks out of the cupboard, I came across Mom’s canning books. I decided to flip though them quick to see what was there (I truly didn’t know what books I had because they’ve been getting moved from cupboard to box to cupboard for the past 7 1/2 years). The manual to our old microwave was in the middle of the small stack I went through. Peaking out from the edges of the manual I saw my Mom’s handwriting on lined paper with slightly folded edges with the letters “LLS” at the top of the page.

My heart jumped because I knew exactly what I found… some of her holiday baking recipes - in her own handwriting… right there in my hands. I closed my eyes and hugged the manual for a few minutes before I opened it. At the top was the Popcorn Balls recipe I use to make with her while I was growing up and the other was for Holiday Chocolate Butter Cookies. Those two handwritten recipes made years of holiday traditions quickly flash through my head. My favorite being the time I spent with Mom making the popcorn balls for my tribe’s annual Christmas Party. We made so many of those darn popcorn balls one year that I decided to use that for the recipe I submitted to my elementary class’ Christmas Cookbook.

This has been making me laugh for the past two days. You may have already watched it you’re my friend on Facebook or Myspace. I just had to share it here, too, because its been making me laugh for 2 days.