My Family Culture

The objective this week is to imagine ourselves in a situation where we must evacuate to another country and can only take along three small items that are important to us, things that we hold dear and that represent our family culture.

For this assignment I am going to assume that since I am permanently moving, that I can take my husband and dogs with me, since they are my family. Aside from them, the first item that I would pack to take with me is a photo album that I created with pictures of my wedding in Jamaica and my reception back home in NC. This photo book is important to me because the pictures are of the happiest day of my life. Looking at the photos bring back so many happy memories and have pictures of my entire family and all of my friends.

The second item that I would choose to bring along with me is an afghan that was crocheted by my grandma. I live in the south so naturally I have afghans from everyone all over my house. My favorite though is the one that my grandma made for me as a high school graduation gift. She wanted me to have a little piece of home when I went off to college and I love it so much. It reminds me of how loved I am by my family and how lucky I am to have them.

The third item that I would bring is a cookbook that was given to me, by my mom, as a wedding gift. She had everyone in the family write down recipes on recipe cards and created this awesome, home made cook book. The book contains some of my grandma's, great grandma's, and great, great grandma's secret recipes along with some of my moms favorites. I use it every time I want to make a special meal, dessert, or potluck recipe.

If upon arrival to my new country I was told that I could only keep one item and had to give the other two away I would be very upset. Each one of these items is so special to me and represents my family culture, my roots. I can't imagine my life without these things and have seen, through this assignment, how much they really mean to me and that I need to remember to never take things for granted. As I sign off from this blog post, I will be calling my grandma just to tell her that I love her! :)