Holidays go hand-in-hand with tradition. Traditional recipes are simultaneously universal and yet also very personal. Recipes and memories are made when families gather in the kitchen to make their favorite recipes and work towards gathering family to the table to break bread and celebrate together. Below, I am excited to share with you a guest post that digs into the feelings and experiences that go with kitchen cooking traditions and how they are important across generations. ~Gwendolyn

Special Guest Post by Karna Haugen

At the end of Thanksgiving Day, I was surprised to find a lovely text message from my niece Shelly, sent to me along with her other aunts and her mom. It was a thank you message for our being the "hands and hard work behind" her holiday memories, which she has new appreciation for after having undertaken the entire meal for her family this year. She thanked us for serving "so beautifully to make holidays special and laced with tradition." She texted:

I found myself thinking of you all often today... I felt joy...being able to step in those shoes feeling I was joining a well-worn path of mothers that create the spaces where our families' roots go a little deeper.

I know exactly what she meant.

I remember the first time I attempted to make one of the recipes we traditionally enjoy together on Christmas Eve. It was early on in my marriage and we were hosting my husband's parents, brother and his family for a few days after Christmas. I wanted to make rice pudding to go along with our meal. The kind of rice pudding you eat cold, with custard on top. I have always been grateful to my mother-in-law (Grammie Haugen) for not laughing in my face when I didn't know the rice had to be cooked before mixing it in with the other ingredients. She either pretended not to realize it, or truly was in the dark because she's not Scandinavian. Maybe she kindly recognized a newcomer fumbling her way on the well-worn path. I don't remember if I made a batch that didn't work out, or if my mom somehow got involved and saved the day. But it remains my first memory of wanting to… trying to... carry on a holiday tradition.

In response to Shelly's text, her other aunts chimed in commiserating about the endless dishwashing. Aunt Jeannie noted that Shelly's words humbled her: "I reflected on Grandma Wessman and Grandma Lindh and your Grandma Haugen and how we have also been the recipients of this same gift from those that went before us!"

“ I was joining a well-worn path of mothers that create the spaces where our families’ roots go a little deeper.”

— Karna's Neice, Shelly

I was touched to be included in Shelly's text among the real cooks in the family. I have hosted the “Big Meal” at our home on a few occasions and I do know my way around a turkey. However over the years I am usually called on to contribute pecan pie, corn pudding or cranberry mousse (cranberry sauce mixed with raspberry Jello and whipped cream; yum!) at family Thanksgiving gatherings. Even though I'm not among the heavy hitters in the extended-family kitchen, I appreciated what Shelly said about creating the spaces where our families' roots go a little deeper.

Those spaces don't depend on meals being perfect or "just so." What matters is that we seek to harvest joy. We carry on legacies collected over time, bestowed on us by others. And Shelly's words were a reminder to me that I am now among those passing the baton. Even if mine is made of Jello.