Erin Martin

Professor Lacey

Composition 111

15 September 2019

More Than A Notecard

All families have their own traditional foods during certain times of the year. For mine,

it’s around Christmas, the month of December, when all of our family members come together,

and my grandmother makes our famous homemade German pound cake dish. This dessert is

meaningful to my family.

December isn’t just the last 12 months out of the calendar year for my family. It’s the

month where many families are preparing and leading up to Christmas day. Christmas is a time

where our families and others come together and gather to celebrate this wonderful holiday. The

first Saturday in December is when my mom’s side of the family comes together to decorate my

house for Christmas. It has been a tradition ever since I could remember.

My family takes a different perspective of this day. The house gets filled with this

indescribable feeling that you would feel by walking in. Each room where there’s different

people, doing different things filling the entire house with a feeling that’s unforgettable. The

most important part is my grandmother’s homemade German pound cake. For years it has been

secretive that only my grandmother has the recipe. It is not a normal store bought or out of the

box pound cake.

Growing up my grandmother continuously taught me how to bake, from a homemade

meal to a dessert. As time went by, I was learning something more that comes with age. Being

extremely mortified that I have no idea how to make this dessert yet. My grandmother knew how
thrilled I was to learn this recipe but, yet she told me, “Erin it just isn’t time, yet.” I begged and

asked repeatedly to learn this recipe. Hearing stories about this dessert, constantly made me

annoyed. I felt as if I was being teased. With years to come, struggling and almost giving up on

wanting to learn this dessert. The days leading up to the first Saturday of December, my

grandmother says, “Erin, sweetie, I have a good feeling you will have a life changing moment

soon”. I replied, “Grandma how do you know that?” “Erin I just have a feeling”.

The day finally came, early morning on December 1, 2018, everyone started coming over

for the eventful day. Every year the day gets out of hand with our large family. Sometimes I feel

like it’s an disruptive with everything happening. With that being said, everyone has their role,

the guys putting all the lights and decorating the outside of the house while the ladies are in the

kitchen along with my grandma baking and preparing the delicious foods. All the cousins are

decorating the lush green nearly seven feet tall with branches that fill out living room. I hate

repeating myself because I get annoyed. I am saying constantly to my cousins, “be careful with

handling the bulbs because they can break easily,” Not understanding why since almost every

bulb gets put on the tree.

Meanwhile, the kitchen filled with everyone trying to snack before the big meal. The

countertops are filled with the side dishes, the homemade bread and meals that are being cooked

with this incredible aroma. You hear my aunt saying, “get out of the kitchen, you can wait until

dinner” because everyone is eager to devour a great meal. Later in the afternoon, around one, I

hear my grandmother call my name, “Erin, I need your help with something in the kitchen”. I am

thinking to myself, “what does she need my help with, when the whole kitchen is filled with

help?” I am already annoyed with my careless cousins and I have to realize that today is

supposed to be a wonderful fun filled day. Honestly, I did not want to go help my grandmother.
 That was the moment, when it was just me and my grandmother standing in the kitchen. I

realized it was finally time. I was thinking so many thoughts at once, my face said it all. She took

out the old discolored notecard with fingerprint stains and nearly ripped in the corner. At the top,

it said German pound cake in all caps. The recipe was all typed out on an old-fashioned

typewriter. She explained to me how her Oma taught her this around my age and that’s why she

waited for this special moment with me. She described all the memories this one family recipe

has. I was even more blown away in actually knowing how much this meant to my grandmother.

She went step by step with what the recipe said, even though she knows it like the back of her

hand. She went slowly with me, and I was learning and watch her every move with each

ingredient.

As time flew by, it was time to start setting up for dinner. Everyone was putting the

condiments on the table along with getting the cold foods out of the refrigerator. My grandma

and I were putting all the desserts that were made, on the dessert table. I was so excited to hurry

up and dig into the cake. As my aunt was making sure everything was nearly prefect before we

started gathering our plates. My mouth watering as I waited for first piece of the German pound

cake that I had made with my grandmother. I was enjoying myself with the rest of the family, but

I just couldn’t wait for this moment. Everyone was preparing their plates and picking which

foods, they wanted on their first round. Before heading for round two and three. I rapidly headed

straightforward to the dessert table. I looked down, very focused while drooling, I grabbed the

thick knife where I ended up cutting the fresh thin slice of pound cake.

The end of the long, fun filled day spent with family came to the end. I truly felt this

family Christmas decorating day tradition was changed. By my grandmother showing and being

patient with teaching me how to make the famous German pound cake, I felt moved. Due to the
unimaginable surprise moment by grandmother. I learned that just a simple, old, nothing too

fancy notecard with words to how to make this cake, was just more than a notecard. Its knowing

that, with all her grandkids, she picked me to keep this a recipe a secret along with carrying it on,

when I have a family of my own.