Life Interview Series Gift

My dad just celebrated a major birthday a couple of weeks ago. To celebrate, we flew back 'home' to spend 4 fabulous days with him (and my mom, brother, sister-in-law, and nieces). I wanted to get him something super special for this big birthday and really racked my brain trying to combine many ideas I had knocking around. As I was wandering around a local bookstore, an idea hit me ... not at all once but it sort of seeped into my brain in pieces and the idea of the Life Interview Series was born.

What I ended up doing was purchasing a basic printable note card kit, a pretty box, and a pack of pens from the office supply store. I eagerly took my purchases home and scoured the internet for a jumping off point to create a list of questions I wanted to ask my dad about his life. Things like:

• What's the best thing about being a parent? A grandparent?
• What have been the three biggest news events during your lifetime and why?
• Do you have any hobbies or special interests?
• Do you enjoy any particular sports?
• If you could go back to any age, what age would it be and why?

But also some questions prying into his childhood:

• What were you like as a child? What did you like to eat? What did you do for fun? What were your favorite toys or games? Did you ever have a secret place or favorite hiding spot?
• When were you born? What day of the week was it? Where were you born? Did your parents tell you anything about that day? Why were you given the first and middle names that you have?
• How did your family earn money? What kinds of things did your family spend money on?
• How many brothers and sisters do you have? When were they born? What memories do you have of each of them from when you were growing up?

Naturally, I know the answers to some of these but many of the cards dive into his hopes and dreams as well as earliest memories of his childhood. My kids haven't heard these stories and as time goes on, I get more and more worried they won't be passed on and they'll be lost. I got most of my inspiration for the questions from a pdf I found online through Legacy Project. I worded the questions in a way that would bring out answers my 4 and 7 year old boys would love to read so I skipped many of the ones I thought would be over their heads. 

Along with these note cards, I printed up 40 envelopes with my children's names and our address as well as my dad's return address then each envelope received a stamp. I created dividers for the lovely box I purchased and I packed it all up nicely in the box with a set of pens.

My hope is that when my dad has some free time here and there, he'll reach into his treasure box to grab a question. He can take as much or as little time as he has to answer then drop the card into the envelope and send it off to our house where his grandsons will be eagerly waiting by the mailbox to read all about their PawPaw.

Have you done anything like this for someone in your life? I'd love it if you'd link up a blog post if you have.

Thank you for reading,
Julie