Family Traditions:Tablecloth

We have a large family all over the place, thanks to Facebook, I feel so much more connected to them. I put out a request for the family to share their craftiness and the family came through. I really wanted to share this family tradition, I think is so cool. Here's the story of how the tablecloth all got started. This craftiness comes from my sister in law from La Mesa: "I started it in 1994 and we have continued on the same one all these years. ( I saw something similar in the Sunset magazine that month and sent Mark to Sears on Christmas Eve to get a table cloth. ) Whoever is at our house on Christmas eve writes something that summarizes their year or something special about the year. We use a fine tip washable marker (crayola-type). I embroider it with either red, green or yellow (everything that year is the same color...yellow doesn't work so well) and then wash it. It has been a lot of fun. Everyone knows it is coming so they tend to think about it ahead of time. If our house were on fire it would be the first thing I would grab." I now have 2 sister-in-laws doing this and it's such a special way to keep a family history. Last year, our family got to participate in this tablecloth tradition while visiting our family in Washington. Our handiwork is on the last picture. As of the date of the photo, our doodles from last year still had to be embroidered. This project is a commitment for sure, but well worth it! Thanks to both L and M for coming through for me!