The turkey or ham out of the oven. The sit down dinner accomplished. Stomachs full. A wait for dessert. Coffee and tea.
When everyone is settled, this might be the time to engage in conversation and to record interviews with relatives. Ask them about their lives and also what they remember of their parents, grandparents, and and ancestors.
Ask people to bring along photos that can be scanned or photographed and uploaded and shared.
Be sensitive to people's sense of privacy. Not everything is for putting up on social networking, in databases, or on the Internet. So ask individuals what they feel comfortable with and be sure they understand the possible implications of that sort of exposure. Consider the entire family including those who are not at the gathering.
I personally never put anything like that up for sharing. It stays within the family.
Perhaps a few days before is the perfect time to get the children involved in making some Hungarian recipes for the dessert. Here is a link to a site that has 26 Traditional Hungarian Desserts - poppyseeds, walnuts, almonds, sugar, apples... stacks, crepes, cakes.... bread pudding, dumplings, pancakes.
INSANELY GOOD RECIPES - HUNGARIAN DESSERTS include
Rakott Teszta - Baked Noodle Dessert.
Kakaos Csiga - Hungarian Chocolate Rolls.
Piskotatekercs - Basic Sponge Cake
And my favorite, which I grew up with, Kolachy Cookies, although mom called them Vienna Tarts... cream cheese filling... we used apricot jam and strawberry jam. In a tin in the cold closet they took on an even better flavor three days old, if we could stand to hold off that long on eating them.
