Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories Day Two: Holiday Foods

When I last participated in the Advent Calendar three years ago, the topic for day three was on holiday foods, but this year it is on day two. I always love the food around Christmas, and thus, I can't resist writing another post on this topic.

So, does my family have any traditional dishes that are served at Christmas? While I really can't think of any dishes that are unique to my family, per se, the main dish for dinner in past years has varied between turkey, prime rib, ham or a combination of the two. Many of the side dishes, such as mashed potatoes, salad or stuffing, are dishes that we also eat at Thanksgiving. (The dishes are freshly made for each holiday, of course.) So, I don't think our Christmas dinner is much different from other American families' Christmas dinners, but I could be wrong.

My most favorite part of the Christmas dinner, though, is the desserts. Usually we have different types of cookies (of which I'll write about in a future post) and pies. If the Christmas dinner is held by my parents, we either buy the cookies, make them or a combination of both, although it seems that in that past few years that we have bought the cookies.

As for breakfast on Christmas morning, my family doesn't have a traditional dish. In the past few years my mom has made a couple of different breakfast meals, but I wouldn't consider those dishes to be traditional because we have had different meals for breakfast in the past few years.

In short, my family doesn't have a dish that is unique or traditional when it comes to Christmas meals.

(Note: This post was finally published on December 15, 2010.)

Advent Calender of Christmas Memories Day One: Christmas Trees

When the Advent Calender Memories began three years ago, I wrote a brief article about Christmas trees in my family. In that article I mentioned the types of Christmas trees that my family usually puts up each year.

Traditionally, my grandparents would get a real Christmas tree, but in the past few years, I don't know if they've had a tree since I haven't over at their house during Christmas in the past few years. As for my family, we have always had a fake Christmas tree, and we put the same tree up every year. About ten years ago, we replace that tree with a newer tree, and since then I don't think that tree has been replaced.

Either way, I don't know anymore because I am usually away at school when the tree is put up by my parents. I don't know if the tree has been put up yet, but if it hasn't, I'm sure I'll helping putting up and taking down the tree this year.

Saturday Night Fun - The Wayback Machine: A Walk Down Jessica's Genejournal Memory Lane

It has been awhile since I participated in a Saturday Night Fun challenge due to the fact that school work has kept me quite busy until now, but since I have a little time, I've decided to participate again. For this challenge, Randy has challenged other genealogy bloggers to look up their blog in the Wayback Machine, and write about their findings. I've decided to participate in the challenge.

I tried to save a picture of the page, but I was unsuccessful. So, instead, I've decided to post the link for the page.

The interesting thing about the Wayback Machine's image of my blog is that the site did not capture an image of my blog until late June 2007. I started posting back in March of 2007, but the blog probably wasn't recorded by the Wayback Machine until probably June when I think I started to participate in the genealogy blog carnivals.

Well, the old web page is pretty close to what the blog looked like in the very beginning. I used to use different colored fonts until one my readers informed me that it was easier to read my posts in black, so I switched to just using black. Of course, I think this was prior to the time when I started making changes to the background and template of the blog in an attempt to give this blog a unique appearance. I think I finally succeed in that attempt.

Well, I never imagined at that time that I would still be blogging after three years, but here I am still blogging years later. I hope you enjoyed that walk down memory lane.

92nd Edition of Carnival of Genealogy Posted!

The 92nd edition of the Carnival of Genealogy has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on

"Write a 'how to' series of articles! Choose a topic that you can give helpful advice on and write a series of articles (3+) about it. Series articles require a little more planning and a lot more writing so this next edition will have a deadline of May 1st."

Enjoy!

1st Edition of the Carnival of African-American Genealogy Posted!

The 1st edition of the Carnival of African-American Genealogy has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on

" Grandma’s Hand: Grandmothers and Their Influence On The Family

Host: Sandra Taliaferro of I Never Knew My Father

Grandmothers are often the matriarchs of the family. In fact, truth be told, many of us were raised by our grandmother; if not, she was definitely a constant in our lives.

For the 2nd Edition of CoAAG: Grandma’s Hand, write a post about your memories of your grandmother and be sure to include a picture of Grandma if you have one!

Submissions deadline: 12 April 2010"

Enjoy!

91st Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy Posted!

The 91st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on

"Dance! Did you take dance lessons as a child? Did your parents go out dancing every Friday at the Elks Hall? Do you enjoy taking in a good ballet at the theater? Care to share a memory from your high school prom? What role does dancing play in your family history? Come on, let's cut a rug! Deadline for submissions is April 1st, 30 submissions will be accepted."

Enjoy!

3 Years Ago, Today ...

It's really hard for me to believe, but I started this blog exactly three years ago on this day. At the time, I never imagined that I would still be writing this long, nor did I ever imagine that I would post over 1,150 posts by now. It has been an interesting three years so far, and I can only imagine what the next several years will be like for this blog. Enjoy!

Another Belated Saturday Night Fun - The Best Genealogy Gift

I am late again in posting my response for this past Saturday's Saturday Night Fun, but I'm going to participate anyway. For this Saturday Night Fun, Randy has challenged other genealogy bloggers to write about their best genealogy Christmas gift. So, what was the best genealogy gift I got?

Well, the gift was a history book, The History of Michigan Law edited by Paul Finkelman and Martin J. Hershock (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2006). As you can tell, from the title, the book is on the history of Michigan's laws, although the articles in the book look primarily at important aspects of Michigan law and looks at the law from a social history standpoint. Okay, so the book isn't exactly a genealogy gift, but the articles in the book might assist a genealogist doing research in Michigan. If a research has knowledge of the history of a local area's laws, that researcher may be able to determine if there are any records that might provide potential leads. I haven't had too much time to look at the book, but there appears to be several articles that might be useful in my future research.

(Note, 27 February 2010: I have finally finished this Saturday Night Fun post. I also completed another backlogged Saturday Night Fun post earlier this year, and you can read it here. Enjoy!)

Saturday Night Fun - My Most Memorable Halloween Memories

For this Saturday Night Fun, Randy has challenged other genealogy bloggers to write about their most memorable Halloween memories, and I've decided to post mine. In fact, I have so many memories that it is difficult for me to decide which were the most memorable, so I'll probably post several of my most memorable ones.

I can remember several of the costumes that I wore for Halloween as a kid over the years. In Kindergarten, I dressed up as a cross between a princess and Cinderella, and I wore a costume that my mom made for me. (She did a wonderful job.) In the first grade, I dressed up as Belle (from Beauty and the Beast), and in the second grade, I dressed up as Jasmine from Aladdin. Halloween was more memorable in third grade primarily because of the family reunion my family attended shortly before Halloween. For that Halloween, I dressed up as a cross between a cowgirl and Annie Oakley. In the fourth grade, I dressed up a Southern Belle because I wanted to dress up in a historical style costume and because I liked the design of the dress. (I've always like fancy dresses and I've always loved seeing the dresses in historical movies. As you can see, I've had an interest in history since I was a child.) As for my costume in fifth grade, I believe I wore my mom's prom dress (I was pretending to be an early movie star), but I'm not completely sure. In the sixth grade, I dressed up as a bride, and in seventh grade, I dressed up as a sailor. In eighth grade, I dressed up as a cross between a ghost and a vampire. (There was no gore, though). In addition to the black costume I wore, I also wore a silver wig, and painted my face white. By the time I entered high school, though, I wasn't able to do as much trick-or-treating as I had been able to do in the past. (I've only dressed up a few times for Halloween since the ninth grade as a result of having a heavier schoolwork load.)

One of my most memorable Halloween memories that I have comes from my first year of high school. It was memorable not only because it was one of the last few times that I have gone trick-or-treating but also because I went trick-or-treating with my brother and his friends. I wore a traditional German dress, that my family had bought earlier that year when we visited Germany, and my brother was dressed up as the Grim Reaper. We went around to numerous houses, and my brother and I were back at home after trick-or-treating for a couple of hours. As soon as we arrived back at home, another one of my brother's friends stopped by the house, and wanted to go trick-or-treating. Our parents gave us permission, and my brother's friend called his parents to get permission to go with my brother and I. He got permission to go, and we were allowed to be out until 8 pm, for my brother's friend, and 8:30 pm, for my brother and I.

Since we had already gone to the houses nearest to our homes, we decided to go trick-or-treating in areas of the neighborhood where we had not yet gone. To get to one of the block's we had to walk down a dimly-lit area past a bunch of bushes. Looking back now, I should have realized what could happen, since I was oldest, but I didn't think about what it. As we walked through this area, a couple of me dressed in camouflage came out of the bushes, and scared all three of us. After recovering from the shock, I thought one of the men looked familiar, and I asked if he happened to be in a class. The guy denied it, and I decided that my brother, his friend, and I continue to trick-or-treat. (I think the guy was telling the truth, but who knows?) So, we continued on, finished trick-or-treating, and returned home by our curfews.

Since that time, I've only gone trick-or-treating a couple more times, so I think that happens to be the most memorable Halloween experience I've had. I hope you've enjoyed reading my Halloween memories. Enjoy!

Saturday Night Fun - My Most Satisfying Research Moments

For this Saturday Night Fun, Randy has challenged other genealogists to come up with their most satisfying moments in genealogy research, and I've decided to post my best moments.

So, what are my most satisfying moments? Well, one of them happens to be when I was able to find the burial place of one my ancestors. I won't go into much more detail about the search because I have posted parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 on my cemetery blog, and I don't want to give away too much. I haven't written a post on the search in quite a while, but I do plan on eventually finishing the series. So, if you're interested in that story, I have at least part of it posted.

Other satisfying moments were connecting with cousins and non-relatives who were willing to share the information they had. I've not only made contact with cousins in the U. S., I have also connected with cousins in the U. K. and Argentina. As for non-relatives, a woman in Germany sent me information on my Kees ancestors, and if she had not kindly shared that information with me, I would probably be still struggling to uncover my Kees ancestors. I am eternally grateful that she shared that information with me.

So, those are a couple of satisfying moments that I could think of at the moment. I'm sure there are a few other moments in the past six years that I have spent so far in researching my ancestry, but I can't think of any other ones at the moment. If I do come up with a few more, I'll either update this post or I'll post the information in another post. Enjoy!

Late Saturday Night Fun: Childhood Memories ...

I'm late again in posting a response to the newest Saturday Night Fun, but since I wanted to participate, I'm going to post my response. For this challenge, Randy has challenged genealogy bloggers to post their most vivid childhood memory.

So, what is my most vivid childhood memory? Well, that is a tough one because I have so many vivid memories. I guess the best thing to do would to be list the earliest memory that I have.

My earliest memory is probably of being in a crib. I was standing up in my crib, so I had to have been at least old enough to stand on my own. (I was probably around a year old.) It was at night time because my room was dark, and I could see my parents' bedroom from the crib. My mom was standing in the doorway of her bedroom, and was ready to go to bed. She asked, "What are you doing up?" (She could see my room from looking out of her bedroom.) I just remember that she didn't look very happy, but that probably was due to being tired.

Of course, I don't remember anything else other than it was like a detailed snapshot of a moment. Most of my early memories consist of dream-like images, and thus, I almost feel as though I am recalling something like a dream except for the fact that these memories were too vivid to be dreams and were too life-like. (If that makes any sense.) I don't know why my earliest memories feel dream-like, but I guess that is how my brain preserved my earliest memories. Has anyone else experienced the same thing with their earliest memories?

A Family Reunion From A Child's Perspective ...

For this upcoming edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, I am supposed to write about family reunions. I have only been to one family reunion so far in my life, and as I do not know about any other family reunions in my family before my time, I'll write about the one I attended.

I was eight years old when I attended the reunion with my mom, brother and paternal grandparents, and in addition to my immediate family, my great-uncle and great-aunt also attended the reunion. They, of course, drove separate from us. The reunion was in Pennsylvania, and my grandfather drove the van we had at the time. (I don't know where exactly it was in Pennsylvania except that it was pretty close to the border with New York.) My dad did not accompany us to reunion because he had to work. I do remember the drive to the reunion, but I don't remember if I saw any road signs. All I knew was that the family reunion was on my grandma's side of the family.

The hotel where the reunion was held (and where we stayed) had, from what I remember, an Irish theme. I can't remember the name, but I can still recall what the place looked like. (Of course, I also took pictures, so that is probably why I remember so much about the place.) Outside of the family members I mentioned above, I did not know anyone else there at the reunion, and I don't really recall interacting with the other people at the reunion. What I do remember was that the reunion was in late October, and was primarily a weekend event. I might have had to miss a day or two of school, but the reunion wasn't very long. Towards the end of the reunion, there was a little trick-or-treat event set up for the children, and I remember wearing the costume I had that year for Halloween. Unfortunately, my brother and I missed most of the event, but our mom took pictures of us in our costumes.

Since I really did not know anyone, I think I hung around my family most of the time, although I do remember wandering around a little bit. (Unfortunately, I don't remember everything.) I did leave the hotel a couple of times, but only with other family members. One of the outings from the hotel was with my grandparents, and I remember we drove across the boarder into New York to buy lotto tickets. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a park (probably a state park) and walked through the park. I think we originally stopped to see a waterfall, because I remember walking to the waterfall in the park. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the park or the waterfall. At one time I did have some information on the park and the waterfall, but the information was thrown out years ago before I had a chance to really look at it.

The second outing that I remember was to a restaurant, and the restaurant was in an old, white house. I don't remember the food at the place, but I do remember the Halloween decorations that were set up behind the building since I took many pictures of them. (I think I drove my mom nuts with all the pictures I took, but mostly I remember being fascinated with the decorations. Of course, as a kid, I was into Halloween, so it was hard for me to ignore.)

Outside of the events above, I don't remember too much more. I do remember that there was a group picture taken of everyone because my grandma held up a copy of the Livonia Observer, so that the picture would end up in the newspaper. The picture was eventually printed in the newspaper, but it wasn't put into the newspaper until some months later. (A classmate happened to see the picture and mentioned it to the class. At the time, we were supposed to pick articles out of the newspaper, and she happened to notice my name in the picture. Of course, I didn't know until then that the picture had been printed.) After it was printed, I cut-out the image, and I still have it in a scrapbook.

Before the reunion ended, I think every family member received a mug and plastic cup with the name and year of the reunion because we brought home a few of them. Of course, I don't know for sure, the mugs are probably the only mementos (besides the photographs) my family still has from the reunion. (My grandma did receive some information on her family, but I wasn't with her at the time so I can't say when during the reunion she received it.)

So, as you can see, most of my memories of the family reunion are random. Of course, I was really young at the time, so I did not know what was going on other than what I saw or heard. As for whether or not I would ever attend another family reunion, I probably would since I had a fairly positive experience with the one I attended. I just only wished I understood better what was going on at the time.

And Another Late Saturday Night Fun Entry ...

(I'm late again in posting my response to another Saturday Night Fun entry, but I still want to participate. Thus, I am still posting this entry even after a few weeks have gone by. - September 19, 2009)

For this Saturday Night Fun entry, Randy is asking other genealogy bloggers to post the number of ancestors they have met, and I've decided to post all of the ancestors I have met in my life so far. I won't be posting the names of the ancestors I have met because most of them are still alive. So, here are the ancestors I have met:

I have met my parents and all four of my grandparents. As I stated above, I am not posting their names because in all but one case, they are still alive.

I have also met two of my great-grandmothers, even though I don't remember them. (Both of my great-grandmothers died when I was a young child.) One of my great-grandmothers was from my father's side of the family, and the other great-grandmother was from my mother's side of the family.

So, I've met eight of my ancestors, even though I don't remember two of them.

Stores I Remember ...

Even though I'm still fairly young I think I can write about a few stores that do not exist anymore.

When I was real young, probably about four, I remember a store a couple blocks away from home (I lived in Livonia at the time) called G. & W. I can only recall visiting the store once, and all I remember is that I got a sheet of stickers from that store. A short time after that the store went out of business, and another business went in. (I don't remember what business it was. I think that one went out of business as well, and eventually a furniture store moved into that location.) Right next door to G. & W., there was a drug store called Arbor drugs. The store that is in there now (or was - I haven't been in that area in some time) is also a drug store but is called CVS. I think CVS bought out Arbor drugs. There was also a Video Jack in that same block, but again, I do not know if it is still there as I did not go by that block on Tuesday.

On another street block over, there used to be another small strip mall, and in that building there was a Blockbuster and other stores. One of the stores at several times was a pizza place. I think there were at least three pizza stores in that one spot, but I can only remember that one of the names, which was Imperial Pizza. Of course, those pizza places were not very successful, although I do not know why. At one point that spot became a cafe, but I think it went out of business as well. (All of this happened in the '90s.) Just this past Tuesday, I happened to go by that block, and I noticed that the Blockbuster was no longer there. In fact, it looked like most of the building had become vacant. I was a little bit surprised, but I think the economy has hit Livonia hard.

Kitty corner from the Blockbuster there used to be Farmer Jack, but the building for that store is also vacant. I don't recall if other stores had gone out of business too in that block; I just happened to notice that that grocery store was gone. Since I was driving by, I really did not get a good look.

Another store that I remember was Crowley's. There used to be a Crowley's in the Livonia Mall, but it went out of business by the time I was in high school. In fact, I do not know if Livonia Mall still has stores in it. When I was a little child I used to go there some times, but it always seemed fairly empty to me. It seems as though stores did not do very well in the mall. There was also a movie theater in that mall, and I used to go with my grandparents to the movies there since the tickets for a movie only cost about one or two dollars. Before my family moved from Livonia, I do recall that the theater had closed and then re-opened under a new management. I don't know if that theater is still open or not.

Again, I did not get to see a lot of Livonia this past Tuesday, but it appears to me that Livonia has been hurt badly by this economic downturn.

Out For A Picnic ...

A few days ago, I learned from a post on Terry's blog that Bill West had started a mini-meme/carnival on picnics, and I thought I would contribute some of my memories of family picnics.

Most of the time that my family has had a picnic has been due to either being part of a group or club event, part of a family trip, or part of a visit to a beach. At these picnics, we primarily ate hot dogs, chips and maybe potato salad. Sometimes, we had sandwiches instead of hot dogs. It just depended upon the situation. We mainly brought along food that could be kept in a cooler or could be made easily. In addition the food, we usually brought along cans of pop and bottles of water. Of course, one cannot forget to bring plates and utensils, and we primarily brought paper products along so that we could easily throw this stuff away. The stuff we brought was fairly simple as the simple stuff was easiest to bring along, and did not take very much time to prep or cook the food, if that was needed at all.

Many of my memories of family picnics mainly consist of stopping off somewhere to have lunch (instead of going to a restaurant) while we were on a family vacation. In that situation, we were most likely to eat sandwiches as that was the easiest to bring along on a car trip. As you can see, our family picnics were pretty simple and basic.

Well, Now I Know What Technique I was Taught ...

I just happened to notice the Ancestry Insider's post on the Palmer Method of handwriting, and the image of the letters looks very similar to what I was taught in school. When I was in the third grade, I was taught how to write in cursive, and since that time, I have continued to write in cursive. I never knew which method I was taught until today. The sad thing is that many people my age cannot read cursive and that teaching cursive has pretty much stopped. (At least that is what I've heard.) Anyway, thank you Ancestry Insider for your post on this handwriting technique.

Detroit's Won the Stanley Cup ...

I've just learned this morning this morning that the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup. I did not watch the game (or any of the hockey games this season) last night, so I didn't know about the win until today. I just found out from looking at a Yahoo news article, and Jasia's post. It seems as though the only good news that comes out of Detroit is sport-related, but I'll save that for another post some day ...

Anyhow, I remember the 1997 season when Detroit won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 42 years. I remember how my family and I watched the games for that season. (I haven't paid very much attention to hockey or watched the games on TV in a while because I'm not interested in hockey. But I'll stop now, before I get into a tirade about Detroit ...)

My Scariest TV Moment ...

Cherry over at Nordic Blue posted about her scariest television moment, and challenged other bloggers to write about their memories. I've decided to participate, so here is my experience:

One of the scariest moments in television for me was when I was between the age of eight and twelve. (To be honest, I really don't remember anymore my exact age when this event occurred. I have much more of a vivid memory of the show that scared me.) My family and I were sitting around the television one night, and my Dad happened to surfing the channels to find something to watch. We ended up turning the channel to a show or made-for-TV movie called Cruel Intentions. I don't remember how long we watched the movie for, but I do remember we did not finish watching it. (It seems as though we watched it for a long time in my memory, but it probably wasn't that long.)

Anyhow, the movie happened to be about the murder of a man and the attempted murder of his wife whose children were in on the conspiracy to kill them both (or from what I remember.) Either way, the scene where the murder was replayed scared me, and for a while, I couldn't sleep very well since I was worried that would happen to me or my family. Even now, I still shiver from even thinking about that movie. Also, I had never heard of the game Dungeons and Dragons before, and since that time I have always associated that game with that movie. Even now, I still think of that game as sinister even though I have a better idea of what the game is. (In case anyone is confused, the game was where the killers came up with their evil ideas.) Since watching that portion of the movie, I have seen other versions of that movie advertised on television, but I refuse to watch it since I found the movie to be horrifying and just gruesomely sick. Personally, I wish movies like that were never made. It is just too sick and disturbing. (I am still horrified and shocked by those types of movies even today.)

I Remember That Weekend ...

I just happened to notice Jasia's post on past weather in Michigan. I clearly remember that weekend. I was a freshman in college at that time, and at the time, it was the weekend before finals week at my college. Usually, it does not snow that late in April in Michigan, and I think that was one of the first times in my life that that had occurred. (At least that is the first time that I can remember that occurring.)

Thoughts About Irish Heritage in America ...

Whenever I think of writing a post on Irish ancestry, I hesitate as I am not completely sure if my ancestors who married in Ireland are actually Irish. The problem is that the surname for my ancestor is supposed to be Scottish and not Irish, or so information that I have read on the surname says. (Of course, it is entirely possible that my ancestors were descended from Scots that settled in Ireland.) Of course, when I was little girl, I did not know that I had ancestors that were born in Ireland, and I think that was also true for my family members. It was not until I began researching my family history that I learned I had ancestors born in Ireland.

So, why am I writing this? Well, when I was in elementary school, students were expected to wear green on Saint Patrick's Day. This was, of course, primarily a peer pressure expectation from fellow classmates. I realize that wearing green on Saint Patrick's Day is probably expected almost everywhere in the United States, but there was also another rumor that was told in my elementary school that I am unsure if it has been heard anywhere else in the United States. Supposedly, according to this rumor, on Saint Patrick's Day, one could see leprechauns but only if one was Irish (or, apparently, of Irish ancestry). Silly and unbelievable? Yes, but when one is five, six or seven years old, it can be believable. Or it was when I was that age. Of course, that was the time of my life when I was enthralled by fairy tales. And among those fairy tales were stories of leprechauns and pots of gold at the end of the rainbow, especially with cartoon shows of fairy tales. Undoubtedly, the leprechaun with a pot of gold is a stereotype, albeit one that seems to be friendly. And, one could argue, that the Lucky Charms cereal reinforces that stereotype. If one thinks about cartoon shows and cereal that deal with Irish stories, one could argue that the Irish immigrants who came to the United States did influence our culture, even if that influence is subtle.