It's time to make new lists for the new year

The week has just gotten away from me. Have enjoyed spending time with daughter, son-in-law and those two grandsons that are going up so quickly. Lots of meals, visits from friends, a party in the neighborhood. I just have not been on the computer as much, which is okay, too.

The kids went to the east coast of Florida yesterday where the grandsons were born, visiting old friends. They get back tonight and then the sad good-byes tomorrow as the once again head home.

The new year. 2010. Just seems like we were watching the millennium turn a short time again. Must start the new year by getting organized and getting some things done. In today's paper I found a website for our local library which offers on-line languages. Actually, they offer 72 different languages. Amazing. Just checked into it briefly and it looks promising. The Trout and I need to improve our French. I truly believe the only way to learn a language is to live it. That is one of our dreams, to one day live for a year in France to take it all in. Aha, one more item on my 'Bucket List.'

Only 4 months from today and we will be in France. We have tried several methods of learning French, but this computer work just might work better. We will also be dipping into Germany for a few days, and I know I don't have to practice my German. In fact, we Skyped with our German friends in northern Germany on Christmas. Have not seen them in 9 years, so it was nice to reconnect in their living room. Isn't it amazing, what the computer allows us to do?

We are having our traditional New Year's Eve dinner which I will share with you and then a little South Beach dieting to get into shape for the coming year. I have so thoroughly enjoyed reading all the blogs of my blogger friends. Wonderful pictures and family stories and phenomenal food.
Looking forward to a new year and reading all the posts to come.

Traveling on

We have had some good traveling and have now landed in Ohio at our daughter's home. Kippy is hanging in there, even though she was taken advantage of because of her small size. My brother has two Gordon setters which are beautiful dogs, but large compared to a Bichon.

Kippy's traveling pancake snacks, her Puperoni snacks and her glucosamine tablets were all devoured quickly upon arrival in North Carolina. I wonder why those Gordon's liked me so well. I guess because I brought unexpected treats!

So, had to make a trip to PetSmart this morning to stock up on what was no longer. Kippy is smiling again.

Our guest room at my brother's was beautiful. And this was the view out of our window onto the lake they live on. The Trout went fishing in the boat with my brother and we had a lovely, relaxing time, talking about childhood memories. I also told him about my genealogy research.

Now at daughter's house and loving those grandboys. Angie has beautiful snowball hydrangeas in her back yard. We are enjoying the upper Midwest plants and trees which we do not have in Florida. Need to catch up on reading all my favorite blogs that all of you write.

Family Tree and Pictures

In recent weeks, I have been doing some genealogy research. Or, I should say, I have been doing some posting to my family tree and have been fortunate to receive a lot of help from friends and family members as to information, names and dates. I have now taken my paternal grandmother's history back to 1680. What I find so amazing is that it tells me that my ancestors at that time came from Transylvania and Russia. Wow! I have work to do to go back even further than that.

The problem, or excitement, of working on a family tree, is that it can be very time consuming to the point where your eyes are hurting looking at the computer screen. It just makes me wonder how people did it years ago, before computers. I know as a very young adult, I sat down with my father and a large poster board and together we did a little tree making. It ended up being rather confusing, but I still draw information from it today.

The problem is, one branch leads to another branch and WOW it does get very interesting. Now, The Trout, I know, would like me to start recording his information and I do have a lot of it thanks to a cousin who did all this research and gave it to him years ago. It just takes time and believe me, I spend enough time on the laptop.

In conjunction with this, I have a heavy burden lying on me--photographs. I wish we had bought a digital camera many years before we did. Now we have boxes of some-what organized photos and slides. We don't even have a slide projector anymore. And then we got into videos of our trips abroad. We have one of the most delightful scenes at Juliet's balcony in Verona, Italy, where I am asking The Trout (wherefore art Thou?) Surely, someone besides me will find this humorous someday? ...hmmm, doubtful!

I have this wonderful photo album that belonged to my grandmother. Her name is in the front and the date Christmas, 1906. Even the price, $2.25 is written in the front. Surely, that was a very lot of money in those days.

Inside the photo album are many pictures with no names and dates. I recognize this one below, because it is my father's mother on the right, Susanna, and the other lady is unknown. I find that I do not write names and dates as often as I should on the back of photographs either. I like to think I am somewhat organized, but doing this is greatly lacking in my repertoire of things to do.

My coffee set

About 10 years ago, my son-in-law, Mike, went to Bosnia with his church to do missionary work. He actually had two different trips over there, one time building a playground for the children and another time helping to rebuild the bomb damaged homes. He lived in the homes with families who had very little, but wanted to know more about the Lord.

He brought me back a coffee set used in Bosnia. It definitely has a Turkish look to it. At one time, every 15 seconds for 2-3 years, Sarajevo was being hit with shells and shrapnel. The people living there took the large shell casings and hammered them flat, polished them and fashioned them into coffee sets, ornaments and ashtrays.

Mike related that the women spent a good part of the day hand grinding coffee beans. They then would put 6 to 8 scoops of the ground coffee into a pot until it boiled over an open flame. The foam was skimmed from the top and then poured into the small carafe you see on the right in the picture.

I have kept the coffee set Mike brought me in my china cabinet, but have never used it. I think the next time Mike comes to visit, I will plan on having coffee with him, as they do in Bosnia. Thanks again, Mike.

The Family

I love old pictures and sometimes I imagine myself living during that time. This is one picture I just treasure. On the left is my grandfather(Opa) and Grandmother (Oma). The other couple is Opa's sister Susie and her husband Frank.

Opa was born in Argenta, Illinois in 1881. He married my Oma and lived in the German village in Iowa, but often traveled back to Illinois. The only information written on the back of the picture is "We are going to the Springfield Fair." No year, but I imagine it would have been about 1904-1908.

Recently I made contact with my grandfather's sister's grandson. He was delighted to receive this picture of his grandparents. I love these kind of connections.

The Amazing Computers

The miracle of technology sometimes leaves me in awe. After all, I remember seeing my first television at age 5, and we had to travel to visit someone in the city to see it. My brother and I also got our pictures in that city's newspaper with a title something like, "Wide-eyed children see television for the first time."

Well, yesterday we advanced again. We have had a computer for about 16 years. I remember at the time telling my daughter we really would never need such a piece of technology in our home. Ha Ha. So now, we have added a Webcam and can talk and see the grandchildren through Skype. How great is that? It is especially wonderful for us because we are far away from the grandchildren and just a few phone calls to them doesn't make it right. Our Bichon, Kippy, even got in on the act and said hi to Rachel yesterday.

I can only imagine what will be available to our grandchildren and great grandchildren in the future.

The Grand Grandchildren

As I get older, I realize one of the joys is being a grandparent. The Trout and I are fortunate to have 4 wonderful grandchildren. Each has his or her own personality which makes things even more delightful. I remember back over 11 years ago when grandson #1 was born. I was working for a doctor at the time and he tried to convince me that I was too young to be a grandparent. I was 52 at the time. I just had no clue where he was coming from. Now I know. His children weren't even married at the time and he was just jealous.

Unfortunately, distance keeps us away from all four grands, but the phone keeps us in touch and now the older boys are using the computer to check in on grandma. We also get to visit a couple of times a year which are very special times. It is an unexplainable pride that only another grandmother can understand. To see life continue in such beautiful faces and smiles is such a reward.

"The best babysitters, of course, are the baby's grandparents. You feel completely comfortable entrusting your baby to them for long periods, which is why most grandparents flee to Florida."--Dave Barry

"A grandmother is a mother who has a second chance."--Author Unknown

"It's such a grand thing to be a mother of a mother--that's why the world calls her grandmother."--Author Unknown

Above, left to right is Josiah age 9 1/2, Noah age 11

Rachel age 4, Joshua age 7

I love you kids!

It's Quiet Now, Too Quiet

The house is quiet now. The children and grands have left to go back home. The house has been dusted and vacuumed and everything back in place and it is sort of lonely. I just can't imagine a wonderful holiday like Christmas to be without children of any age.

There were many hugs, smiles, laughs and games. Special prayers around the table and just lots of love. You can't ask for anything better.

The Trout got his Red Velvet or Waldorf Astoria cake for Christmas. This is a yearly request for his January birthday, so he was happy! It disappeared quickly.

Merry Christmas Dinner

Our traditional Christmas family dinner included prime rib roast, twice-baked potatoes and my sour cream and bacon salad dressing. We started out with Peach Bellini's with champagne (ginger ale for the boys) and a wonderful California cab with the beef. The Trout's favorite Red Velvet Cake is for dessert and if there is any left, I'll post that tomorrow.

Daughter Angie and husband Mike and our grandsons, Noah and Josiah were our dinner guests. I wish all our family and friends could have been here today. Let's plan on next year.

Merry Christmas Eve

Be it ever so humble, the Christmas spirit is here and sending love to all family and friends. May we remember the reason for Christmas and keep it in our hearts. Merry Christmas!

The Grand Boys

Two of our grandsons with mom and dad and best friend, Jeter, came down for Christmas week. The boys immediately rushed to the back yard and started casting for fish. We have some bass living in the pond behind us and they love casting and hoping for a bite. They have been very fortunate to catch several and put them back to be caught again.

It is good having family come visit us at this special time of the year. Enjoy your families because a lot of us can't be together as often as we would like.