Time for Family, Friends, and Genealogy

I made 9 copies of 3 branches of our family tree which included 7-8 generations beginning in the 1830's with help from Family Tree Maker, Ancestry.com, and living relatives.

It has been a wonderful year filled with family and friends!  It also was the end of a year-long genealogy project I wanted to share with immediate family members for Christmas.  I feel so blessed to connect with the past and present and look forward to many more years of family growth and discovery.

I was so pleased to learn from my daughter that she helped to organize a family get together with relatives in Iowa and Nebraska for Thanksgiving week.  It would be a great time for family members to meet her new husband as well as reconnect after many years!  It took several days to fit every one's schedules but we got it done and memories were made.  My son and daughter-in-law traveled all the way from Virginia!  It was too bad that my husband could not be there due to work commitments.

It began with Grandma's Day.  There was a pizza and wings party and my children and their spouses spent quality time with my husband's mother and two sisters.



After our visit with Grandma and the Aunts went back to work, my children and their spouses went with me to see my friends at the courthouse nearby.  I've been blessed to have had these beautiful ladies as my friends since the early 1970's.  One was my Maid-of-Honor and the other my senior classmate and neighbor.  We have kept in touch all these years.



The next day was spent with 14 family members at a restaurant in Omaha.    Good food and lots and lots of conversation.  My brother and I were so happy to see our combined families together in one place!  Missed very much were my husband, and two of my brother's grandchildren and their families; otherwise, that would make 8 more members for a total of 22 between us two siblings!  Now if our other brother from Virginia were here with his family that would add 14.5 more for a total of 36.5 family members between two brothers and a sister!



The next day was spent at my brother's house and I made plans to spend the afternoon with my dear friend who lives nearby.  She was the first friend I made when I first moved to Iowa in 1971.  We were also senior classmates.  It was her first day of retirement and I helped her celebrate!


Then came Thanksgiving Day!  My daughter and her husband had to travel back to Missouri for work commitments the day before.  My son and daughter-in-law spent the day with her cousin and their family in Omaha.  So I was fortunate to have a big family dinner at my niece's home in Omaha.  So much good food prepared by great cooks and everybody helped out.

While we were eating inside...the rain was freezing outside!

The next morning there was a thick coating of ice on everything so I waited until my car thawed out in my brother's heated garage before attempting the icy 6-hour drive back to Missouri!

I got home safely from Iowa that evening although the drive by myself was very stressful.  A couple hours later, we were fortunate to have my son and daughter-in-law stop by our home in Missouri for dinner on their drive back to Virginia.  My husband was especially appreciative since he missed this family trip with me. 

With the Thanksgiving festivities over, it soon moved toward the birthday and Christmas season.  My son had his birthday and was given his gifts from me before he went home.  A few days later, my good friend and I celebrated our close birthdays together with a trip to Branson.  We saw a show, the Christmas lights trail, and had a nice dinner at Olive Garden.

My husband surprised me with a dozen red roses, my favorite chocolates, and a lovely card for my birthday!  

We had friends, a husband and wife who live nearby, over to our house for my traditional kolache and coffee.  

Then I was invited to a friend's house for our regular Girl's Night Out and Christmas gift exchange where we also celebrated my birthday with a cake and good company!

The weather had been so unseasonably mild for this time of year here in SW Missouri that my husband and I got one more time to kayak on our local lake.  The sunset was exceptionally beautiful as the lake looked like it was on fire!

It was quite a challenge to put together my Christmas gifts of genealogy binders this year for nine immediate family members.  My computer crashed and was in the shop for a month and I ran out of ink a couple times!  One of the three branches had 17 pages to trim and paste together...for nine copies!  Still I enjoyed every minute and it was all in the mail the Monday before Christmas with hopes that most of them will get there on time.  Family time may not always be easy but it is always worth the effort!  And not to be left out is my Bobi Kitty...my loyal friend and family member wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!