Christmas soon/ Mormon relatives
This is my last day off from work before Christmas so I have much to do. Most of the Christmas shopping is done and I just have to get a few small things. I need to stop at the package store and get my brother, father and various other Irish relatives and Irish minded friends their bottles. I need to get baby Gerry Smith a little baby gift and his mom a bottle. That reminds me of Mary's quote from the day she told me she was pregnant at 45, "Now when I need a drink more then ever I can't have one." One cool thing has happened recently. I've been communicating online with my cousin Michelle Engbretsen and her husband Tom about family history. Her Grandmother Ruth (who my mom was named after) was my Grandfather's older sister who stayed in Sweden after the family visited right after WWI and my Grandfather saw her maybe twice when they were much older. She married and had a family in Sweden and her daughter Anna-Stina who is close to my moms age was in france on a skiing holiday(no snow in Sweden?) and meant an American LDS missionairy and ended up marrying him and moving to the US and raising a family in Virginia. I sent some pics of my grandfather and his sister when she visited in 1966 to Michelle who forwarded them to her parents. Her Dad Charles Wassum friended me on Facebook. It turns out Anna and him are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on LDS mission. He's a doctor and I guess there is a school too. They had pics posted of all the African students in uniforms and ties. It's funny when I think of what I know of that church and it's views on race(I think Obama got his lowest % in Utah) but they are helping people in a very poor country! And my Mom happened to be over and she was happy to see pics of her first cousin who she met once.