We didn't do anything fancy today, just all went to my sister P's house for informal dinner (meatballs, mashed potatoes, lots of sweet stuff) and presents. Last night we were all supposed to go to an aunt's house about 20 miles away for our annual Christmas Eve gathering but because of the weather forecast (and Irish feeling miserable with an ( Read more... )

one to go. Since my youngest sister always has to work on Thanksgiving, we have a smaller gathering (immediate family and assorted friends) the Saturday after. We spent the late afternoon and evening at my middle sister's house with another dinner - turkey again, mashed potatoes, corn casserole.... The turkey, I must admit, was not quite as good ( Read more... )

I forgot to add a few things to my post yesterday - Thanksgiving dinner in northern Indiana wouldn't be complete without 'em ( Read more... )

Dinner was yummy - turkey and ham, potatoes and gravy, all kinds of side dishes, including corn casserole and really good corn from Aunt Beth's farm that she'd frozen. And butterhorn rolls - the highlight of the meal, this year with real butter rather than margarine. Also lots of desserts, but those aren't my main interests. (I had a piece of ( Read more... )

It's been a pleasant day but now it's late and I'm tired. I wanted to post something though, so here's a photo of my paternal grandparents on their 25th wedding anniversary. That would've been Christmas day, 1948. Grampa is 48, Gramma is 50. Last year curiouswombat posted a photo of her grandparents and there was some discussion of how people a couple of ( Read more... )

Some years I do my standard Veterans Day rant but I'm not this year. I think Veterans Day doesn't exist where I live and work - I haven't seen or heard any mention of it locally. Sucks. We have three veterans in our office but no acknowledgment of them. (Wait, there was some mention of it - because the courts were all closed. One thing about ( Read more... )

Recently someone posted on our family website a photo of my Gramma (dad's mom) taken in 1910 when she was 12. I felt exactly as I did when I saw the photo of her at 17 - just like looking in a mirror. (Also, what is up with that bow!) I think the photos are big so behind a cut....

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We had dinner at mom's today, a regular monthly occurrence. Usually it's around the second Sunday of the month but this month it was postponed because of my youngest sister's 40th birthday, which we celebrated last Saturday. So today we're sitting around the table talking about various things and eventually had a discussion about faith which ( Read more... )

I think of myself as relatively conservative though I guess when I try to look at myself objectively I seem myself as more moderate - a little more right-leaning economically (but maybe not quite as much as I think), a little more left-leaning socially. So I often find myself wondering how is it I ended up being the "raving liberal" in the family ( Read more... )

I need to finish getting dressed and ready to head out because today is Graduation Day. Finally getting that bachelors degree after all these years ( Read more... )