Wednesday, December 26, 2007

What a day! Genea-Musings will return on Thursday!

This was a very busy and tiring day for all of us here at the Genea-Manor. The little boys (ages 4 and almost 2) got up at 6:30 and were all excited to see so many gifts under the tree and in their stockings hanging from the fireplace mantel. Their mom got up soon after, and Lolo (age almost 3) and her parents arrived at about 7:30 (they had to sleep at a friend's house - the GM was full!). We got the stockings down and the frenzy began. Each child must have had 20 or 30 gifts to open and either admire or put in their box. The adults supervised, kept the trash picked up, and marveled at the energy levels. Then it was time for the real gifts, and we gathered them for each person and started opening - the kids pretty much non-stop. Whew - we really outdid ourselves and the kids already have tested almost everything (except for the blow-up space shuttle and the "Cars" movie race car set). Then it was time for the "piece-de-resistance" - Santa brought the boys a 9 x 12 blow-up jump house set. Lori and I set it up last night in the back yard (she is really good at figuring out directions, much more mechanical minded than I am) and all we had to do was turn the air blower on. The kids squealed with excitement, and jumped for probably an hour or more. I even got in and wiggled around on my belly, and the kids were jumping on me and bouncing off the walls into me - they loved it, and I did too - I'm really a big (literally) kid at heart.

I squeezed in a nice 40 minute nap with Walter (my grand-hound - a basset) on the bed in the late morning, and missed out on the Carls Jr. lunch fest around noontime. The kids struggled to go down for naps and their moms could hardly wait to take one too. Lolo and her parents left at about 3 PM to beat the traffic home up I-15. Lori and Linda started the turkey at about 2 PM and had things well in hand for a 6 PM dinner - just the five of us, which was low key and OK. The dinner was great - turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, topped off by pumpkin pie and vanilla ice cream (the boys gobbled that up). The boys were in bed by 8 PM. I put the little one down, then washed the dishes and tried to pick up a bit, including starting to dismantle the jump house.

Needless to say, I did no genealogy work today - but I helped make a lot of family history. The grandkids are almost old enough to remember these special events in their lives. I certainly will.

The genealogy scene is pretty slow, isn't it? That's good, I think - we can catch our breath for 2008. I have some summary posts planned, but they will have to wait until I return from Santa Cruz on Thursday.

Lori, the boys and I are driving the 500 miles to Santa Cruz on Wednesday, and I'll fly home from San Jose on Thursday. Therefore, posts on Genea-Musings will be "light" (heck, non-existent most likely, since I won't have the laptop with me this time and Lori's computer is on the fritz).

I wonder what major genealogy event will happen while I'm out of commission? Will Ancestry be FREE for the next week? Will other subscription web sites be free until New Years? Will there be a merger of genealogy companies or partnerships announced?

If you absolutely have to read Genea-Musings, please go through the Archives. Do me a favor and tell me which post was the most helpful or most interesting to you?

By the way, this is my 1,500th post since 18 April 2006 (an average of about 2.4 posts a day!).

1 comment:

Sally J. said...

Oh, Randy. What a wonderful, delightful day!

I just love it when you share grandkid stories.

-Sally J.
The Practical Archivist