Tag: Christmas

Christmas is a holiday observed generally on December 25 to commemorate the birth of Jesus.

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Re: Request for Your Holiday Status?

Thu 12/17/2020 11:20 PM

Beth,

We will spend Christmas eve at JP and Ana’s house. Ana’s mom is gravely ill, and we are doing everything we can to make things better for her. She is living with the newlyweds while undergoing treatment for brain cancer. Ouch!

We will follow-up by spending Christmas day at Pam’s sisters’ house. Kathy lives about 10 minutes away from both our house and Michelle’s condo. Her house is big and accommodates more people comfortably. JP and Ana are 45 minutes away, and I refer to visiting them as a trip to Canada. They think I’m kidding. But they are close to where they work, and that counts for something.

I am going to surprise you. I like Tinker Bell (correctly spelled) as a Disney character, but not as a dog’s name.  It comes out “stinker.” Ouch. I have several theories about names. [I once wrote a letter about this. When I find that letter, I’ll send you a copy.] One theory says it is human nature to shorten them. Maybe it is going from three syllables to two or two to one; whatever the metric, we need to make it shorter.  John Paul became JP or, for me only, J is enough. Michelle is “shell.” I use Pam for Pamela.  Beth, John, Jack are all good solid names. ? Lol.

Given all of the above, the dogs are “girls” or the Belle sisters if I need to be formal.  Eventually, you will see how much alike they look. Michelle has the best pictures so I will ask her to send some to me.  Because of the pictures (Chihuahua/Terrier mix), you will understand why I sometimes revert to “big Lucy” and “little Lucy.” Anything but stinker, although that moniker applies to all puppies.

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Re: Civil Patriot’s Big Tech Approved Letter

Sun 12/20/2020 12:51 AM

 
This letter was such a hit with me because Pam and I have dozens of annual letters that I have preserved as life stories for the MyCousins Family Tree. 
 
A letter has often accompanied either the annual Christmas or the New Year’s greeting card in our family.  For decades we were faithful and did one or the other, sometimes both.  For the last decade, we have thought ourselves too busy, and the practice stopped.  Pam and I need to revisit this. She often wrote the first draft, and I would add embellishments. It has been fun to do.
 
Pam was surprised that I found my letter to Jeff. But, if she is a packrat when it comes to the house, I am a kindred spirit when it comes to my computer. I save everything, and I’m constantly reorganizing. I have two 8 terabyte hard drives in use, and one is a backup.  I also have several drives as offsite storage in case of a disaster.  
 
Relating all this to our ancestry research, I was reflecting on our responsibilities as genealogists. We need to do 5 things with our family history: preserve, identify, organize, analyze, and share.  It is helpful to step back occasionally and ask, “what am I doing in each of these areas.”  You and I have a pretty good record.  Encouraging others is the one area where I feel the need for improvement.  Our eBook will help. At least, I hope so.
 
John, IV
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Re: Merry Christmas

 
Sat 12/26/2020 3:14 PM
 
John, IV,

 
Yes, we had a wonderful celebration on Christmas Eve with our children and 1 grandchild for a total of 5 people.  We have 2 other grandchildren, but they were with their mother’s family.  
 
Surviving a Cuban Christmas sounds barbaric, and I’m sure my stomach couldn’t handle it.  Interesting how different cultures celebrate the Christmas holiday!!  
 
I’m happy to be just a plain ‘ole Mainah’!!!
 
Beth
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Merry Christmas

Sat 12/26/2020 12:08 PM
Beth & Jack,
Merry Christmas.  I trust you both had an enjoyable and safe holiday we did.
I typically don’t reveal Christmas presents, but I have enough Moxie to break that tradition this year.  It is for a good cause.
Beth, you and I have a new domain name for our eBook: mycousins.org replaces mycousins.org. We can celebrate the consistency this gets us.
And for the celebration, my daughter found and bought me bottles of Moxie.
I am over the moon with joy, given the love of family we have experienced this year.
God bless us all.
John & Pam
P.S. With Ana joining our family this year, we read about Nochebuena, and this link was our starting point. ?

 

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Re: Merry Christmas

Sat 12/26/2020 4:16 PM
Beth,
Wonderful! Me too, “plain ‘ole Mainah.’
Here, however, is a more pleasant description of Christmas Cuban style.  I’m not big on pork, so I was pleased with our traditional Turkey from the Honey Baked Ham store. ? We had Ana’s mom and a couple from Ana’s school join us, and that part was fun. Then it was just the family at Kathy’s on Christmas day. 
John, IV

Sat 12/26/2020 7:55 PM

As the saying goes, John, “A good time was had by all,” and that’s what’s important! – Beth

Sat 12/26/2020 7:56 PM
Amen. – John
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Re: Genealogy Blog for MyCousins Family Tree Contributors

Mon 1/11/2021 1:46 PM
Becky,
I share your pain.
The garage above is just the tip of our iceberg. Pam has a huge warehouse that costs us over $200 a month. Ouch.  We have three of everything, and if we need something, often, it requires a purchase as we can’t find one of the three we own.
I love my wife!
My goal is to get rid of the warehouse even if the garage takes a hit.  Lol.
My advice is to take pictures of everything and write down its history. 

Otherwise, my story is that everything deserves a good home where it will get used and appreciated. I would give 99% of it away if Pam let me. That is my story, and I’ve preached it for decades without much success. I’ve also made empty “threats” to dispose of things when she is away on trips. Pam and Michelle take trips to Disney in Orlando without me.  I prefer to take care of our two puppies rather than walk 20,000 steps a day. Lol. I have a theory that she won’t know what is gone. There is just so, so much stuff.

Yes, it is hard! There are family things that it’s tough to admit no one wants: Family China, a collection of Toby mugs, Village houses, furniture, etc.

Warmest regards,

John, IV

P.S. I like Christmas ornaments, so I am partially responsible for the hoarding. 🙂

P.P.S. I get results only when I threaten to call the fire department. Lol.

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Re: Reading Hard-To-Read Gravestones

Sun 1/24/2021 12:06 AM
Beth,
I just gave you access to the MyHeritage site, though I don’t know what that means. I’m still learning their system.
It isn’t as impressive as you might think when I tell you the back story.
MyHeritage was having a Good Friday discount on their already low price for a DNA Kit, and I figured why not.  I’m a researcher at heart and like comparing software products.
Shortly thereafter, I ran into a snag with their pricing. It turns out that you can create a free site for up to 250 people with a limit on storage space.  I complained that it did not include a family tree subscription. I could pay for a month or two, but they only sell a one-year subscription. Ouch!  I went on to say (truthfully) that I got 3 months of World Discover for #1 with my DNA kit at Ancestry.com.  I was nice about it, and they rewarded me with a couple of months of free access.  The big advantage of this was I took down my tree with 249 people and used a backup of my ancestry tree to create a new one. When my free trial is over, the side benefit is that while I won’t get any more hints, whatever I have created doesn’t go away.
Very nice of them.
The pictures are from my (new) Top 100 Photos folder. It is exclusively old, black-and-white photos. The neat thing for us is the MyHeritage system used the photo’s file name to create the description, saving me a lot of extra work. I created a few albums, and presto, I have magic. I also have played with their feature to identify people in photos.
The hints on the MyHeritage site work a little differently.  They are always trying to increase the number of people and/or storage that determines the annual subscription price. The Elsik Hint notably said it would add 12 people. Other hints have been offered to add 50-100 people at a time. I usually say yes.
Again, MyHeritage only has annual subscriptions. Without the “Christmas” present of a free 2-month subscription, none of this would have happened.
Two items of note:  First, I don’t keep the family tree on MyHeritage as up-to-date as Ancestry.com.  It is a GEDCOM snapshot, plus their separate HINTs. And secondly, they have their own software, which I can use to sync an offline copy. Again, I am a software addict.
I think that something like the Top 100 will be on the eBook website. I’m still investigating options to make the mycousins.org site special.
Enjoy!
John, IV
P.S. My Ancestry.com site is undergoing a dramatic increase in the number of photos and stories.  Rather than use my workaround to accept individual HINTS, I aggressively use public family trees to grow the site. Since I understand how the software operates (the behind-the-scenes programming), I can do so rather safely. I also know if I do create errors or duplicates, how to fix them.