Happy New Year

This is another of my dad's postcards, this one from Minnie in Bisbee, AZ postmarked Jan 1, and looks like 1913, the year is smudged.

Dear Claude
Did Santa
Claus bring you
lots of presents.
He brought Milton
and I a good many.
Am having vacation
this week. With love.
Minnie

Carnival Of Genealogy 101 Research/ Writing Plans for 2011

Years ago when I started on Prodigy I was a real beginner, and I was really enthralled with the weekly genealogy article by the genealogy expert Myra Gormley. I started collecting the articles and made an index to all of them that I had. I actually started on Prodigy a couple of years after Myra started writing articles so I had missed quite a few, but one day another Prodigy member contacted me and asked if I would trade some of the articles I had for all the early ones I had missed, and I jumped on the offer. I kept indexing and collecting the columns until they ended in 1999 due to Prodigy not being Y2K compatible. The original Prodigy closed down and Prodigy came out with a new Prodigy Internet, but Myra did not continue as the genealogy expert on Prodigy Internet. Actually the genealogy bulletin board ended with the old Prodigy, and an invitation from the Crafts Bulletin Board allowed the genealogy people to have a bulletin board on the new Prodigy Internet. Since Myra did not go with the new Prodigy Internet, they asked if one of the three Member Reps from the old Prodigy would like to be the new genealogy expert. I was the last Member Rep appointed by Prodigy and the only one that had migrated to Prodigy Internet, so I was now the Prodigy Internet Genealogy Expert. In 2001 the head of the Crafts BB asked if I wanted to write a monthly newsletter similar to the weekly one Myra had written on the Old Prodigy. I said I really was not a good writer and needed some help with editing and so Carol Sanderson and I started writing a monthly newsletter called Branching Out. Carol was a great editor, and a good writer also so we made a good pair. It has been a couple of years since Carol passed away and I really miss her expert editing. I still continue to write a monthly article, but I still have a problem coming up with a new subject to write on each month. I was never a person that liked English in school and without a spellchecker I really would be poor writer.
Marsha Richardson of the Clan Forsyth Society of the USA and editor of the quarterly Griffin saw some of the articles I had written and asked if I would write a genealogy article for the Griffin, so for a couple of years I have written genealogy articles for the Griffin, but coming up with a subject is still the hardest part of writing articles for the Griffin also.
About a year and a half ago I started this Blog, and the Carnival of Genealogy has helped me with subjects here so thanks to Jasia and the COG.

Wordless Wednesday Kababeka Falls

Two pictures from my great aunt Latisha Vanderpool's photo album.

Kababeka Falls Canada 1942

Kababeka Falls Minn Aug 1942

While the second picture says Kababeka Falls Minn, it is mislabeled, since Kababeka Falls are in Canada and not close to the Minnesota border.

Tombstone Tuesday Helen Woltermann Fagan

Helen Woltermann Fagan 1908-1999
Buried next to Woltermanns in Columbus, Montana

Merry Christmas

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.


This postcard is from my dad's collection of postcards.

The postmark says Bisbee, Ariz Dec 20, 1912, and the return address is Box 806 Bisbee, AZ

Wishing you a Merry Xmas.
We are fine.
Can't hardly
wait for Santa
to come. Hope
he will bring
you a lot of
presents-
Minnie Anderson

I still do not know who Minnie Anderson is. A.M. Hansen is my grandfather and they were living in Columbus, Montana in 1912.

2010 Advent Calendar Christmas Eve

How did you, your family or your ancestors spend Christmas Eve?

My moms family always opened their presents on Christmas Eve, so since we lived close we went there to open the presents we received and gave to our grandmother and grandfather Kelly. Later on we were also able to bring one present from home also. Pops family always opened presents on Christmas morning, and since we did not live close to pops family we usually exchanged gifts early in December and then on Christmas morning we opened all the rest of the presents.

Copied from the 2009 Advent calendar

Rest in Peace King Forrest Cole

Today is the funeral for King Cole the President of Expo 74 here in Spokane. Expo 74 really changed downtown Spokane, and today we have a wonderful Riverfront Park as the legacy of King Cole and Expo 74.
This first picture was taken of the future Expo site in 1961. The big building next to the railroad tracks near the middle of the picture was the Union Pacific railroad station. The two streets to the left were Trent (today Spokane Falls Blvd.) and Main, and most of the businesses between them were taverns and flop houses, Spokane's skid row. Near the middle was the Great Northern Station, with its wonderful clock tower that remains today. In the upper left is a large white building, in 1961 it was the Montgomery Wards store, today it is the City Hall.

The second picture was taken from a slightly different view in 1973, by then King Cole had gotten the railroads to donate the land they had their tracks and depots on and all the tracks, railroad bridges and railroad buildings had been removed. In the lower right of this picture is the start of the Washington State Pavilion for Expo, after Expo it was the Spokane Opera House (Now INB Performing Arts Center) and convention center. Lower left was the start of a circle that became the beer garden during Expo and today houses the Looff Carousel. The large oval near the middle was the US Pavilion with Spokane's first Imax theater which is still there. Today they have an ice skating rink in the winter and kiddie rides in the summer. Near the middle is the Great Northern Clock Tower and they put large numbers in the tower counting down the days till Expo 74 opened.

President Nixon came to Spokane to dedicate the US Pavilion and open the Expo and from May through October some 5 million people came to see EXPO 74. I had bought a season ticket and went several times and visited all the pavilions and even took the sky ride over the falls. Today the sky ride is still there, but they have replaced the gondolas and the cable since Expo. After Expo most of the buildings were sold for scrap, and beautiful Riverfront Park is the legacy left for future generations.
After Expo 74 King Cole went to Knoxville, Tennessee and worked on their Expo 82 and even to Vancouver Canada to work on Expo 86, but it all started with Expo 74 here in Spokane. Thanks King, Spokane will miss you, rest in peace.

Wordless Wednesday Canadian Customs Office

Two pictures from my great aunt Latisha Vanderpool's photo album.

"Customs Officer" at Canadian Border Anna and Tish Aug 1942

"Customs Officer" at Canadian Border Ruth Hire- Indiana Anna - Indiana

2010 Advent Calendar Christmas & Deceased Relatives

Did your family visit the cemetery at Christmas? How did your family honor deceased family members at Christmas?

My mom Margaret Hansen died rather suddenly November 30, 1994. Her diabetes had started to take is toll, and they were talking about amputating her feet because of poor circulation due to the diabetes. She was in the hospital and heading for an X-Ray when she died. That Christmas was a fog for me, and since then weather permitting we usually visit her grave between Thanksgiving and Christmas to put flowers in the little vase on the front of their niche.

December 10, 2007 my uncle Leigh died at age 94, while he had not been in very good shape for a while his death was kind of quick. He was buried next to his wife in the cemetery at Priest River, Idaho. We have went to his grave several times an put flowers and flags on his grave.

2010 Advent Calendar Christmas Music

What songs did your family listen to during Christmas?
Well I like most all the Christmas songs, we have albums ranging from Alvin and The Chipmunks Christmas Songs, to Perry Como Christmas, Andy Williams, Mitch Miller, Lawrence Welk, and the Mormon Tabernacle Chior.

Did you ever go caroling?

No, never, tooo cold around here at Christmas time, we did sing carols at church and at school, and I even got to lead the band in high school on the last day before Christmas vacation in a carol.

Did you have a favorite song?
No, like most all the Christmas songs.

Perhaps there is a particular Christmas song that drives you wild?
Yes, on the December 1 post on our Christmas Tree I told about the silver tree with a revolving stand. Well the stand had a music box that plays "Silent Night" over and over as the tree revolves, so after a few hours of Silent Night we would shut off the music box. I still like Silent Night, just not the one from the music box.

This post is mostly from the 2009 Advent Calendar

2010 Advent Calendar Christmas Shopping

How did your family handle Christmas shopping? Did anyone finish early or did anyone start on Christmas Eve?

My mom started in February for the next Christmas, and was usually done before Thanksgiving. She hid presents all over the house and even forgot some she had bought. My dad started in November and was usually done a couple of days before Christmas. I usually shopped like my dad, but as I get older I am switching more to be like mom and starting early.
Mom always shopped the after Christmas sales for wrapping paper, bows, name tags, etc., but I have a bunch of paper, bows and name tags.

Saturday Night Fun Genea-Santa Letter

It's Saturday Night - take some time from the Christmas shopping and wrapping frenzy - and have a little Genealogy Fun!!



Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision. Here's your chance to sit on Genea-Santa's lap (virtually) and tell him your Christmas genealogy-oriented dreams:

1) Write your Genea-Santa letter. Have you been a good genealogy girl or boy? What genealogy-oriented items are on your Christmas wish list? They could be family history items, technology items, or things that you want to pursue your ancestral quest.

Well I guess I have been a good boy this year, so Genea-Santa can you bring a lot more time to research, and a lot more research requests, so I can spend more time at the library.
Help for the MAC so the lack of money will not close off all the records collected by the MAC over the years.
A White Christmas for Bing's hometown.
Peace on Earth

2010 Advent Calendar Christmas Stockings

Did you have one? Where did you hang it? What did you get in it?

We did put up stockings a few times when I was young, but most years not. We did not have a fireplace so no mantle to hang the stockings from. When I was pretty young mom bought a cardboard fireplace, and when unfolded it was supposed to look like a fireplace. It had a light inside with a little fan above the light. When the light was on the heat from the light made the fan turn so it was suppose to be like a flickering fire. Since there was no chimney connected I asked how could Santa get in? And would the light burn him? I think we got some nuts and cookies in the stockings.
Do you have any Christmas stocking used by your ancestors? No, but I have a few mom got for our dogs.

This was from the 2009 Advent Calendar

A New way to Search Google Newspapers

Just read about this on the Spokane Library Genealogy Blog. You can now see which newspapers are available to search on Google and then search a specific newspaper. Click Here for the Google Newspaper Search
Since the Spokane library also has the complete set on microfilm you can get copies from the library of any article you are interested in.

2010 Advent Calendar Christmas Memories

This is from the 2009 Advent Calendar:
Last night on TV I got to see White Christmas with Bing Crosby and co stars Fred Astaire and Danny Kaye. I have always loved Bing Crosby and his singing of White Christmas.
Bing grew up here in Spokane and went to Gonzaga High School and started studying law at Gonzaga University, but dropped out to go to Hollywood and the rest of that is history.
Legend has it that the nickname Bing came from reading the Bingville Bugle an extra section to our Spokesman Review newspaper.
Spokane usually has a white Christmas, and as a boy we got to sled down the hill at the end of our block. If we took a good run we could go a block and a half before stopping. Back then that street was not paved and had very little traffic, today it is paved and even though a residential street the cars fly down that hill today.

2010 Advent Calendar Christmas at School

What did your ancestors do to celebrate Christmas at school? Well my mom was in the school orchestra so I assume they had a Christmas concert. I was in the band in Junior High and High School and we had a Christmas concert each year.
Were you ever in a Christmas Pageant? About fourth or fifth grade I was in the Christmas Pageant at school. I was in a group of 5 boys and we sang a couple of Christmas songs. I had a good soprano voice till my voice changed and we sang kind of like the Vienna Boys Choir. After my voice changed I was glad I was in the band as I did not sing very good anymore.
The last band class before Christmas break we played Christmas songs, but the band director did not direct. Each Senior band member got to pick the song and then direct the band as it played. I was not a real good clarinet player, and I found out I was even a worse band director.

Wordless Wednesday--- Near Duluth, Minnesota

Two pictures from my great aunt Latisha Vanderpool's photo album.
Scene along Lake Superior Highway near Duluth Aug 1942

Near Duluth Minn
Mrs. May, myself (Latisha), Anna and Vella 1942

2010 Advent Calendar Holiday Happenings

This is a copy of the Advent Calendar post from 2009

Well all my close relatives were born well away from Christmas, the closest being my sister, and she was born March 31, so a long way from the Christmas holidays.


This is a picture of my parents wedding in my grandmothers house January 14, 1942. My dad Claude Hansen was 35 then and obviously single, but since it was so soon after Pearl Harbor was bombed they were drafting single men to age 36. Pop had been to a CMTC (Civilian Military Training Camp)camp in the 1920s, and he said about all they did was march, and he had bad feet and did not fit well in the Army issued boots, so he went out to Geiger Air Force Base and enlisted hoping that in the Army Air Corps they might fly somewhere instead of marching everywhere. He received his orders to report to Geiger and wanted to get married before he shipped off to war. My mom Margaret Kelly and pop went down to the auditors office to get a license, and they waved the three day waiting period so they could get married before he left. They got married and after the marriage they had the marriage certificate recorded at the auditors office because that was the law. Pop went off to serve in the 354th Service Squadron, first to Ephrata, Washington, then England, Africa and eventually Italy. Because he was older than most of the men in the service by then he got rotated home, so he was at Ft. Dix, on VE day and back here in Spokane by VJ day. Most of the members of our local genealogical society (EWGS) know I do research for others that send queries to EWGS for local look ups. A few years ago I was in the courthouse looking up a marriage for a query and the index listed two marriage certificate numbers. I had done a lot of marriage certificate look ups by then so I was really surprised by two numbers. A little note here, the auditors office files all the marriage certificates by number, so did they get married twice? When I got to the actual record I found out the problem. Each file during this time had two documents, one was the application they filled out when they applied for the license and the second document was the marriage certificate signed by the bride, groom, witnesses and the minister and was recorded after the marriage and both usually had the same recording number. Well for the couple I was looking for they had a different number on the application and the certificate because another couple also had different numbers on their certificate and application. Both had just switched recording numbers. Turns out the second couple that had their numbers mixed up was my parents. I did not check the index for them to see if they were listed with two certificate numbers but I bet the index also shows two numbers for my parents also. Today all the certificates are online for Spokane county, but none of the applications have made it online yet.
Since their anniversary was after Christmas we always had a nice celebration for them and never mixed in with Christmas or Christmas gifts.

2010 Advent Calendar Fruitcake Friend or Foe?

Did you like fruitcake?? Sure
Did your family receive fruitcakes? Seldom. We did receive one once where all the fruit had been soaked in brandy. Did not like that one burned all the way down. They also sent chocolate cherries where the cherries had been soaked in brandy. One of our standard gifts has been a box of chocolate cherries, but never cherries soaked in brandy.
Have you ever re-gifted fruitcake? Never lasted that long around here.
Have you ever devised creative uses for fruitcake? No.

2010 Advent Calendar Holiday Travel

Did you or your ancestors travel anywhere for Christmas? How did you travel? I did not travel far as both of my grandparents lived close to home. My moms parents five blocks away and pops parents about 35 miles away. Mom's dad worked for the Great Northern and every year he got a free pass to travel on the passenger railroad. Grandma would go almost every other year to Denver to visit her sister, but she was usually back before Christmas.



I received this picture a month or so ago from a cousin in Minnesota, it is my grandfather sweeping off his boots. I had a lot of problems identifying where this picture was taken and I kept thinking about it and finally went to my photo editing program Irfanview and turned the picture around.

This is the result, and this looks like the farmhouse near Blanchard Idaho about 35 miles from us in Spokane. The other thing that seem odd is how small all the trees were when this picture was taken, I remember them being a lot bigger when I was at the farm. We normally went there to deliver presents and visit a week or two before Christmas. Part of the way was a dirt road and plowing was rather slow so we picked a clear weekend to go there.

2010 Advent Calendar Charitable/Volunteer Work

Was your family involved with church groups tha assisted others during the holidays??

My grandma was the person that did most for others near Christmas. She was part of the church quilting circle they called it. My grandfather had made a quilt frame that they set on 4 chair backs and the ladies would hand stitch the squares together, put on a back and usually a wool blanket in the middle and then tie the two sides together with yarn about every foot. When done they donated the quilts to the church to sell to support the church. She actually bought several of the quilts back, so I have a whole chest of quilts she made.
Grandma was also part of the "Sunshine Circle" at the church. The minister would gather up a group of ladies from the "Sunshine Circle", and they visited the church members that for what ever reason could not get out, maybe in the hospital, a nursing home or just sick at home. They would take flowers and cards and just sit an visit.
I have been a volunteer at the library since 1993, and at the county courthouse since 2004, and last year I became a member of the CAC for STA, but none of these volunteer jobs are near the holidays, but year around.

Saturday Night Fun GeneaLeak

Come on geneaphiles - it's Saturday Night - time to have more Genealogy Fun!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) You've probably heard about WikiLeaks - the web site that has been exposing United States government secret documents to the world.

2) For SNGF, please answer one or more of these questions:

* What GeneaLeak do you want to expose to the world from your own research or experience? Do it!

* What GeneaLeak about your own family history research would you like exposed to help you in your genealogy pursuit?

* What GeneaLeak about genealogy websites, collection providers, genealogy software or genealogy bloggers, writers, or colleagues would you like to see exposed?


When the Washington State Digital Archives was indexing marriages for Spokane County starting about 1930 to about 1938, they did not use genealogists as volunteers, but college students (not sure if they were paid or not). So while they indexed all the marriages, the scanned images they used was not the image a genealogist would have picked, so I bet a lot of people do not know there is a second Certificate of Marriage with ages, place of birth, and occupations of Bride and Groom. Names and places of birth of the parents. The digital archives has both certificates, but only one is online, you have to ask for the second copy.

The GeneaLeak for my family would be to find the parents of Thomas D. Kelly b. 25 Apr 1827 near Louisville, KY. he died 1 Mar 1896 near Trenton, MO.

The second GeneaLeak for my family would be to find the parents of Richard Hellenbolt b. abt 1815 in NY or his wife Rhoda Preston b. abt 1816 in Canada.

The third GeneaLeak woud be to find proof of the parents of John "Jackie" Vanderpool b. abt 1805 in North Carolina, he d. abt 1855 or his wife Nancy Campbell b. 18 Sep 1796 in NC and d. 3 Apr 1862

I would really like a genealogy software that would allow me to add pictures to the notes for each person in my database. About ten years ago I got a program that would do that, problem is it is a DOS program. It allowed me to put birth pictures near the birth of a person, high school graduation pictures near high school in the notes, marriage pictures near marriages, etc, and not hidden back in a scrapbook somewhere. The DOS program would allow you to size the picture, so a close up could be small, and a group picture large so you see everyone in the picture. I know most programs allow you to export to your word processor and add pictures there, but that is a lot of extra work.

2010 Advent Calendar Other Traditions

Did your family or friends celebrate other traditions during the holidays like Hanukkah or Kwanzaa?
No. The neighborhood I grew up in here in Spokane was predominately white, and about 50% Catholic and 50% other like Baptist, Christian, Congregational, Lutheran or Mormon. Don't remember any Jewish kids in the neighborhood. I had never heard of Kwanzaa until a couple of years ago, so I know we never celebrated it.

Did your immigrant ancestors have holiday traditions from their native country which they retained or perhaps abandoned?
Most of my ancestors came very early to this country so long ago adopted American traditions. Only my grandfather Anton Hansen who came in 1887 was a fairly recent immigrant, and when he got here he did not want to speak Danish nor remember any Danish customs, he was an American now and wanted to celebrate like an American.
So mainly we celebrated very conventionally, turkey dinner with stuffing, cranberry sauce, salads, mashed potatoes, and usually some kind of pie. After dinner we made TV dinners with the left overs.

2010 Advent Calendar Christmas Gifts

What were your favorite gifts, both to give and receive? My favorite gift to receive was my Lionel train set, see the 2009 Advent Calendar. Mom collected salt and pepper shakers and later on Jim Beam bottles, so those were my favorite to give.
Grandma was always sewing, so we got flannel pajamas every year, most were way to big for me while I was growing up. She also made quilts so I have a whole trunk full of quilts

2010 Advent Calendar Salt Lake City Christmas Tour

I was going to skip this one as I did not have a good subject, but then I thought of the Salt Lake Christmas Tour I took many years ago. It was the first full week in December and they told us to expect cold and snow in Salt Lake City, so I took nearly a whole suitcase full of warm clothes, and snow boots. I arrived in Salt Lake City to 50+ degree temperatures, very little snow, and every night on the TV they were saying how bad the warm weather was on the ski slopes around Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City at Christmas is wonderful, we got to hear the Mormon Choir rehearse, check out the lights of Temple Square, and a full week in the Family History Library. There was a tour through the headquarters of AGLL, and professional genealogists to help us when we got stuck. I was interested in my Danish line, and my grandfather had left a book with his address in Denmark, so I showed it to the gentleman helping with Scandinavian research and away I went. He set three of us up in a line of microfilm readers I was in the middle and on my left was a lady working on her Norwegian lines and on my right a gentleman working on Swedish lines. I was able to get my Danish line back in to the late 1600s. The records went back further in my parish, but the writing of the priest got so shaky that I could not read it anymore. My great Grandmother was in a different parish, but it did not go back as far as the parish my grandfather was born in. While I was at AGLL I bought a couple of books on Danish research and helped people online for years with their Danish research.
The last day of the tour was Saturday, and the flight I had did not leave till 1:00pm on Sunday. About dark on Saturday it finally started to snow, and when I got up in the morning they had a foot of snow on the ground and the airport was closed, but they hoped to have it open by 10 am. I had breakfast and by then they had plowed the street in front of the hotel and promised they could get the shuttle to the airport for me, so I packed up and checked out. The airport was open and working when I got there, and my flight left on time.
To see pictures of Salt Lake at this years tour click here.

Advent Calendar Christmas Cookies

Did your ancestors make Christmas cookies?? How did you help? Did you have a favorite cookie?
My maternal grandmother baked a lot of cookies starting in November and going through the new year. I liked the date roll up cookies she made and the raisin cookies were great also. She made sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies (I never liked those), chocolate chip cookies, raisin cookies, date roll ups, and thumbprint cookies with jelly in the middle. I helped by licking the bowl and sampling the cookies to make sure they were good enough to give away.

After she died and I inherited her house I learned why she started baking in November, that kitchen was cold most of the winter, so the oven baking cookies kept the kitchen nice and warm.

Today my sister starts baking mid November and bakes for about a month so she has a lot of cookies for gifts. I like to make fudge, and have tried several kinds, looking for a different kind of fudge almost every year. This year I made Lemon Fudge, mmmmmmmmmm.

Wordless Wednesday near Duluth, Minnesota

Two pictures from my great aunt Latisha Vanderpool's photo album.

Anna, myself (Tish), Ruth (Hire), and Mrs. May near Duluth, Minn 1942. I think Anna was the aunt of Tish, sister to her mother.

Mrs. May Duluth, Minn 1942

2010 Advent Calendar Santa Claus

Did you ever send a letter to Santa? Advent Calendar Santa Claus
I don't ever remember sending a letter to Santa Claus, by the time I could write I had figured out Santa Claus was my parents.

Did you ever visit Santa and "make a list"? I do remember going to the Crescent Department Store and sitting on Santa's lap to tell him what I wanted for Christmas. We got the Sears, Wards and Pennys catalogs and I would circle the toys I wanted, and got a few of them also. :)

Do you still believe in Santa? Of course. The fire department had an old truck they decorated and put a sled, reindeer and Santa on the back and went up and down each street in the city throwing candy at the kids. They still do that.

2010 Advent Calendar Outdoor Decorations

This is what I wrote last year for the advent calendar: My mom said my grandfather used to string blue lights along the front of his house for Christmas. I never found the cords and sockets, but my grandmother had a box of 25 watt blue lights.
We strung lights across the front of our house and around the front porch. I made a star out of laths and strung lights on it and hung it in the peak of the house. We liked blinking lights so I put as many blinking lights as I could find and so the whole front of the house blinked. The neighbors across the street strung lights around their big picture window and along the peak of their house also. Very few other neighbors did much decorating, most just put their tree in a front window and left the curtains open. We used to have a lot of vandals that tore up the displays, stole the bulbs, so a lot of neighbors did not want to keep ahead of the vandals. This year a couple of houses down the block are decorated and even in their front yards.
This year I am seeing more of the blow up decorations, Santa, Snowman, reindeer, etc. Some are even moving. One is a merry go round with three characters going around and around.

2010 Advent Calendar Christmas Cards

As long as I can remember we always sent Christmas cards and received a bunch of them. Mom usually wrote a letter telling what happened to the family for the year and then we made copies and stuffed the letter in with the cards. When moms diabetes started to take away her eyesight I took over doing the newsletter and was able to add pictures I had scanned. Mom would tape the cards we received to the door frames of the doors in the front room until after New Years Day. We usually saved the cards we received for a year so I don't have any from our ancestors. I have this years newsletter finished and have been making copies to get them all in the mail next week. My dad did save some post cards he got, and this is one of them.

Aunt Fred is Fedaline Dillingham sister to pop's mom Anna Dillingham Hansen. This card says Sebeka, Minn, so it had to have been sent in 1909 or before. Pops family moved from Minnesota to Montana after the 1910 census and before pops 4th birthday in August of 1910 so before the 1910 Christmas.

2010 Advent Calendar Christmas Ornaments

Did your family have any heirloom ornaments? We had a lot of old ornaments that we cherished.
Did you ever string popcorn or cranberries? No I don't remember stringing any popcorn or cranberries. We did make paper strings of colored paper and glued rings together like a chain.
Did your family make any Christmas ornaments? Mom made a lot when she was doing ceramics, see the pictures here from my last years Advent Calendar.
Mom also made some glass ornaments. She bought the clear glass ornaments placed decals on the outside, poured some paint inside and then fired them in the kiln to set the decals and cure the paint.

2010 Advent Calendar Holiday Foods

Don't think I can add much to last years post, just miss the large family gatherings for the holidays, so here is a copy of last years post.

When I was young we always went to my maternal grandmothers for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. Both were always turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetable of some kind, rolls fruit salad and cranberry sauce. For desert usually pumpkin pie, but I did not like pumpkin pie so my grandmother would ask me what kind of pie I wanted. Most times I said apple, but sometimes mince meat pie. Grandma made mince meat pie with ground deer meat as one ingredient, but one year she was in a hurry and did not get the deer meat ground so she cooked it a little and forked it up, but it was still long and stringy and very hard to cut and chew, so for years after that we always asked if she used forked up deer meat in the mince meat pies. I am not real sure when we started making TV dinners from the left overs, but we continue that to today. They are soo good a few months later when you are in a hurry. Just pop in the oven and heat one or more up for a quick meal.
After I started genealogy I found out the traditional Christmas dinner for Danish people was a goose, so I asked my mom why no goose, and she said she tried a goose one year and it was a disaster, horribly greasy and not good taste, so we never had goose again.

2010 Advent Calendar The Christmas Tree

I wrote about our trees last year, so this year I will write about the trees my grandparents had. Mom parents had a real tree each year, usually very small about 4 feet tall. Grandma had some very old ornaments and very big lights on that tree. After we bought an aluminum tree mom bought grandma one also, and it was about 4 foot tall also with a color wheel.
Pops parents always had a real tree and usually as tall as could fit in the room without touching the ceiling. Pop said when he was young they used candles on the tree as they did not have electricity. Had little candle holders that clipped on the limbs. I was always amazed they did not burn the house down with those candles.