Memories!

I have been busy lately cleaning.  I do NOT love to clean, but it is a neccesity.  I don't want to live in clutter and dirt.

I decided the other day to tackle a closet in the spare bedroom which is no longer a bedroom, but my office.  I have to share it with my husband as he likes to get on his computer and look at things.  I used to call his computer the "Danger Zone" as every time he went to it he would get this urge to buy something.  I will admit that he has gotten a lot better the past couple of months.  He looks a whole lot more instead of buying something. 

Back to cleaning out the closet.  I had plastic bins in there with items I hadn't seen in a while.  So going through them, I found items that my mother had saved.  My mom saved everything!  I found these little pink baskets. 

Now I can remember these at one of my birthday parties when I was around 10 or so and they had little mint candies and peanuts in them.  Why I remember that, who knows.



I found these two old hand fans that my mother had.  As you can see, the one on the left is of the Mackinac Bridge that connects the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan.  The fan on the right shows the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island.  If you ever get the chance you need to visit Mackinac Island.  You have to take a boat to get there (it is located between the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan) and there are no automobiles on the island.  You either walk, ride a bike or take a horse drawn carriage.  It is 8 miles around the island and a lovely bike ride.

I found this birth announcement.  Nothing was written in it, but wondering if my mom saved it and these were what she used to announce my birth XX years ago.  (Put those XX there on purpose!)

In this box I found a puzzle.  I looked on the back of the box and the date was 1918!  I told you my mother saved everything!  Kind of glad she saved this. 

I want to work more on our "Family Tree".  In Ancestry.com I have been going back on my side and my husband's side as far as I can.  On my dad's side, I got as far back as the 1500's.  On my mom's side I wasn't as lucky as my grandma was pregnant with my mom when she came to the United States from Poland.  I hit a dead end in Poland as the records were most likely destroyed in WWII.  Same on my husband's side, as the records were likely destroyed in WWII.  But my dad's heritage is Dutch, English, Scottish and Irish, so I lucked out on going so far back on his side. 

It is so fascinating to learn all this history.  A few years ago I found out that my great, great, great, great grandfather (may have missed one there, not sure) fought in the Revolutionary War.  He lived in Conneticut.  So I may have long lost relatives in the Northeast.  I was born and raised in Michigan.  Our whole family was and is from Michigan.  My husband, our four children and I moved to Florida in 1985.

My goal is to leave our children as much history of our family as I can.  It will take a while, but I enjoy doing these kinds of projects.  Just need to fit it in with everything else I am trying to do!  History is important!  So try to get your family history to pass down to your family.  They should appreciate your efforts.

Until next time.........................

As Always,

Marilyn



 

 

 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Garfield is one of my favorite cartoon characters. I read his comic strip every day.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Blessed Christmas. We went to the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at our church and then the whole family came over Christmas day.  I love it when our whole family can be together!

Remember my last blog on the green pickle?  I hid it well in the tree and warned everyone not to throw anything off the tree this year! Our daughter found the pickle.  And since this was only our second year of doing this new tradition in our family,  I had a prize for the finder.  It was a jar of Claussen pickles!  Well guess what? Our daughter does not like pickles!  Only one out of our four children who doesn't like pickles.  (Didn't think about that when I came up with what I thought was a funny prize).  But our grandson loves pickles, so she let him have them.  She is looking forward to a year of good luck!

Fellow bloggers, "The Foley Fam - Unedited" and "Perception is Everything" are having a Linky Party!  Go check them out and join the party!  Who doesn't like to Party!!

2012 has come and gone!  Way too fast by the way.  What they say is true.  As you grow older the years seem to fly by faster. But I'm not old, I am just in my second childhood!  I can't retire completely as I would go nuts!  I have to keep busy!  I think that is what helps to keep me young.

    

This year I want to grow more as a person.

 As one gets older one tends to get crankier.  I want to avoid that if at all possible.  

I pray that God helps me grow closer to him.  

I would like to get more organized.

 

 

I am busy working on new things for my website.  I hope to have it updated by the end of this month.  

 

 

As Always,

 Marilyn

Green Pickle

It is almost Christmas!  And it is almost the birthday of Jesus!

Have you heard of the Green Pickle Ornament?  Until last year, I had never heard about it.  Pauline, my new daughter-in-law this year, told me about it.  She gave us one last year.  Thus a new Christmas tradition started last Christmas in our home.

I wanted to learn more about this Green Pickle.  I had heard it was a Polish tradition.  I liked that as I am of Polish descent.  But in my research, I learned it is really a German tradition.  That is okay as my husband is of German descent.  But, wait a minute!  I also found it is an American tradition.  It is said that the Green Pickle ornament had it's beginning in the deep south of the U.S. of A!

So I put "Green Pickle" in the Google search engine (don't you just love Google?  Where would we be if we couldn't use Google?). Here are two things I found.

John Lower was a German who was born in Bavaria in 1842.  He emigrated to the United States with his family.  He fought in the American Civil War and was captured and sent to a prison in Andersonville, Georgia.  He fell ill given the poor conditions of the prison.  Starving, he begged a guard for just one pickle before he died.  The guard took pity on him and found a pickle for John.  The Lower family lore says that the pickle, by the grace of God, gave John the mental and physical strength to live on.  After being reunited with his family he began the tradition of hiding a pickle on the Christmas tree.  The first person who found the pickle on Christmas morning would be blessed with a year of good fortune and a special gift, just as John Lower had experienced!

Now I found another theory. The people in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which is the self-proclaimed "Christmas Pickle Capital" of the world, hold a festival and have a Grand Dillmeister.  Their story claims Medieval origins and traces two Spanish boys who were on their way home from boarding school.  When they stopped to stay at an Inn, the mean Inn keeper stuffed them into a pickle barrel.  When St. Nicholas passed by, he touched the barrel with his staff and set them free.

Now I am originally from Michigan, born and raised.  But, I have to say that I tend to think that the German story of the Green Pickle seems more believable to me.  Just saying.

So now this year I will hide the pickle really good in our Christmas tree.  All four of our children and families will be here for Christmas. And this year, there will be a special gift for the one who finds the Green Pickle.  And there are new rules this year.  No throwing items off the tree while trying to find the Green Pickle!  One son got a little carried away last year when he couldn't find the pickle.  But it was all in good fun!

Do you hide a Green Pickle in your tree?  If you do, I would love to hear about it.  Please leave me a comment below.

I wish you all a Very Blessed Christmas!!!

                    MERRY  CHRISTMAS!!!!

As Always,  

Marilyn