Advent Calender - Opening Day 4

The GeneaBlogger Advent Calender prompt #4: December 4 - Christmas Cards
Did your family send cards? Did your family display the ones they received? Do you still send Christmas cards? Do you have any cards from your ancestors?

My mother is fantastic about sending Christmas cards, which is a trait I am trying hard to pick up on. She would write out dozens each year, as would my grandmother and, in return, our mailbox would be full each day leading up to Christmas. Trying to display each one could be tricky, but we went through a multitude of card holders over the years to do so.

I do not have any cards from my ancestors and until reading this prompt had never thought to look for some. It looks like it is time to mention that to relatives as they pull out all their holiday items and hopefully find some old cards tucked away.

Advent Calender - Opening Day 3

The GeneaBlogger Advent Calender prompt #3: December 3 - Christmas Tree Ornaments
Did your family have heirloom or cherished ornaments? Did you ever string popcorn and cranberries? Did your family or ancestors make Christmas ornaments?

My mother has a multitude of ornaments her grandmother and other female relatives made over the years. Each year we would hang a few of these on the tree along with all of our Hallmark ornaments from more recent years. The ornaments I love the most are those with a story attached and my mom does an excellent job at picking them out for us year after year. My favorite from last year was the "First Christmas Together 2008" she got for Aaron and I and our first apartment together.

We also tell the story each year of when my grandmother bought each family a pickle ornament and my cousin Jake picked one up and it just crushed in his hand. He had the most crestfallen look ever, but after making sure he was okay, we all just laughed and laughed. Glass ornaments around a bunch of active kids did not work out too well. But they received another of the ornaments at a later date and it became family legend.

Advent Calender - Opening Day 2

The GeneaBlogger Advent Calender prompt #2: December 2 - Holiday Foods
Did your family or ancestors serve traditional dishes for the holidays? Was there one dish that was unusual?

My favorite holiday food story is also always brought up by my Gramma Acquard every time I see her:-) We spend Christmas each year with my father's family and for every Christmas dinner my grandmother makes baked beans. Every year she also forgets to take them out of the oven, which is where I come in. I always remember that they aren't out on the counter in the buffet line with everything else, so she will pull them out of the oven and find a place for them with everything else. This is apparently a long running tradition, as my mother used to always remind her before I was old enough to. She makes fantastic baked beans.

Advent Calender - Opening Day 1

The GeneaBlogger Advent Calender prompt #1: December 1 - The Christmas Tree

Did you have a real tree or was it artificial? How big was the tree? Who decorated the tree? What types of Christmas trees did your ancestors have?

We almost always had an artificial tree growing up, except for the few years my sister convinced my mom that a real one was necessary. After still picking up needles in July, we would switch back to the artificial for another year. We all helped decorate, pulling all the ornament boxes out of the attic and remembering why we had received each one or which relative had made them back in the day. Everyones favorite part was always the tinsel. As kids, we would throw it on in globs and my mom would add it in a more restrained way.

Since moving out, I have a very small artificial tree, which works perfectly with the miniature ornaments that I love. I put the few larger ornaments around it on the table, along with my Charlie Brown nativity scene and other random holiday items. Doing this post reminded me that I need to clear the school books and papers off the coffee table, pull my Christmas box out of the closet, turn some carols on and start the holiday decorating!

Half way through the semester

It is the midway point in my first semester of graduate school. I have been incredibly lucky, learning quite a few things that will help me with my career as a genealogical reference librarian in the future. The first is that the American Library Association has a division which focuses on reference services and in the division is a part for history/genealogy librarians. I will be joining this ASAP to network and learn more. They are also giving a full-day workshop in Boston in January on genealogical librarianship that I plan on taking. Second is that librarians are tremendously nice. I interviewed the head of the local history/genealogy department and she gave me a lot of tips, which I look forward to implementing:-) Most of all, I have been constantly citing everything for papers and have assignments where we have to write down every site or item we search, even if it comes back negative. This is a habit I really need to get better at for my genealogy research, so I am hoping it will carry over.

I am looking forward to actually doing some research in about 7 weeks and hope to have until the end of February to do so... I also may have a very exciting announcement soon about school and some international genealogical research... Wish me luck!

New blog

If you have been missing my posts (and how could you not be?), please check out my new ePortfolio blog Amanda's Athenæum, where I will be posting my journey through starting graduate school to becoming a genealogy and local history librarian.

Not much time for genealogy

I apologize for the lack of posts the past few weeks, but graduate school has taken over my life, leaving little room for anything other than work and sleep. I promise to keep this blog as updated as possible, but it may not be much until winter break.