Fall is over, winter is starting, as today I saw snow flurries when I was driving home. I love to see snow and really enjoy being in the house cuddled up in my Minky blanket watching the snow fall.  

Everyone is doing well.  My Hubby is still the coolest fella in the universe.  Ciara likes her new job and making friends, and she is going to Hawaii in the Spring.  Hub and I are headed to Arizona in January.  We are only there a couple days to see my Momma as she has had a lot of health issues this past year and I just really miss her.  We are seeing the kids for one night and then headed back home.  We also have our 5-year wedding anniversary coming up and I have taken time off so we can do something.  

All the animals are as spoiled as they possibly can be.  Somehow, we ended up with 5 cats living in our house, so along with the 4 dogs so we are a full house.  Outside we have 17 chickens now, one of the OG chickens passed away this summer.  I think the cause was that she was egg bound.  Speaking of eggs, we get a dozen a day now.  I need to figure out a way to use them all, or someone to pass them onto.  

If you don't have a Minky Blanket, here is a link these are the most amazing blankets ever!

https://www.softminkyblankets.com/

Onto Memory Lane

Hiraeth is a Welsh word that doesn't have a direct English translation, but it's often described as a deep longing for home.

As I get older, I have become more nostalgic about the past especially around the holidays and wish I could time travel to return to my childhood and be with my family again. I'd give anything to have one more day visiting with them and I wish I would have asked my grandparents about stories of their lives. 

If you still have your parents, grandparents or anyone you are fond of that are still around ask them their stories so you can pass them on.  

When I retire from this job, I want to go around and interview folks and record the stories in a video or recording, so they can pass those down to their family members.  I do genealogy every day and I would just love to see a video snippet of my family that have passed on.  I figure if I could do that for someone else, something of them would live on forever and future family members could enjoy it.  

I love hearing folk's stories about their lives.  I think this started when I was a Candy Striper at Doctor's hospital in Phoenix.  I would volunteer on my summer breaks, and I worked in the progressive unit of the hospital. These were patients who had heart attacks or issues that were serious, but it was a step down from ICU.  Most of the patients were older folks, and I would give patients water and help with little things they needed but my favorite part was listening to them tell me their stories.  

Then a few years back I saw this company called StoryCorps  https://storycorps.org/ and loved listening to all the family stories and thought someday I want to do that too.  

Here is 7 generations of my Family Tree 

I have been working a lot on my Tree trying to get all of the 7 generations of family in my database.  I am short just a few and they have been brick walls for a long while.  I am probably going to have to travel to look for these missing parts of my family.  

I am starting to create books for different family lines.  I am working on the Thomas family starting with Henry "Heck" Thomas born March 31, 1814.  .  Here is a snippet about him from a book my Cousin Ivanoel Gibbons

 

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving this week....  If you get a chance to be with your family, ask them to tell you some stories about their lives.  You won't regret it.