We had a fairly large family (4 kids) and often played games.  It was mostly the usual board game fare of the 1980’s : Monopoly, Pictionary, UNO, Clue, etc.

The game that my father loved to play was RISK.  And how I loathed that game.  Somehow, he would sweet talk us into starting a game with him – and if you’ve ever played a full game of RISK before, you know that it can go on, and on, and on, and on.

I have memories of it being way past midnight, me getting my rear end kicked, but my dad not wanting me to quit.  He wanted victory to come by really winning the game – not because I had given up.

I learned to steer clear of RISK. 🙂

And so what did I go and do?  I went and married someone that loves RISK!!  Thankfully, with the advent of the computer, he can sit and play all by himself. 🙂

I would love for him to sit down with my dad and play an all-nighter RISK game.  I would happily get the snacks and drinks and stay out of the line of fire!

Want to join in on the Saturday Night Genealogy Fun?  Head on over to Genea-Musings to see the full details of tonight’s fun!

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I spent the last three years living in North Pole, Alaska – just down the road from the Santa Claus House (reindeer and all).  There was snow on the ground for half the year.  The town was decorated with candy canes and the streets were named things like “St. Nicholas Drive”.  I’m thinking that it’s not going to feel very “Christmasy” here in Savannah this year – at least in comparison.

I’m not complaining though.  It’s November and still warm enough for flip-flops during the day.

I have had to remind myself that even though it doesn’t quite feel like Christmas is coming, it will be here before I know it.

So, what’s the first thing that I did?  Christmas cards?  Nope, I still haven’t started those.  Shopping?  Haven’t started that either.  Decorations?  Still boxed up in the garage.

No, what I did was make my Christmas list – genealogy style.  Maybe my husband will read this and then he won’t have any excuses for having absolutely no idea what to get me.  It’s all right here babe!

I promise that I’ve been good this year!

  • A slide scanner.  I took all of my mom’s slides when I was home this past summer and now they are languishing in my closet instead of hers.  I need to do something with them.  I promised her that I would get a scanner and turn them into images that we could actually see.  I’m really interested in seeing what kind of incriminating photos are amongst them.  I know for a fact that one of them is of us kids inside of a septic tank (not yet used, thankfully!).  What other crazy pics could be in there??
  • A Flip Pal.  I saw these at the Atlanta Family History Expo and I’m convinced that I just have to have one.  Can’t you think of all of the instances where a small portable scanner would have been so nice to have??
  • Evidence Explained! By Elizabeth Shown Mills.  I really need to read this.
  • A GPS for my camera (a Nikon D-5000) so that I  can geo-tag my pics (think gravestones!)
  • A gift certificate to Blurb.com so that I can make some family history books.
  • A trip to Salt Lake City for a week of research (I’m dreaming!)
  • John Edwards’ Civil War Pension file.  Wow, these records have gone up in price since I ordered one last.  I think they were $37 when I ordered most of them.  Now they are $75.  Yikes!  It kind of irks me too, because I’ve ordered his a few times over the years (when it was cheaper) and I always got the run-around since he died so late(1931).  They said that they didn’t have his records, but they do.  Now I need to order them yet again.  I think I need to speak with a human being though instead of the automated email request.
  • Chocolate and Starbucks – because I swear it makes me think better and I’m sure that it will help me break through some of those brick walls.
  • A framed family tree for our wall.
  • A subscription to Footnote.com
  • A subscription to Genline.com for my Swedish research
  • The Hidden Half of the Family: A Sourcebook for Women’s Genealogy
  • A ticket to the NGS Conference in Charleston next May. They go on sale in December!  I’ll be buying this one for myself…
  • A DNA test from Family Tree DNA.

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This is one of those Thanksgivings that will go down in family history.

Just imagine what would be one of the worst things to happen on this holiday (well not WORST – no one was hurt thankfully).

My wonderful husband, who is the cook in the family, was getting a jump start by cooking a pie and the turkey the night before.  The pie turned out wonderful.  Then he put the turkey in.  It cooked for about an hour, when the oven died.

So, we had a half-cooked turkey and no oven.  Thankfully, we are in post housing with many neighbors.  He took it across the street to finish it off.

I waited while the maintenance man came – and told me that he couldn’t fix it until Friday.

So, we are learning that the microwave can be used for much more than reheating leftovers.  Potatoes, stuffing, corn, pretty much all of our side dishes are being made in the microwave.  I’m just thankful that we aren’t having any guests!

It has been years and years since I had a huge Thanksgiving dinner with family.  That’s life in the military. We’re always halfway across the country from everyone we know.

When I was a kid, we always had all of my dad’s brothers and sister (and their families) over for the day.  My Aunt Colleen would make tons of pies.  We would eat until we were bursting at the seams.  Football would be blaring and us kids would hang out – one of the few times we would be all together each year.  We would all be in a turkey coma by the end of the day.

One of my favorite Thanksgivings was when we got a ton of snow and went innertubing down the hill beyond our house.  We normally don’t get so much snow that early in Western Washington (although I think that they did this year!).

I am looking forward to the day when we settle down and can gather together with family again.

I hope that you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving with your families!!

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