Dear Genea-Santa

Dear Genea-Santa,

I've been a good girl this year. I've cited my sources. I've (mostly) used my research logs. I've helped others with volunteer work. I've even cleaned my genea-cave. With that in mind, this is what I'd like to see under the tree this year.

1. Prepaid credit cards. Visiting where my ancestors came from takes money, as does expanding my genealogy education and ordering vital records.
2. Subscriptions. Just sign me up for whatever genealogy and newspaper database sites and genealogy magazines  you can think of.
3. Lifetime memberships. Offhand, I'm thinking the National Genealogical Society; the state genealogical societies for Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana; and regional societies like Hackers Creek Pioneer Descendants, the New England Genealogical and Historical Society and the Huxford Genealogical Society. You can choose one or two, but if you really want to make my day, get them all.
4. Office supplies. You know what I mean-paper, ink, notepads, folders, archival quality sleeves, etc. If you want to throw in some Zebra pens, that would be great too. They're not quite as fat as other pens so they're easier on my hands when taking notes or transcribing. If you're not sure what to get, a gift card to an office supply store will work too. We have a Staples in town.
5. A digital flash recorder. I love it when family members tell stories, but my hands get cramped from frantic note-taking after a while.
6. More bookcases. I'm a book fiend and already have five bookcases, but it's not enough. With all the genealogy books I just ordered, I'll need more space.
7. Tuition for the Boston University Certificate in Genealogy Studies program or the NGS Home Study Program. Or, if you want a really spectacular gift, do both.
8. The answer to at least one brick wall. I'm not picky; I'll take help with any of them. You know the names of all the children in the world. Surely you know who their parents are and whether they were naughty or nice. If you can't give me the answer, I'll even take just a clue, such as the town where you dropped down the chimney in a particular year. That's not asking much, is it?

Sincerely,
Your favorite family historian

Treasured Christmas Memories

It's funny how the holidays make you nostalgic. As Christmas approaches, I've realized that some of my most treasured memories revolve around the holiday.

When I was about ten, my parents bought me a stereo for Christmas. After all the presents had been unwrapped, we put on music and danced around. My dad wasn't much for dancing, but he took the opportunity to teach me how to dance. It's a memory I'll cherish forever, waltzing around amidst the presents with my dad.

Growing up, we often spent Christmas with my paternal grandparents. Once we got older, we'd have Christmas at our house and they would sometimes come. However, it had been several years since I'd got to spend it with my grandparents.

A couple years ago, my mom decided to invite all the grandparents. Her dad accepted, but my dad's parents said they couldn't come because their car wasn't in good enough shape to make the trip. I was so disappointed and even offered to drive down. Little did I know that my grandfather had a trick up his sleeve.

My mom and I were in the kitchen on Christmas Eve prepping stuff for the next day when a truck pulled in the yard. She went out to see who it was and I heard her yell so I ran to the door, still holding a bag of flour because I was making cookies. When I saw it was my grandparents, I threw the bag of flour at my husband, not even waiting to see if he caught it, and rushed outside, not even stopping to put on shoes or a jacket.

Come to find out, my grandfather had decided to surprise us so he went out and bought a new truck for the trip. My dad was the only one who knew they were coming. Spending Christmas with my grandparents is something I'll cherish forever, especially since I lost both of my grandfathers not long afterwards.

What Christmas memories do you treasure?

A Homemade Christmas: Heritage Crafts

Several years ago, our Christmas budget was extremely tight. There was no way I could afford to buy presents for the entire family. I debated about only doing gifts for the children, but it took the fun out of the holiday. There's something about seeing someone's face when they open a gift. Even adults can't hide the excitement.

So I compromised. While I bought for the kids, I went homemade for the adults. My dad is diabetic but loves white chocolate macadamia cookies so I experimented with recipes until I found a version that was tasty, but wouldn't run his sugar up. The chocoholics in the family got homemade fudge. Some people got plants that I had grown myself.

For genealogists and family historians, a homemade Christmas is a perfect opportunity. Heritage crafts can help you educate the family on the ancestors and provide a unique one of a kind gift.

Caroline Pointer of Family Stories has came up with several ideas for heritage gifts including coasters, ornaments and a story jar.

Julie Cahill Tarr of GenBlogJulie has made digital scrapbooks for her family.

Heather Rojo of Nutfield Genealogy brought her family photos to life in the form of Christmas cards and calendars. She also came up with a neat idea of heritage china plates that can be displayed year-round.

Not very crafty? Don't worry. Marian Pierre-Louis of Marian's Roots and Rambles has came up with an idea for you: a personalized deck of cards. Lorine McGinnis Schulze has another simple idea, a quick and easy photo album.

While these gifts were all made using a FlipPal Mobile Scanner, it's not required to do them. A regular scanner will work too.

Need more ideas?

Why not a family cookbook? Get relatives to send you their family's favorite recipes. Intersperse pictures of ancestors and notes about the family with the recipes. You can print it yourself and put in a binder, or self-publish.

While digital scrapbooking is great, not everyone is computer-literate. Put together a family tree scrapbook Kits are available for purchase or your can make your own from scratch.

Put together a family history video. Include interviews with older relatives, photos and video of ancestral homes.

Do a photo collage. Print out copies of family pictures and arrange them on a piece of poster board. Add a frame and you have a quick and easy heritage gift.

If you're handy with a needle, have family photos printed on fabric and put together a quilt that can be displayed on the wall.

Get the Kids Involved

Kids love crafts. This year, why not take the opportunity to teach them about their heritage while they make gifts for the rest of the family?

EnchantedLearning has several family tree crafts for kids. They can build a family tree from construction paper or fill in one of the printable books for a unique gift that will be treasured for years.

Family Traditions

Now that Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is approaching, my family has started with some of our holiday traditions. Every year we start decorating the house for the holidays on the day after Thanksgiving.

Yesterday, my daughter was impatient, wanting to get started on decorating, but I insisted we wait on my husband. After all, it's not a family tradition unless the whole family is there to do it.

Once he got home from work, they headed up to the attic, which is where we thought we had stored all the Christmas stuff after our move this summer. Thankfully, we were right. It wouldn't have been fun searching the garage and shed to find those bins, especially since I bought a bunch on clearance one year to hold other stuff as well.

While I prefer a real tree and we've had one before, we usually just put up an artificial tree because it's easier. So the munchkin and I assembled the tree and started fluffing it out. Then we turned it over to my husband for the lights. He's taller than I am and less klutzy so it's better for him to do them.

Since we have dogs that are fascinated by anything shiny, we had to put the tree out of their reach so we put it on a table in the corner. We hadn't yet settled on a color scheme. Most year I do try to color coordinate my tree. Last year, for instance, was blue and silver. This year, however, my daughter wanted to use all of the ornaments. That's what we did.

While it doesn't show up well in this picture, there are about eight different packs of ornaments on the tree, plus various miscellaneous single ones.

My daughter handled the lower half of the tree while I did the upper half. As we came across certain ornaments, it brought back memories. One ball was from the munchkin's first Christmas, others she had made for us and a few had been given to me over the years by loved ones.

After the tree was all decked in ornaments, we gave the tree back to my husband to affix the star. Due to the tree being on a table, the top of it was brushing the ceiling and there wasn't room for the star on top. After a little thought, he managed to rig a way for the star to stay on the tree.

My daughter with one of the puppies in front of the tree. As you can see, we had to have the chair to decorate because the tree was up high. The big white ball with red lettering just below the star on the right side of the picture is from her first Christmas. The bright green ornament beside her head is her handprint in a flexible plaster. On the bottom right side of the tree is a mitten ornament she made. It's hard to see, but her picture is in the middle of it.

The final touch was the musical animals beneath the tree. When my daughter was a baby, I bought a singing Grinch to help decorate the house. The next Christmas, she picked out a singing reindeer. Since then, we've added a new singing Christmas item every year, including Santa and a caroling frog. We have four to date and will be going to pick out the one for this year soon.

We have other family traditions at the holidays, but this is the first of them. What family traditions do you have?

Valentine's Day Traditions

Growing up, I didn't see much of my dad. More often than not, he was on the road, driving truck to support our family. Since he couldn't be with us much, he tried to make holidays special. Every year for Valentine's Day, he would buy each of us girls a little box of chocolates.

It didn't matter that I don't really like chocolate. I just gave them to my sisters and kept the little heart-shaped box. One year my dad must have caught on to me not liking chocolate because he brought home a heart-emblazoned coffee cup filled with peppermints (which I love) and topped with a small bear. The peppermints are long gone, but I still have the coffee cup and bear. Even once these items are gone, I will still remember that my dad took the time to make sure all of his girls knew that they were loved by at least one man in their lives.

As we got older and found boyfriends who bought us stuff for Valentine's Day, my dad continued to buy us our box of chocolates every year. Even now, with all three of us girls married, he still makes sure to get us our box of chocolates if he knows we'll be over visiting around that time.

I've carried this tradition to my own family. Every year for Valentine's Day, my husband buys our daughter a little box of chocolates.