A Minnesota Christmas 2016

Christmas 2016!

We enjoyed half of our 14 grandchildren this Christmas. (The other 7 live in Oregon; we had to "facetime" with them instead of having them here in person.)

 

Adam and his family.

 

John and family.

 

 The tree with just the "candle" lights on.

 

 All the lights.

 

 Our cute little Snow village.

 Of course, food a big part of being together!  For Christmas Eve we have Wally's Norwegian milk rice.

 

 Gift opening Christmas Eve brings lots of excitement.  New football jerseys of #11 were a hit.

 

 Following gift opening we settled back to eating.  Fruit, nuts and sweets rounded out the evening.

 

 Christmas day turkey dinner.



 Time together means relaxing.  A Christmas puzzle is always fun.

 And then there are so silly games that Grandpa played when he was a boy.  Everyone got to try to get the toothpick in their mouth and get back on to the seat of the church without falling.  Some did, some didn't!

 Trying to pull the other person up; in this case, neither won!

 This little one is quite flexible since she does gymnastics!

 Games.

99 YEARS OLD!

 My sweet mom is turning 99!  Isn't she just the cutest?  She is amazing!

 

 We had two celebrations for her, the first was on the actual day of her 99th birthday and it was a reception in the Retirement community where she lives.  The second was at my brother John's farm with many family present.

 Her is my mom and her younger sister (97!) and my oldest brother.

 

 My mom and me.

 

That evening we enjoyed a dinner together where my mom lives.  Here is my oldest brother, my mom, myself and my sister.  (The youngest brother was not there.)

The second party took place at my brother John's farm in New Jersey.  He heated the barn and we had a fun time there!



His draft horses were hitched up to the wagon and off we went all bundled up for a great ride!

My mom is there with her hood up next to my sister with the red hood. 

 

Opening up a few gifts.

Here is my 97 year old Aunt and my 99 year old mom.

 

My mom with four of her five children.

Thanksgiving 2016 in Pennsylvania

Living far from my family means that I often do not spend holidays with them. It is quite special when I have the opportunity and this year, 2016, was one of those special occasions.  We enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving dinner together at my sister's home in Pennsylvania.  Here are the four of us posing for a picture.  (Our one brother died in 2004 and it is always hard to see only 4 of us pictured when there should be 5. )

 

Here I am with my mom.  (This was a week before her 99th birthday!!)

 

 Here I am with my sweet Aunt (my mom's sister).  Aunt Bea is 97 years old and suffers from some cognitive issues.  She seemed to have a happy Thanksgiving and it was nice to see her happy.

 

 My mom and four of her five children.

 

 We had to set two tables to hold our family. And this was certainly not everyone in fact!

 

This is my youngest brother and his family. 

Visiting Odenbach

 I have been quite remiss keeping up my blog.  So today I think I will try to add a few more pictures so that my dear relatives in Germany, at least, can see a few pictures.  

 Our trip to Germany (and Sweden & Norway) was a highlight, as you can imagine.  One special day was meeting my mother's 3rd cousin and her family.  They live in Odenbach, the same villageiin which my great great grandfather Johann Möllendick was born.  We enjoyed a lovely (delicious!) meal in their home and had little tour of the village.   It was a special day!

The two "Walters"

Visiting my ancestor's village in Germany!

I am sorry it has been so quiet over here on my blog!  Here is the reason - we have been traveling in Europe; the trip of a lifetime.  For five lovely weeks we enjoyed the countries of Germany, Sweden, Norway and Iceland.  The biggest motivation for this trip was to meet newly discovered relatives in Germany; certainly a highlight for me as I have been researching my genealogy for about 20 years.  We are so thankful for the warm welcome this group of folks gave us as they took upon themselves to share themselves with us for 4 days, thinking of what may be of interest to us.  It was fabulous and I am still just basking in the glow of the experience.  Words cannot adequately express what those days meant to me.  Thank you, thank you!

 

So here is the big reason for the trip - the gentleman in the red jacket next to me and I are related to each other.  He would be my my "second cousin, twice removed" which may sound like no big deal to you but to ME it was a very big deal.  Very.  My great great grandfather Adam Herlich left his village of Sehlen, Hessen, Germany in 1857 as a young 16 year old man and immigrated into New York City.  Adam's youngest sibling, a sister named Helene, was born a few years after he left and we believe that they never met.   When I began researching I had no idea if Helene grew up to adulthood and if she did and married, what her surname would be after marriage.  Last year, 2015, with the help of a good contact in Germany (now a good friend), Helene's marriage was learned and I then located her grandson still living in the same small village of my ancestor's birth.  To meet him in person felt like coming full circle for the siblings Adam and Helene.  It was wonderful.

 

We ate together. Often.

 





 We walked the village.

 

 And photographed the homes.

 

 We toured the city of Marburg.

 

 And posed for more pictures.

 

 We attended my ancestor's church in Grusen.

 

 And walked the cemetery.

 

 

We ate brats!

 

 And wiener schnitzel.

 

 It was hard to say good-bye...

 

And to this gal - my heartfelt appreciation and thanks!!

(more posts of the trip coming; next up, the village of Odenbach and more wonderful relatives.)