Christmas dinner (it's never too early for the food!)

I thoroughly disapprove of the way Christmas starts in September these days.  Though one thing can never come too soon - some delicious Christmas grub.  You can put a mini sausage wrapped in bacon or a bit of chestnut stuffing in front of me any day of the year and expect to get a smile. 

So Saturday, we celebrated with an early Christmas dinner.  Roast lamb, potatoes, parsnips, stuffing, sausages, and more food which I can't remember but I know that I ate.  What's more I shared it with four wonderful friends.  They spoiled me with presents, hugs and lots of Christmas excitement.

After dinner, we bunched up of the sofa to watch Lincolnshire's answer to Adonis (supposedly), Guy Martin, build a boat. And make a kettle.  And get naked in a Victorian power shower.  He's real popular with the ladies of the house (and probably the dudes too, they're just not admitting it).  The DVD was a Christmas present - but the excitement had boiled over and the presents all got opened over a week early!  Eh, it happens.

So now only one week and one day to go.  Dad is here, Stephen comes a week today. (It's an all grown ups Christmas this time - we've left the mini people mayhem to Lucy and Stuart this year)  The Christmas Christmas dinner grub has all been ordered, and more for the day after, and the day after...Mmmmmmmm   Stephen's promised to bring Harrod's cheese counter home in a shopping bag Christmas Eve, and anything else that takes his fancy. 

Christmas = FOOD!

Marriage news

No, not me.  As if.

I never have time to do my own family history research, but I needed to test out a new website which has a huge collection of American historical newspapers.  So why not use my own family to test the scope of what they have.  I've trawled through several sites before and pulled dozens and dozens of articles about my Ducie ancestors from Montana.  Great-grandma was an heiress - the fanciest girl in town - and Daddy was a v. wealthy mine owner.  There are loads of press clipping and I thought I had them all, but was delighted to find this:

Even though they had tons of cash, the wedding was a pretty modest affair as the mother of the bride (my great-great grandmother Ellen who favoured a loopy hair style that made her look like a Christmas ornament ready to be hung from a nail or a tree branch) was quite unwell and in fact passed away the following winter.

This detail was interesting - the article says the bride wore green, while her younger sister the bridesmaid wore the white dress.  Which makes sense really - white doesn't suit anybody.  So make your sister look all washed out in photographs while you truly look the bell of the ball in a complexion enhancing jewel tone. Might try that myself some day. 

New job (sort of)

New adverntures are well and truly underway.  I've begun working as an editor for Your Family History magazine.  Currently, I'm officially titled the Research Editor for the magazine, but that is just temporary as I train for something more involved.  My output so far includes two editions of our six-page news section and the first edition of a regular column drawing on my background in US genealogy research entitled Letters from America.  I'm also prepping articles for issues up through April 2013, starting to commission articles, and developping ideas for stories and new features. 

This isn't quite what I saw myself doing when I skidded into Who Do You Think You Are Live? three years ago, but I'm quite happy with where things are going.  Writing the news every month is a great to stay on top of it and I'll know about every new genealogy record set that goes online, every major website and online family tree network and type of software for genealogy that there is, and I'll get to go through and pick out the best readers stories and learn new things every day. I'll be gaining some very useful skills as an editor, which can't do me any harm.  And I'm told if I call up places and tell them I'm press I can gain free or behind the scenes access to all sorts of things.  Now I really like the sound of that.  I love to go exploring!