Easter Sunday

Easter dinner this year was hosted by Mark and Janelle.  Unfortunately, Mark had to leave for work right after dinner.  I guess I have to get used to this.  He will always have to work some holidays.

It started with church in the morning and then Kris, Toby, and Marley's annual Easter family picture.  It's kind of a joke because this seems to be the only time I remember to take a picture of them all together.

The grandpas (Papa and Baba) played football with Mason before dinner.

The table looked so pretty.

There were several family traditions and tributes to family members....

The salt dishes from my mother-in-law Priscilla.  She used to always put jelly beans in them for Easter dinner.

Janelle's china that was Stacia's (Janelle's mother) mother's china. 

China that was given to me and Paul as a wedding gift from my grandmother's friend, Myrtle Panageotopolous.  I gave it to Janelle because it matched her china almost perfectly.  Isn't that amazing?  (The candy was put on the dishes by Mason, so sweet).

We all decided that for every holiday we have to make sure to have buns, in honor of my father.  The story is that one holiday, with the table filled with all kinds of food, he said, "no buns?"  After that I made sure to have buns for every holiday that he was there, ha ha!

After dinner, we went for a walk and the kids rode bikes.

Dot had a good time on our walk.  She is in amazingly good shape for 88!

I got some cute pictures of Marley and Mason outside.

Isn't Marley's new haircut cute?  She has been wanting to do this for weeks.  We tried to talk her out of it but she was determined.  She had it cut on the Saturday before Easter.  I was a little nervous to see it because I was sure I wasn't going to like it, but I actually love it.  I think it looks really cute on her.  More importantly, she really likes it!

Kris made these cute little owls to put in Mason's Easter basket.  I wanted to get a nice picture of him holding them, but after several tries, this is the best one I got!

This is, I think, a cute picture of Janelle's dad Joe, Mason, and Janelle.

This is probably my favorite picture of the day.  Mason and Janelle.

It was a wonderful day.  I'm especially thankful for what Easter means to all of us, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  "I am the ressurection and the life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."  John 11:25-26 (NIV)

Happy Easter!

Throwback (Monday) - Linda and Ralph

Linda and Ralph Christmas Day 1991

Today we met some friends at Krazy Jake's for lunch to visit with Linda and Ralph who are back home from South Carolina for a week or two. 

While looking at pictures later, I saw this picture of Linda and Ralph at my house on Christmas Day 1991.  The first thought that went through my head was, "I wonder if Linda can still sit like that in a hard wooden chair."  I'm sure I couldn't.

Wow, time marches on while you're not even paying attention.

My Grandparents' Wedding

I have been obsessed lately with my grandparents' wedding.  It all started with this picture. 

I was looking through my aunt Dot's slides a couple of weeks ago and came across a group of pictures of a wedding anniversary party that we had for my grandparents.  I called my aunt Ettie to find out what year anniversary it was.  One thing that I don't like about slides is that many of them don't have dates.  Ettie thought it was their 35th, and after some calculations we decided that it was. 

That lead to a long discussion about their wedding.  We have no pictures, no certificates, nothing.  The story, as I remember it, was that my grandmother, who was the youngest of eight and 20 years old at the time of her mother's death, left the farm in Chateaugay, NY to live with her sister Marion and her husband Dewey Barrows in Windsor, VT.  My grandfather was working as a lineman for the Western Union in White River Junction, VT.  They met at a dance and were married in Marion and Dewey's home.  That was it.  That was all I knew and basically that was all my aunts knew. 

So.....I set out on a mission to find out more!

First I went to the Geneology Room at the Springfield Museums on Friday, March 1st.  Using the computers there I found out on FamilySearch.org that they were married on October 6, 1923 in Hanover, NH.  New Hampshire!  Where did that come from?  I thought they were married in Marion and Dewey's home in Windsor, VT. 

On Monday, March 4th Paul and I took a trip to New Hampshire and Vermont to try and find some answers.  I love doing this and, luckily, Paul does too - maybe not as much as me, but at least he goes along with it.  After a lot of back and forth from the Hanover NH Town Hall, the Windsor VT Town Hall, the White River Junction VT Town Hall and the Lebanon NH library (luckily they are all relatively close) this is what we found.  From the 1924 Town of Lebanon New Hampshire Annual Report, we found out that Donald Wait, 23, lived in White River Junction, VT and Lucy Bessette lived in W. Lebanon, NY and they were married in Hanover, NH by a Rev. John W. Sliney. 

We also found out from a Lebanon City Directory of 1919 that Marion and Dewey lived in Lebanon, NH. 

So....now armed with quite a bit more information I went back to the Geneology Room in Springfield on Tuesday, March 5th.  One of the employees there found on-line the Registration Card for Rev. John W. Sliney who was a pastor of St. Denis Catholic Church in Hanover, NH.  I called the church later that day and they said they would check to see if there was a record of my grandparents' wedding at that church. 

On Monday, March 11th we went back to Lebanon, NH to go to the Town Hall.  There we got a Certified Copy of  Donald and Lucy Wait's Marriage Certificate.  We also found St. Denis Catholic church in Hanover, NH, right near Dartmouth College. 

Tuesday morning the receptionist from St. Denis Church called to say that they found the record of their marriage and that she is sending it to me. She said the only "hiccup", as she called it, was that it was not signed by the priest.  She has no idea why.  I asked if the fact that my grandmother was Catholic and my grandfather was Protestant would have anything to do with it and could they still have been married in the church.  I told her how I had always heard they got married in my grandmother's sister's home.  She said that it was not customary for a priest to perform a wedding in a home, and they must have been married in a church.  The fact that the Certified Copy of the Marriage Certificate said that Rev John Sliney performed the marriage must mean that they got married in St. Denis Church. 

So now I have more questions.  Why Hanover and not Lebanon where Marion, Dewey and my grandmother lived?  They filed for a marriage license on October 1, 1923 and were married on October 6, 1923.  Not much time to plan a wedding.  I guess I'll never know the whole story; but need to be grateful for what I know. 

So, if you're still reading this and haven't left thinking "too much unimportant information", now I am on a quest to find out, by going back to the Lebanon Library and looking at another Town Report, information about Marion and Dewey's wedding and what church they were married in.  Who knows, I may discover some more information about my grandparents' lives in the early 1920's. 

Genealogy.  You either love it or hate it.  It's a lot of work, and can be frustrating at times, but I can't tell you how excited I get when I find out bits of information.  I wish I had felt this way when my grandparents were alive.  It would have made things so much easier!