Happy day after Thanksgiving!

I hope you had a lovely day yesterday, whether your day was low-key or filled with festivities. We took it easy in the morning, where we could be found sitting side by side on the loveseat investigating a two-week free trial of Ancestry(dot)com. I’d been on it a few years back but stopped using it because I didn’t want to pay the hefty monthly fee. My plan is to get all that I can from it, print out my family tree and then stop my membership. I did that five years ago, but even so, when I registered as a new customer yesterday, all of my initial research was still there. That’s good to know!

So far, I’ve gone back to the 1700s on my dad’s (Hill) side of the family and on my mom’s. The only roadblock as been with my paternal grandmother’s ancestry. I can only go back as far as her father, and all it says is “Born in Germany.” The other three grandparents are from English, Scots and Irish stock. One of my ancestors was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, which gave me a little thrill.

Don actually got as far back as the 1600s, when his ancestors traveled from England to settle in Maryland. It’s fascinating, that’s for sure!

I had a lovely, quiet birthday. Don was in the city until mid-afternoon. He brought home a special dinner for us from a local restaurant and a birthday pie complete with candles. I told him I didn’t want anything this year, as we just had a spectacular trip full of lovely surprises and gifts. But he came through anyway, because he’s such a sweetheart, with a book of naughty French phrases and a beautiful reprint of a vintage map of Paris. It’s so gorgeous! We’re going to get it framed.

Thank you so much for the lovely messages on my birthday. I read each and every one of them.

Yesterday, we went to Rick and Doug’s for Thanksgiving dinner. Two of Rick’s longtime friends were there and we had a lovely dinner.

Much to my surprise, I was serenaded with Happy Birthday for a second time, also with a birthday pie:

Doug took this photo.

Rick made the most incredible apple pie! Scrumptious!

All in all, the past two days have been pretty wonderful. We’ve been in the midst of a deep freeze, though, and it was so cold this morning that it took forever to warm up the house. It will be warmer tomorrow, but in the meantime, yours truly is staying inside.

Happy Friday.