Random 5 for December 16, 2018 – Relatives, cemetery, ancestors, restaurants, ads

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Part of the family table

Holiday cheer – Yesterday my family got together for Christmas dinner. We don’t see each other much but when we do, we have fun. We are more alike than different. All five woman, aged late 50’s to late 80’s, have medium to long hair. Not a short cut here. We like similar stuff. I was surprised when my niece brought my favorite salad dressing (which is not common). Turns out, it’s everyone’s favorite. We caught up and rehashed old stories. I’m glad we do it. One year someone will be missing. I want to stock up on memories.

Cemetery flowers – It’s traditional in our family to remember passed family members on significant days. Three out of the four families had put something on the family grave-site. The tradition lives.

The best present – I spent a lot of time at the beginning of the year researching my ancestors. I was neurotic about it. There was some information out there but I had some holes. This week one of the ancestry companies sent me an email. They found my grandparents’ marriage certificate. That is my best present this year.

Say what? – I was reading restaurant reviews and they kept referring to the “vibe.” It’s not a word I use for restaurants. “Quiet, good food, fast service, reasonable prices, nice staff” perk me up. I’m don’t care about vibe unless I get the “drive by shooting” vibe when I’m sitting there.

Dumb and dumber – Is it me or are commercials getting dumber? I like a fun ad. Put an animal in it and I’m pretty excited. I love the Farmers Insurance commercial with a cat on top of a roof taking a bath while dogs are scratching the car up (as long as it’s not my car!). The one with grandpa’s nose playing a tune is over the top. Yuck!

So how was your week?

72 thoughts on “Random 5 for December 16, 2018 – Relatives, cemetery, ancestors, restaurants, ads”

  1. It’s nice to catch a glimpse of the family gathering, Kate. To me, that’s what it’s all about! We also visit the cemeteries. That’s been a part of my entire life. There was a time as a child I accompanied my grandmother to the cemetery, and for the many years since, we make a point of doing the same. It’s an important tradition and my daughter is following the same path. I missed wishing you a Merry Christmas, but hope it indeed was healthy and happy.

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  2. Thank you…I don’t like that one with the grandfather. It seems older people/parents are the butt of many of these commericals. Thank God for a DVR.
    I never understood the word vibe as it relates to a restaurant. A club yes, but just give me good food and service and I’m a happy camper.

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  3. When I was writing about our visit with a blogger last week, I was also remembering our lightning visit with you last year. That was so much fun. Y’all made us feel like friends of long standing. How I wish we were going to be traveling as much now as we used to! One of our anchors in the North, David, now lives with us.

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  4. Very nice that your family all gathered together for Christmas dinner. This is our first year we haven’t gathered together for family Christmas which was always on the third Sunday of the month. With CH’s Mom passing away in February it doesn’t leave us with the same motivation. We are pretty far from MO and everybody is doing something different. Very wonderful news about your grandparents’ marriage certificate! TV commercials… don’t see them much. We record most all that we watch and you know the benefit of that!

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  5. What is the salad dressing?
    I’m always looking for a better salad dressing.

    On the Vibe front – I think most franchises spend more time, money, and consideration on the atmosphere (Vibe) than the food. If they poured that money into food they would be more enjoyable.

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  7. Your family all like the same dressing? I’m not surprised. My sister and I have a rule: We can’t both order the same thing in a restaurant. And yet, time after time our fingers stop at the same item. Sometimes one of us gives in and chooses her second choice. Sometimes one of us hurries to call dibs. And sometimes we give up and order the same thing.

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  9. Your family get togethers always sound so nice to me – you had one this Summer too as I recall. I don’t have TV so I can’t critique the TV commercials, but I listen to the radio for the news and like the Priority Health Insurance ads. Insurance ads are probably difficult to make interesting or fun, but the two I’ve heard are really funny. One is a husband and wife with the kids upstairs sleeping and they each are eating ice cream with a long spoon right out of the carton and the other a guy tells his date how nice she is … but calls her by the wrong name – she asks for the check. 🙂

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      • That is nice everyone getting together and I think I told you when you had that gathering that I envied it because I never had a large family and have no family now. I had a boss once awhile ago – he had four kids and none of the lived in Michigan – they were scattered across the U.S. Every Summer he had a friend, a circuit court judge, and he rented his cottage for two weeks and he flew the kids home for however many days they could visit for. At Christmas he flew them home … he would pay not only for the flight, but a limo to take them from their house to the airport and pick them up and take them home – they always would go, twice a year and were a very close.

        Perhaps it is because I never had kids, nor siblings, so I’ve not really been exposed to children, but I just don’t like commercials with kids in them and you can’t understand what they are saying … these seem to be the commercials I hear the most unfortunately! I sound like a Grinch saying that.

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  11. I agree, that grandpa with the nose whistle is over the top. I roll my eyes at that one. Have you seen the one in the elevator with the Eagles fan wearing a lighted, singing sweater and the Cowboys fan pressing all the elevator buttons? That one made me laugh. I know you’re near Philly. 😉

    So nice to see you have a wonderful family visit. God Bless.

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  14. My brother, sister and I get so caught up in our own lives and personal schedules that it is so nice when we do get together. Our own families are so scattered that it is now just the three of us and our spouse that get together. All we do is laugh and smile so much our faces hurt!!

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  16. I followed your genealogy posts earlier in the year with great interest because I’ve long wanted to start that. Getting a document like the one you describe — especially out of the blue like that — must have really made your day. Did someone else, perhaps a distant relation, notice that your work intersected theirs and followed up with you? The only “vibe” I want in a restaurant is a quiet one. – Marty

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  18. I can’t believe the stupid commercials out there and one of these days I know my husband is going to throw something at the TV and break it. The Geiko and Progressive ones are way too much and I say if they had less commercials their rates would be lower. Congrats about the marriage certificate. Looks like a nice family gathering!

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  20. We do the same with flowers, Kate. Most of my mother’s side of the family is buried in a small cemetery in West Virginia. When I worked selling plots, markers at a memorial park, I always enjoyed watching families bring flowers to their loved ones.

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  21. I think it’s so nice you have an annual family gathering. And the cemetery speaks to me as well. To go visit, leave a stone, that I know is a Hebrew custom but I do it anyway…to say you were there.

    All sounds right and gracious in Pennsylvania.

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  22. Still glad we haven’t got a TV Kate. We found programmes got in the way of the adverts, we lost the gist of whatever we were trying to watch, and the ads were just so YUK, we switched off.
    I miss the family Christmases though and we had some terrific ones over the years.
    It seems odd not having to plan a trip down South or to visit MOH (I still feel bad about how our friendship fared), though we have had cards from both, and Sis has given me her new address having moved in September.
    We’ll be lighting a candle for Mum and the two Dads on Christmas Day and sitting down to a meal with all the trimmings, Maggie too. The tree’s up and we’re looking good!

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  25. If I had the patience I would record any and every TV program I want to watch. That way, I could just fast (really fast) forward through the commercials and enjoy my show. Unfortunately I don’t have the time or patience to set it up. I hate commercials. They don’t encourage me to buy anything. They either make me sad (all those people with all those ailments) or annoyed (yes watching Grandpa’s nose play a tune is absurd). They are louder then the program I am watching. All in all, take me back to many years ago and the Coke Christmas commercials …well, they were meaningful and said it best! Merry Christmas, Peace and Joy.
    P.S. What is your favorite salad dressing?

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    • I wish I could create an app that would automatically fast forward through all commercials! There aren’t many that are really great although Hobby Lobby has some seasonal ones. The dressing is hot bacon dressing. Yum! Most people put it on potato salad but it’s so good on a tossed salad too.

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    • A long time ago I went into NYC with some friends. We ate in the Italian district. When we went into the restaurant one of the guys asked for a table in the “no shooting” section. The staff didn’t think it was funny (we were hysterical). There had been a mob hit recently but not in their restaurant.

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