Ancestor Central

It occurred to me shortly into it that this Advent Calendar project would be more than just writing down stories.  I haven’t really had anything that spectacular to talk about but I’ve been finding something to fill the space each day so that I can attain my goal of completing the advent calendar.

I figured out on the first day that it’s not as simple as it seems to “just do it”.  There’s a lot involved if one cares to at least make an attempt to do it with some semblance of quality control.

Day 1.  I wanted to add a photo from my box of treasures.  That would have been simple if my Brother machine hadn’t been inoperable since switching internet providers a couple of months ago.  I spent about two hours and found a firewall issue.  Finally, pictures!

Day 2. Neat!  I’ve got these pretty posts.  How does anyone see them?  Where do I get those buttons that everyone else has?  Widgets?  Mastered!  Subscription and sharing buttons added and Twitter and Google+ accounts revived.  I’m on a roll now!

Day 3.  People are leaving me comments!  I need to learn how to approve their comments and I need to interact with these people.  Got it!

Day 4.  I tend to be disorderly.  Very disorderly.  I’d better get a handle on this now.  Categories to the rescue!  All posts are now filed neatly where they belong.

Day 5. I want to use a photo from the internet.  What are my options?  Creative Commons – that sounds interesting.  I’ll learn more about that.  Perfect!  Now to make a caption.

Why do I get the feeling I’m living inside the children’s book If You Give A Moose A Muffin?

Day 6. Tag Cloud.  I’d better make some tags first!  Time for a quick SEO refresher course!

Day 7.  Disclosure Policy.  I’ve heard that we should have one.  I made one of my own here.

Day 8.  I added a plugin to automatically add copyright lines to my posts.  I noticed that my verb tenses are all over the map.  Must brush up!

Day 9. Hyperlinks.  I cannot tell a lie.  I already knew how to do these but it’s late and I’m out of time.  This is the first time I’ve used them in a post so that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Day 10.  I took a guess that it might be beneficial to tag popular people when mentioning them in blog posts.  A bit of further reading shows that this is, indeed, a good way to get noticed when you’re new to the blogging scene.

Day 11.  My Google Page Rank is 0.  How sad.  I guess it’s to be expected when a site is just two weeks old.  Since I’ve been mainly doing the Advent thing to get on a roll, I’m not convinced that my content is worthy of too many backlinks yet.  I’ll revisit this in the new year when I begin writing some organic content.

Day 12. Today I signed up for StumbleUpon.  I’ve seen it used and had never taken a look at it.  Social bookmarking is now on my to-do list.

Day 13.  I, of all people, should know better than to leave anything not backed up!  A new WordPress version came out today and I had to create a backup before installing it.  I am now using Backup Scheduler and WP-DB Manager plugins to make sure my blog is backed up every three days.

Day 14.  I may have found a solution for those bad grammar moments.  After the Deadline plugin uses artificial intelligence to check spelling, grammar, and style.  Installed!

Day 15.  W3 Total Cache is supposed to dramatically improve the speed and user experience for my blog so I added it.  Here’s to faster page loading!

Day 16.  Time to get my festive on!  I added Christmas Lights plugin to decorate for the holiday season.

Day 17.  I read a tip today to mention your sources.  As genealogists, I hope we do this regularly!

Day 18.  I feel like these posts are getting very boring!  Remember to write with the reader in mind!

Day 19.  I’d like to have a section for book reviews so I reread Chapter 21 of Professional Genealogy: A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors, Lecturers, and Librarians  today and started my first book review.  Hopefully it will go well and be ready for publication soon!

Day 20. I read that it’s good to have at least 5 posts per week.  I’m doing that now but I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep up the pace once I’m writing truly quality posts.  I think I’d rather put quality over quantity.

Day 21.  Even with the spelling and grammar check, I’m finding that some typos slip by.  It’s really important to proofread!

Day 22.  I’ve been using words like yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  Research shows that this tends to date the post and makes people think it’s old.  Avoiding these types of words will help to make the content timeless.

Day 23.  I got rid of the monthly archives.  There is probably no need for this section.  I think it will be better for my readers to look by subject.

Day 24.  I made it!  The final day! I’m not absolutely impressed with my last few blog entries but I am thrilled that I finished my commitment!!!

Merry Christmas!

Our family doesn’t really have a set Christmas Eve tradition.  When I was a teenager my mom let us open some presents on Christmas Eve so that we could sleep in on Christmas morning.  I have little kids now so it’s the other way around!  We have to try to get them to bed at a decent hour so that we can get some sleep to wake up with the crack of dawn!

We enjoyed a nice dinner this afternoon around 3:00pm.  Everything is all cleaned up, kids are playing, and it’s a countdown to bedtime for Mom and Dad.

This is the final entry for the GeneaBloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories.  The project came at just the right time to jump start my blog.  I am happy to have had the opportunity and also relieved that I am done!

For ten or maybe closer to a dozen years, my sweetheart and I have not had any occasions to do anything really special with just the two of us around the holidays.  Even shopping has been a challenge for us in past years.  It’s not easy to sneak away when you have four kids!  Now that we have one of babysitting age, we were able to go out tonight and make a very nice memory.  We had a wonderful dinner, browsed around the mall, and then went to a late movie.  We really enjoyed watching everyone in the mall, knowing that we are all set and can enjoy each other and our family for the holidays without any stress.

Today’s prompt asks about Christmas music and caroling.  When I was a kid, we went with Girl Scouts to the local nursing home.  At the end of our singing, we helped the people back to their rooms.  One year I had a woman who didn’t talk.  That wasn’t as bad as the next year.  That lady led me right to the front door!  I was probably about 10 years old and didn’t know what to do.  She begged me to take her home with me.  She said no one ever came to see her.  Needless to say, that was the last year I went caroling.  My daughter went for her first time last week and she really enjoyed it.  I don’t think they have kids help patients back to their rooms any more.  Good idea!

Every year I always make sure that there are flowers at the gravesite of my grandparents and my mother’s sister Kathy.  For the past couple of years my uncle has been putting them out because I live a lot farther away now.

One year my younger son, then about 6 or 7, asked if we could put flowers for all of our dead people at Christmas.  I told him that we would have to win the lottery to afford so many flowers.  I think Evergreen Cemetery in New Haven, CT would put me broke alone!

Our family believes that you don’t need to go to a church to celebrate the spirit of the holiday season.  We believe that it is something that you should show daily by your actions, your deeds, and your character, at Christmas and all the year through.

Heraclitus pretty well summed it up when he said:

“The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny – it is the light that guides your way.”

At Christmas our thoughts go to helping others even more than usual.  This morning I was in a situation where I was able to help a stranger in need.  I feel so blessed to have found the opportunity to do something within my reach.  Such a small effort on my part made such a big impact for someone else.  My daughter Lillie talked about our new friend Charles a lot today.  I hope Charles and his grandson had a great time making their red velvet cake together.  It feels really good to do nice things.  If you don’t do it already, try it.  You will like it.

P.S. Happy Birthday Lois.

When I was little the party at school was much like what my children experience today, with a few exceptions.  None of my children has ever participated in a grab bag at school, which I think is a bit unfortunate.  (My boys have, however, gotten to do them at Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts so it’s all good.)  Also, the amount of junk food has been reined in a bit!  I can’t complain too much about that.  As a room parent, most teachers ask me to get people to bring in something sweet, something salty, and something healthy.  That seems like a great balance for the kids rather than the complete sugar we consumed before racing home to our parents hyped up on a sugar high!

Earlier this week I was library helper and I noticed something that made me happy.  Rather than skip over the Christmas book, the librarian asked if Santa comes to everyone’s house.  She confirmed that all children did indeed observe Christmas and then proceeded to read a book about a Christmas mouse.  I’m not sure what the alternative would have been but I’m happy to see that celebrations have not all gone by the wayside!