Janice, What a wonderful idea you have of passing down items from yourself and your mother. You should write a note or a letter to send with each gift explaining a little about who owned them and from where the item might have come. Give them all the history you can. You could even type it and store it in your genealogy files on your computer so persons in the future would know what you had, to whom it was given, and all about the item. I never knew my paternal grandmother except to see her and know she was mine. My maternal grandmother was born in 1896 out of wedlock. She was adopted out; and though her real mother and aunt used to come visit her and her own family every summer, the ladies were said to both be aunts. My mother never knew it was her grandmother with whom she was passing the time. I think that is very sad..... not knowing your whole family. I knew both my grandmother's real name and her adopted name. I was able - thanks to the world wide web - to find my great-grandmother's genealogy on line and have had my grandmother and her descendents tied in to that line. I would give anything to have been able to talk with my grandmothers about their lives growing up, what it was like then, and anything else I could learn. I never knew either of my grandfathers, either, except in pictures. That is another thing you could do for your children and grand-children.... make a picture album for each of them. Hugs, Mary -----Original Message----- From: padutch-life-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:padutch-life-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Janice Danielson Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 4:34 PM To: padutch-life@rootsweb.com Subject: [PD-LIFE] Weather I have been reading all the messages about the weather in various parts of the country. I am in IOWA, and believe you me, we got stomped on yesterday and last night!! My hubby went out to blow the snow this morning---took him 2 hours to blow it out, and our drive isn't all that big. Plus the danged stuff was clear up to his knees!! You should see the NE corner of my garage roof---there is a pyramid on that corner that is HUGE!! I just laughed last night when I looked out and saw that!! It was funny. Needless to say there wasn't any school at all today--and they dismissed at 11:30 yesterday. So we have had a BORED 16 year old girl at home with us---driving us around the bend, so to speak!! Sigghhh!! I need to get busy and do more genealogy, but I have also been trying to get things rounded up for Christmas. Most of my family lives out in UT, where I am sure they are getting snow, too. Which means I better get busy and get things mailed out there. I came up with a different idea this year for gifts for my granddaughters. When my Mom died, she left me her big jewelry box full of things. She loved jewelry, and bought nice stuff at the jewelry stores. It is just sitting there in the box, and I don't wear any of it. So I went through it, sorted out a bunch of gold and silver chains, and took them to the jewelry store to be cleaned. I am going to pass them along to the girls now, rather than have all of the things probably tossed out when I am gone. This way they will know it belonged to their great-grandmother, and some from me, too. I hope they will appreciate the things--I thought it was a good idea! Hope they will, too! Hope all of you terrific "listers" have a terrific Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!! And I am trying to stress to my family to do more things for others less fortunate this year---that way we can pass along our Christmas wishes to others. Stay warm everyone!! Janice in NW Iowa ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PADUTCH-LIFE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message