Genealogical Treasure Trove

A relative of mine recently died in Florida. While rummaging through her things, her husband found a letter written by my late father when he was a Master Sergeant in the US Army.
My dad was born in Germany and managed to get out during the early stages of World War II. His parents applied for visas too, but never got out.
In this letter, dad talks about searching for his parents' whereabouts by hitchiking to a concentration camp where they once had been.
Ultimately, he would find out his father was gassed at Auschwitz, but his mother survived, moved to Florida and lived to the ripe old age of 99.
Anyway, in this letter, dad mentions three other surnames apparently related to the Ries family through marriage.
What valuable information this was! Because of it, I was able to trace genealogy on my dad's side back to 1798. What's sad is the great number of relatives who died at the hands of the Nazis at Sobibor and Auschwitz concentration camps. There are 12 of them in this group, plus my grandfather and other members of his immediate family.
Todat, we have a small family, but this gives me a glimpse of how large we once were. I was also able to find photos of gravestones belonging to Henriette Ries Norden (9/6/1847-8/12/1918) and Flora Ries van Hasselt (2/1/1848-6/9/1916). Flora was particular prolific. She gave birth to six kids in eight years. I don't envy her and her husband Elias.
Prior to my dad's letter, I knew little about our family pre-WWII. Now, I learn more each time I do research.

Rachel, The Hockey Fan

I've mentioned our family's love for going to hockey games. This is Rachel between Troy Milam and Cam Brown of the Gwinnett Gladiators. Milam scored his first goal of the year this particular night and signed a game-used puck for Rachel. Brown signed a button with his picture on it. By the way, Brown is 36-years-old and has played only one game in the NHL. He still plays out of love of the sport. Too bad more people don't have that attitude. He also does a ton of community work.

Rachel and Bennett

Remember back when preschool had just started and we asked Rachel whether she had a boyfriend? We expected the answer, "No", but instead, we got, "His name is Bennett."
Well, this is Rachel and Bennett, enjoying sugar cookies together at the Temple Early Learning Center Hannukah party. Bennett had become a big brother the previous day. Rachel enjoyed taking one bite out of each sugar cookie, then putting it down or handing it to us while she went to the next sugar cookie and took one bite out of it.

Rachel Enjoys the Wiggles

(Don't tell anyone, but mommy and daddy did too!)

"Your Face Is Gonna Freeze Like That!"

You Can't Handle the Truth!

Children are known for their honesty.

Poor Rachel has battled a runny nose all day. So, at one point, my sister asks her if her face is all sticky.

And Rachel replies, "No, it's snot!"

Sugar and Spice and everything nice; that's what little girls are made of.

A Jewish Child at Christmas

It's interesting when you're raising a Jewish toddler around the Christmas season. Thanks to weekly Sabbath services at school, Rachel has a healthy knowledge of Shabbat and it's a true joy to hear her singing songs in Hebrew on the way to school or other destinations.

Still, she's very much aware of what a Christmas tree is and she wanted to join in when a children's choir sang carols the other night at the extended care facility where my uncle is being treated.

But it's obvious she has developed a Jewish identity as well. The other day, someone asked Rachel what Santa Claus was going to bring her and she replied by singing, "Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of clay..."

Tonight, we celebrated my wife's birthday by going to a Japanese grill where they prepare your dinner at the table. As we're walking into the restaurant, Rachel takes note of five reindeer in white lights "grazing" in the grass outside the front door. She called them "goats." How innocent!

So after Rachel gets enough rice to fill herself up, she wanders out of the room where we're eating. She finds one of those tabletop Santas who perpetually sways his hips from side to side while "Jingle Bell Rock" plays over and over. Rachel does a perfect imitation of the dance and even brings her "Little People" over to see how it's done. The tabletop Santa fascinated her to no end.

There is also a giant Santa overlooking the waiting room. She looks up at him and says, not, "Hello, Santa", but "Hello, man!" Again, too cute for words.

Gender Issues

Last night, I was trying to coax Rachel into saying how much she missed me while I was at work.
So I said, "Rachel misses daddy? Rachel misses daddy?"
And Rachel replied, "Not Mrs. Daddy....Mister Daddy!"

Diva

One day recently, I'm taking Rachel to school and I ask her whether she'll sing something for me. So, she sings me the song her teacher, Miss Diane, sings to her class before they go their separate ways at the end of the day.

I sit in the front seat, smiling as I listen to the following:

"The more we get together, together, together....
The more we get together,
The happier we'll be,
'Cause your friends are my friends,
And my friends are your friends,
The more we get together,
The happier we'll be!"

I say, "All right!" and applaud loudly in the front seat, only to be rebuked with "I"M NOT FINISHED!"

She begins anew....

"The more we get together, together, together....
The more we get together,
The happier we'll be...."

Pause

Longer pause

I coax her from the front seat....
"'Cause my friends...."

"NOOOOOOOOO!" she shrieks. "Not your friends, Miss Diane's friends!"

Never, ever, tick off a singing toddler!

Happy Rachel=Happy Daddy

Mommy and Mini-Me

Catching Up

Long time, no update. Just finished up November ratings, the most important ratings period of the year.

I haven't had a fever in three weeks, but am still fighting some sort of infection around my neck and throat. Maybe my immunity still sucks from the shingles, but I tell you one thing, I'm darn sick of coughing! I sound like a cross between a smoker and someone's 85-year-old grandfather, of which I am neither.

I have an addendum to the previous entry about Rachel and food. We have a Mexican food chain here called Moe's. Good quesadillas, black beans and rice etcetera. Anyhow, apparently, young Miss Rachel likes red chips more than any other color. So when she comes in with mommy, they bring her a basket containing only red chips! No black, no yellow!

She also went to the eye doctor this week and has been prescribed glasses. It's slow going getting her to wear them, but she looks really cute. They're pink frames with small rounded lenses. Rachel dazzled her examiner with her ability to recite the letters on the eye charts. I guess most two-year-olds don't know their letters.

The other day, she had a piece of bread in her hand and was using it to spell out her first name. She has spelled her last name for months. She's also counting pretty consistently to 30 with only an error ot two.

Rebecca got some good news yesterday, It appears she'll go into studio to record a 15-second radio spot next week. It will be good to hear her voice on the air again and maybe it will remind some people she's still around.

We're having a war of wills with Rachel. She seems to think if she says, "No" enough or screams at the top her lungs, we'll cave in and she'll get her way. And maybe it's been like that in the past. But now we're taking a stand.

Last night, she didn't want to take a nap, so she screamed, wailed and caterwauled so loudly, I'm surprised all the windows in the cul de sac didn't shatter. Eventually, I turned out the lights in the living room to trick her and lo and behold, instead of taking a nap, she slept 12 hours! (And she's in fine spirits today!)

She has gotten in the habit of asking us to bring her "Little People" and she wants to dictate how many to bring and complains if it isn't just right. Last night was the last straw. We took her to services at the Temple and she was fantastic for 50 minutes and then pitched a screaming fit when her "Little People" weren't arranged properly in their miniature Radio Flyer Wagon. Afterwards, people stopped me and asked what was wrong and I'd just roll my eyes and explain it. She also pitched a fit when I denied her a fourth shot glass-sized cup of juice. We left against her wishes. She must learn there are consequences for bad behavior.

But I'll close with a funny Rachel story. After a while, we read her the same books over and over, so I'll pause and let her fill in the blank. We were reading "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" by Dr. Seuss. It had been a while since we read it.

So the phrase in question is "They come from near; they come from far. I would never walk. I would take a car."

So I read, "They come from near; they come from far. I would never walk, I would take a?"

And Rachel replies, "Nap!"

Forget walking, she's snoozing!

And actually, everyone in the house is snoozing but me right now. I'm about to change that!

Until next time!