Happy New Year - Looking forward to 2011!

Blizzards (it even has a name = Blizzard Casey), floods, ice dams - what next with the weather! Of course I couldn't wait to get started on the New Year's Resolutions and Plans - one of which is to dig deeply into my family history. I have started this a few times over the years.
First, though - this is little Alex Christmas 2005 - would you like to sit outside in November dressed like that when you were a boy! He is much cuter with smiles and dimples. Niece Molly, Josh and 19 month old Lily were here a couple nights ago while Alex was spending a minigrannyvacation with us (two nights). Lily just loved him, kissed him, hugged him, climbed up on the dining room chair with him. He shyly looks down with smile and dimple and says "Now we have to get married"! - We tried not to laugh too hard. Amy says he told her if you kiss a girl you have to marry her.
Found this is some of my mom's stuff . She and her sister were about a year apart in age and since my Grandma Laura was still breastfeeding my mom was sort of a failure to thrive baby - maybe that's why my aunt was close to 6 feet tall and my mom about 5 feet tall. Anyway this letter and picture from their mother was published in Ladies Home Journal or somesuch magazine. (Click to enlarge photos).

Also found this picture. Ross lived and worked in Hastings, England in 1995-96 for 18 months and this is where he lived and where I lived every other month. It was called Sandrock Hall and we nearly froze our buns off in the winter. Our car is parked right in front. It was one of the great experiences of our lives even with 2 kids in college. Chris called one night to report that indeed the fire extinguisher in our house in Burnsville did work! Amy had started a kitchen fire:). Another memory - have you ever ridden a Hovercraft across the English channel from Dover, England to Calais, France with a hangover - we did after a party the night before! I would think I would have been more mature at 49 years old. We also had as guests all at one time FOUR college students: Chris, friend Ryan, Jenny and niece Sara. I found the history of this building at http://sandrockhall.co.uk

So back to my 2011 plans. I am rereading a 13 page letter written by my great-great-grandfather George Tytherleigh Hare December 19, 1894 (born July 6, 1840 in Taunton, Somerset, England) from England to his son in Duluth. Ross has subscribed to Ancestry.com and there is an endless amount of information. I am seeing listed a household member named Charlotte Jenkins who was a 23 year old Welsh servant. In his letter he says "She is a very quiet woman but far too particular with the girls. I let her have her way then I start when she has run down because I am the Boss. She is a thin spare woman very nervous of rats, mice, also explosions by gas or water...."
About his wife: "Your dear mother is a regular old shop worm always on the lookout for a bargain".
Happy New Year to All and may God's Light shine down on all of us in the year to come!!!