A Circle of Thanks.

Thanksgiving.

Today we are thankful for all we have:

Family and Friends
the many blessings of our relationships.

We give thanks for our homes

and hoards of other material things we have been blessed with.

We are thankful for our church

for our Savior,

and  the many spiritual blessings we have.

We are in gratitude for our jobs,
for our bank accounts,
And all the financial provisions we enjoy.

But then I started thinking...

How about the not-so-good things that we have in our lives?

Should we be thankful for those things, too?

Financial worries

Failed relationships

Bad decisions

Arguments
Broken dreams

and many other things we have been faced with.

Perhaps we ought to be thankful for the lessons learned from
tough experiences, also?

I think the hard things we go through shape us and

often give us:

humility

compassion

patience

love
understanding

contentment

and...

thankfulness.

Kind of like  a circle of thanks, isn't it?

My turkey is on the table!   

Puzzling Puzzle

Last January, when remodeling the bathroom, there were

several things found between the upstairs & downstairs floors.

One of the things was an envelope with torn pieces of

paper.  Trying to put them together is quite a project,

but I made a little headway today!

The story is written on 5 or 6 small sheets of

paper, each page is about the size of a postcard.

    I do have my suspicions as to which of

my brothers did this!

The story begins with Brad Jones, who is

at the box office of a burlesque show.

Bits and pieces are giving me a general

idea of the story, but I will wait until I

have finished putting it together.

So far, I haven't seen anything that is so terrible

that the paper had to be shredded and hidden under

the bathroom floor, but of course back in the day,

writing about a guy going to a burlesque show

might have been just a tad scandalous,

especially if our parents had seen this.

I wonder who wrote this??

November Sunset

The other evening, I was talking on the phone and happened to look out

the kitchen window.   The sunset was just gorgeous!  

Still talking on the phone, I grabbed my little camera

and opened the back door & snapped a couple of pictures.

There is no way no captivate the beauty of the sunset 

with my camera, but I still think they are pretty cool.

Summertime

This is one of my favorite pictures that I took this summer.

Just as we were leaving Ten Mile Lake Cemetery, I "had" 

to take this.    The sun was soon setting, and it was a

gorgeous evening!

Oh, I am missing summer already!!

(For those who don't know - my sister and I have

been taking pictures of tombstones in the area for

the Historical Society.   We completed 9 cemeteries.

Grandma's farm

My grandma & grandpa's farm, just south of Dalton.

My mom and her 6 siblings grew up here.  The barn

still stands, but the house has been replaced.   The

smaller building in the foreground behind the trees is

the chicken coop.   I remember the chickens scratching

around the yard.  The lake in the lower corner is Hansel Lake.

Christmas at Grandma's circa 1953-55.    From left to right are:

Carl Synstelien, Palma Synstelien, Esther Dahlager and Grandma.

Pretty stylish living room, huh?   The curtains were PLASTIC, 

but matched the wallpaper.   But I'm lovin' the Christmas tree

with the larger lights and tinsel - they don't make tinsel like they used too!

The Black Tin Box

My grandfather, John Dahlager died in 1936, long before I was born.

He had a little black tin box that locked.

He kept some important papers in there.   

In 1921 Grandpa bought a Maxwell (car).

This is the receipt for the tax and registration.

He hated the car, by the way.

In 1955 Grandma wrote to her church in Norway to get

a copy of her confirmation certificate.   She

kept it in the little black box of grandpa's.

It is interesting to note that the day of her birth is shows as March 28, 1872.

She always said her birthday was March 29.

Wonder who was right??

The mortgage note from their place in Des Lacs, North Dakota.

They moved to Dalton in 1908.

Grandma did not like living in North Dakota.

This is the document in the "Matter of the Estate of 

Christopher J. Dahlager"  (my grandpa's father)

One of the notes regarding the payment to Lewis Bothun.

Grandpa purchased his farm south of Dalton from him.

The note is marked, "Paid in Full" and is dated March 19, 1908.

When my grandparents decided to move back to Dalton from

Des Lacs, North Dakota, they had an auction sale.

This is the actual list of the items sold at the auction

and how much they sold for.  This was in 1908.

Grandpa was an auditor for Tumuli Township.

This page is one of several that shows the name of the

resident and the amount of tax.

Other things in this tiny black box:

A handwritten obituary about my grandpa's death.

Many bank notes marked "paid"/

Records of baptisms and confirmations of grandpa's siblings (written in Norske).

Mortgage Deeds.

Promissory Notes.

Memorandum of Agreement (following the death of my great-grandma).

Signatures of both Grandpa & Grandma are found on many of these items.

Interesting stuff....worthless, probably....but interesting!

Great Grandparents

This is Christopher Dahlager - my great-grandfather.

Mom told how she thought her grandpa was so special.

He had fun with his grandchildren, teasing them,

tickling their faces with his mustache.   Mom also said she was

so proud of her grandpa when he would read Scripture or

lead the Sunday worship service.    He was diabetic and saved all the little bottles

of his medicine to give the grand-daughters to play house with.

In  1918, at the age of 64, Great-grandpa died of complications

associated with diabetes.

This is great grandma Sigrid Dahlager on her 85th birthday.

Sigrid came to American from Norway when she was 16.

Considering she was young when she arrived, it is

surprising that she never leaned to speak English very well.

Norwegian was spoken in her home and both English and

Norwegian were spoken in my Mom's home.  (Both my

parents spoke Norwegian very well.)

Sigrid died in 1943.

Sigrid  (aka Sigri) and Christopher had 10 children.

All of their children have long passed away, but there

are quite a few grandchildren still living,

and a ton of great-grandchildren.