Something to do with genetics

For Christmas Ben's mom got me a one month subscription to ancestry.com. It turned out to be a nice gift because I enjoy that sort of thing and I actually found a lot of useful information. Ben thought it was funny when his father's parents found out that they are fourth cousins once removed. Then again, I found it hilarious that Ben and I are almost related: one of my great-something grandmothers is the illegitimate daughter of a guy whose family one of Ben's great-something uncles married into. It's a small world after all.

At Christmas Henry got the starring role of Joseph in the Joy School Christmas pageant. He actually memorized his lines: "Can I have a room?" Keeping him in costume was a bit of a trial, though. I just got a nice photo of Henry actually sitting still (without being parked in front of a TV!) in his pillowcase/old bed sheet costume I threw together. Another Christmas miracle.

January's Book club meeting is coming up next Monday. This month's book was "The Grand Sophy," a romance novel written back in the 50's. (This book was chosen for a quick read over the holidays, not for it's intellectual content.) When the title was announced along with the name of the author, Georgette Heyer, a little bell went off in my head (beneath a peal of derisive laughter I wisely kept to myself-- yes, I hate cheap romances). My mother had a whole drawerful of Georgette Heyer books when I was a teenager, and I was pretty sure I'd seen my sister Maggie reading that very title, as I had a terrible habit of making fun of Maggie's reading choices. I asked Maggie to look for it next time she was at Mom and Dad's and sure enough, she found it. So I got to read it without the ignominious burden of requesting one of the few copies available in the county library system. I must say, while not being quite as horrible a read as I previously imagined, I did have a hard time time slogging through it, caring about the characters, believing some of the improbable scenarios, etc. I'm interested to see if what if at all can be said about the book, as I certainly haven't anything in mind.