The love of thousands...

I got my AncestryDNA results back today!  Since the process began on December 17th, it only took a month to get my results.  I was a little surprised that my ancestry is a mix of a lot of different folks.  

This was the breakdown, in percentages:

79% Great Britain
10% Scandinavia
  3% Iberian Peninsula (Spain)
  4% Europe (East: Germany, France, Switzerland, West: Poland, Ukraine)
  2% Finland/Russia
  1% Ireland
  1% South Asia (India, Pakistan)

This is how they did it!  When they calculate your estimate for each ethnicity region, they run forty separate analyses. Each of the forty analyses gives another estimate of your ethnicity, and each one is done with randomly selected portions of your DNA (that was a LOT of spit!).

They use forty analyses because ethnicity estimation can be variable from comparison to comparison — different combinations of DNA gives them different information, so doing multiple analyses can give them a more accurate estimate, as well as the likely range.

This is the map they sent me.  This is me right here!  :)

 

As part of my results, they matched me with 1,148 people who are my fourth and better cousins.  I've started a family tree (for the Halls, Clarks, Schneiders and Webbs) and that's gonna be my hobby over the next few months.  I'm really excited to see what I can find out about my folks and meet my new cousins!

This was a lot of fun!  If anybody out there wants to do it, too, or has done it, I'd love to hear from you!  You can buy the kit directly from ancestry.com and it's $99.  It was a Christmas gift from Larry for me but I think it's well worth it, especially if you don't KNOW for sure.  I've always been told we came from England (and we do) but I had no idea we came from all these other areas, too.  India??  Spain??  Those two surprised me the most.

I found this little ancestry quote online and I just loved it:

Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me

"Be still", they say. 

"Watch and listen."

You are the result

Of the love of thousands.

It's the middle of December...

 ...already!  Eeeeeeek!

We've been busy around here!  We started the month off with another little heart scare with Larry.  We spent three days going back and forth to the VA hospital in Dublin, where they ran tests and we saw doctors and then he spent 24 hours in a Holter monitor for a suspected blockage in his carotid artery.  He's been lightheaded a lot lately and they told us it's actually atrial fibrillation he's suffering from and not a blockage at all.  He's had AFib all of his life but since it gets worse as you age, we're going to take some extra precautions with medication to prevent him from having a stroke or worse.  Thank you, Lord, for that blessing!

Once we got past that, we decorated the yard and put our lights up!

Oh, they turned out so pretty and it looked beautiful!! 

And then we had some much-needed heavy rain and the lights all bit the dust.  We got out there and fixed it today but we lost a strand of lights to a short. 

Banjo loves the new loveseat we got a couple of weeks ago.  I kinda love it, too.

He also loves the heart smiley emoji pillow I got for Larry's stocking...  He's so used to me bringing toys home to him and he thought that was just another one of those days.  I didn't have the heart to tell him.  Would you??

We also treated ourselves to new bedding for Christmas!  600 TC sheets and king comforter and shams.  Larry's first reaction was that it looked like a hippie threw up on it.  Perfect.  Just our style!  :D

 

I've mentioned a few times that I would love to know exactly where my family came from.  I've always been told England or Ireland but unless we actually trace our family tree back that far, we'll never know for sure.  So Larry surprised me with an early Christmas present of an Ancestry DNA test!  I was so excited!  Spitting in the vial was a little gross, though.  You have to fill the vial with spit up to the little mark on the side and then combine it with an activating solution in the cap.  Yuck.  I got through it, though, and we sent it off.  I'll be able to track the whole process online and today, they updated the status to "Arrived" so it's there!  I can't wait to find out what it says about me and my family.

I picked up these vintage Santa taper candles for my tea cart yesterday for a dollar at an estate sale in Macon.  I could not believe the condition they were in.  They are adorable!

At that same sale, I got this vintage Josef Originals Santa face plate.  It was also a dollar and is selling for $18 on eBay right now.  I actually squealed out loud when I saw it and I grabbed it up quick before anybody else saw it!

And today, Larry and I made Christmas cookies.  We made chocolate chip pecan and turtle cookies as well as sugar cookie cutouts.  We had so much fun!  And they turned out great.

We even made one for the Birthday Boy.