We just watched the first season of Only Murders in the Building (Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez). We plan to order season 2 soon.

We are food nerds. Chefs Table was our absolute favorite. Also liked Stanley Tucci Searching for Italy and Eva Longoria Searching for Spain. Makes me long to travel (and eat good food!) Aside from those we love most Viking TV shows  particularly Vikings Valhalla.

To summarize... Food and Viking shows, lol.

Thinkthrice wrote:

Sad that Anissa died so young.

Also sad that her younger brother, Paul, died of an overdose several years later.

I didn’t watch very much this year, but I really enjoyed the movie “Sinners”. I think the horror elements were handled very well, and has a lot of other elements, and was skillfully put together.
Also the series “Bad Sisters” is a winner if you like drama , family intrigue and some murder plots thrown in as well!

stepcreaturesonly wrote:

Loooooove Bad Sisters. And not just for the awesome Irish accents. 

Norsemen is badly underwatched. Hysterical.

 
If you like Norsemen (which we did, lol) then might I also suggest "1670". I believe it's on Netflix. It's a similar kind of idea... Old times with modern, silly humour. Set in the 1600s in Poland. We loved it. Season 2 just came out and I found it even funnier than the first season. We binged it.

We thought Norsemen was so funny we still laugh about some of the jokes from it.

We have been intermittently watching Finding Your Roots on PBS.  After an episode about a month ago I did a search (gotta love a voice activated TV remote that will find stuff for you) and stumbled on a now defunct show called Genealogy Road Show.  It is also a PBS show that is formatted much like Antiques Road Show where the team goes to different cities.  During our binge watching of that over a few weekends, I started plinking around in my own family tree.

There were rumors of a Rags on the Mayflower. Nope, there was a couple with a similar last name, but they were elderly and did not survive the first winter.  Then, I found my dad's GM.   As I started plucking at threads I shared stuff with my parents.  Dad never knew his paternal GF's name. I found that.  That confirmed a lot of stuff my dad had heard. The family farm was first acquired during the OK land rush. The house my granddad was born in still exists and is now an AR historical site. I tracked my grandad's paternal line back to 1465 in England tp a village that is the source of the family name.  My grandad's mother is a Snow.  As I tugged at those threads... that is where the Mayflower connection ties in. My 11th GGM was on the Mayflower with her father, SM, and her brother.  She was 14 when the Mayflower landed. So... we started the official paperwork to get out Mayflower Society plaque for dad.    That line we traced back to 1435 in England.  That GGM's half brother was born on the Mayflower mid voyage.  Oceanus Hopkins was his name.  My umpteenth GGM is Constance Hopkins Snow.

The two primary research sites that I found a lot of success with are WikiTree and Find A Grave.  Most of the information is compiled through personal genealogy research efforts but can then be verified through more official channels.

On my mom's side I was able to confirm family stories that my 2X GGF surrendered at Appomattox Court House with General Lee.  His father and brother we in two different POW prisons at the end of the war. They were released and made it back home after the war.  Not a happy part of family history, but interesting.

On both sides of dad's clan, there are a couple of Revolutionary war participants. 

I thought I was done now, except my mom won't let me. I spent about a dozen hours or so over a month plinking through stuff on weekends.  My mom is working to get copies of stuff from her cousins so I can fill in that part of the family tree back more than to my 4th GGF.  On my mom's dad's side, I have only been able to go back to her GF.  She is hell bent on getting me to fill in the tree to as far back as I was able to get dad's side to.

I maxed out my tree on 23&Me. I will get a free Excel tree format and transfer stuff over so as stuff pops up, I can add to it and get it to my brother, his kids, etc...   I have not found much on my bride yet.  As the spirit moves me I will see what I can fill in.

So, maybe I have a hobby?  I have never been much of a hobby person, but this has piqued my interest.

 

Last edited by Rags (1/05/2026 1:35 pm)

Kes wrote:

Cold January afternoon, and DH and I have been watching the feature film "Nuremberg" starring Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon, Rami Malek.  About the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals at the end of WW2.  It has been much more engaging and watchable than I thought it was going to be. 

 

Thanks for the recommendation on Nuremberg.  I saw it was available on NF but have not watched it yet. I was going to wait until after the holidays so not to crush the Hallmark Christmas Movie vibe leading up to the main holiday events.