Happy Holidays!
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Last Christmas we had so much fun in NYC that we decided to do it again this year. We went to midnight mass at the old St. Patrick’s cathedral. We saw King Kong in Times Square on Christmas Day. Our favorite thing about King Kong is that the movie contained scenes of Times Square as it might’ve looked in 1938. This year we are going to take Kenney Kramer’s Seinfeld Reality tour. We are hoping that it is at least half as much fun as the website makes it out to be. This picture to the left is Diane at Rockefeller Center on Christmas Day. The umbrella to the left had the word Bostonian on it. Bonus! |
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My cousin Jack had his birthday party on December 28. We stayed with my Aunt Barbie and Uncle Pat in Prospect Park, PA right next to Philadelphia, so we were able to join in the festivities. Jack is the one to the left with the crown and Patrick is to the right yelling Happy Birthday so loud that everyone is looking at him. Jack and Patrick live in Yardley, PA right across the Delaware River from Trenton. Pat and Barbie took us into Philadelphia and we saw the new Constitution Center. They were terrific hosts. They showed us all the best that Philadelphia has to offer. We are very grateful for their hospitality. |
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My cousin Chrissi spent a day with us in Manayunk, PA. We had an excellent brunch at a place called LeBus. We walked around Manayunk which is a pretty little town just a ways down the Schuylkill river from Philadelphia. |
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Chris went skiing the second weekend of March with his friends Bob Hogan and Bob Dean up at Sunday River . This has become an annual tradition that we look forward to every year. It is certainly one of the brightest spots in our long cold Northeast winters. We have already started planning our getaway in March this year. The other big highlight of our late winter/early spring was going to see our cousins Cathie & Bob at their place in Newton on April 8th. My cousins Janet and Nancy also got to experience Cathie’s wonderful meal. |
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On June 10th we had a big cookout. We were too busy to remember to take any pictures. It was cold and it rained hard that day, but we had a great time anyway. Thanks to all who attended. On June 30th a friend of mine from High School, Chris Strobel was married to his longtime sweetheart Jane. The wedding was fantastic. It’s always fun to see my friends from high school. Another friend from high school, Dan Rullo, hosted a couple of get togethers this year. We went golfing in early October. It rained that day too. It rained a lot this year. I’m sure Chris and Jane were glad that June 30th was a picture perfect day. |
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Diane and Chris took the July 4th week off and we headed up to visit Chris’s parents (Dave & Marie) in York Beach, ME. On Friday the 7th we took our bikes up to Portland, ME. We rode around some bike trails in and around the city. We had a fantastic dinner on the water at the Dry Dock restaurant. We walked around the Portland Museum of Art where they were featuring a painting that may have been done by Leonardo Da Vinci as a sketch prior to the Mona Lisa. The following day we headed back and went to Diane’s grandson’s (Bryan’s) birthday party. |
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Chris’s Aunt Barbie and Uncle Pat came up with Micki, Patrick, Jack, and Katy to visit my parents the last weekend in July. My cousin Nancy hosted us at her house and we all had breakfast on Sunday morning outside at the Sun and Surf restaurant on Long Sands beach. The following weekend we went to two cookouts in one day. One was at my friends Jeff & Penny Clark’s where we got to hang out with some friends from Fidelity, and another at Dan Rullo’s. We didn’t go to bed hungry that night. |
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For the past 5 years we have been making at least one trek out to Provincetown, MA at the tip of the Cape via the Fast Ferry out of Boston. This year was no exception. We went with Chris’s friend from work Mike Cavin’s and his wife Carol. We just happened to be there the same day (Aug 6th) that the Pan-Mass challenge (a 192-mile bike trip to raise money for cancer) ended. We have always been impressed by the dining possibilities in P-town, but I think Ross’s Grill became our new favorite. There was a rowdy crowd of people who had just finished the Pan Mass Challenge a few tables away from us. Our waitress told us not to worry, they had ordered drinks and they would probably settle right down. She was right, they were cooing like doves in no time. |
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On Sunday September 10th we went to our favorite Brunch in Boston at the Blue Room in Kendall Square. We biked up and down both sides of the Charles River, then we went to a Red Sox game with my friend Bob Hogan (pictured earlier). We had dinner at the Boston Beer Works with Bob. We biked over to the Fan Pier to the Bank of America Pavillion where we went to a concert performed by the Flaming Lips. To quote Bill Murray as Phil Conners in Groundhog Day – “I was in the Virgin Islands once. I met a girl. We ate lobster and drank pina coladas. At sunset we [yada yada]. *That* was a pretty good day. Why couldn't I get that day over and over and over...” |
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As my parents headed towards Florida for the winter they stopped in Prospect Park, PA to stay with my Aunt and Uncle and we had a big family get together at their house. It was at this point that I started to use my phone camera instead of my digital camera. You can see the difference in quality. I might be switching back. |
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This is probably the best picture I got out of my phone all year. My cousins Jack and Patrick at a fall festival. I can’t remember what the name of the place was. It wasn’t Gobbler’s Knob. That was in Groundhog Day. Now I’m repeating myself. They had hayrides, and haunted houses for Halloween. We picked some pumpkins out of the pumpkin patch and we went through the maze in the maize. It was amazing. |
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I could not hope to complete the year in review without mentioning all of the fun we had this year with Tony, Erica, and Bob. Diane and Chris trekked out to Central Mass quite a few times this year to have fun with them. Bob and Tony and Chris used to work together at Genuity. One of the highlights of the year for Chris was that Tony dedicated an entire book about .NET Framework 2.0 to him. Chris was so excited he decided to learn .NET Framework 2.0. Well almost. |
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My sister, Anne, got into a week long program at MIT that teaches journalists how to read and report on medical statistics. Anne is the health reporter for the Daytona Beach News Journal. She stayed in Kendall Square in Cambridge during her visit to Mass. We were able to get together for dinner 4 times during the week that she was up here. She also stayed at our place on her last night here. This year while Anne was covering a fund raiser she got her picture taken with our former President and the governor of Florida. |
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We spent our fifth Thanksgiving with Bob Hogan and his family. The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went up to Diane’s grandson’s house in Ipswich for their house lighting ceremony. Last year their house made the front of the Ipswich newspaper. This year they added even more lights and decorations. It was quite a spectacular event that was well attended.
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