Thanksgiving and Christmas 2009

Seasons Greetings, Buon Natale, Happy New Year to All!

We have had a wonderful, family filled month of festivities this year.  It began with a large family get together at my brother Marc's on Bainbridge Island.  Everyone was able to come.  Kudos to Marc and Leigh for taking on, feeding, and entertaining 32 people.

Even my neice Bina came up from Alameda with nine month old Ovid Duke.

A good time was had by all.  The guys played music most of the afternoon and after dinner we watched a slide show of my trip to Italy narrated by my sister Jeannette.  It was fun to relive the memories.

Here is a family portrait:

 

That same weekend we visited Roger's folks in Auburn and celebrated his 54th birthday.

December was filled with Christmas parties, cookie exchanges, caroling, tree trimming, lots of visiting with friends and even a play called " Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol".  This year they could say of me "She knew how to keep Christmas well."

After spending four days in Seattle doing a lot of Christmas in the City type things, we brought Dad up to Thornbush.  Bjorn and his family joined us Christmas Eve.  Two three-year olds at Christmas time add up to a lot of fun.

Iliana

Lenora

The kids hadn't been here in awhile and there was a lot to show them, including Uncle Eric's bunnies.

But soon it was time to go and celebrate Christmas yet again at the Ellison's.  This time all the attention was on the newest member, Miles James Ellison, just three months old.

Here he is held up by proud Great-Grandfather Al. with Pappa James and Grandpa Guy alongside.

This year my Dad joined us at the Ellisons and convinced all the guys to play a game of pinochle.

Joe, Guy, Leif, Roger, Al

And the fun is not over yet.  Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and our guests are coming in on the 4:30 boat.  We plan to make merry into the next decade.

May all your 2010 dreams come true.

Morning Light

I took this picture on Nov 12th at 8AM from my dining room window. The colors this Fall have been very schoolbus orange.


First of all, I'd like to thank all of you who expressed concern over Roger's health status. He is fine, has shown no further symptoms. He's taking medicine and monitoring his blood pressure.


Another catastrophic event one week after the lost weekend at the hospital--the computer was knocked out, possibly a trojan horse. We saved the files, but lost all of our e-mail addresses. So, if you haven't heard from us in the last 23 days or so, please send us an e-mail so we can collect your address again. In the meantime, I bought this nifty little HP laptop with Windows 7 on it.

The third bad happening was that I lost my notebook somewhere between the hospital and here, the notebook that had all the records of Suzie's first few months, many of my notes from my trip to Italy, and a variety of to-do lists I'd made since I retired. Not as bad as the first two events, but wanted you to know not to look for another disaster ('cause you know they come in threes).

Now for some happy news. We finally got to see our new brand new great nephew, Miles, son of James and Niki Ellison.

We saw the whole family at our niece Clare's wedding reception at the end of October. Here's a pix of beaming bride Clare and of husband Tony Truong. Clare and Tony live in LaJolla, so it was nice of them to bring the celebration to us.

Another benefit of the trip off-island last month was seeing Bjorn's family. As many of you know, we are expecting a little baby sister for Iliana and Lenora in January. The twins are 3 1/2 now. Should be a pretty exciting year for all!

The only other news of note is that after two years, I finally broke down and ordered satellite t.v. The Winter Olympics are coming to Vancouver in February and I didn't want to be right next door to them and not be able to seem them even on t.v. Between it and the new laptop, I definitely am feeling more connected with the outside world. Speaking of which, Helen!, thanks for becoming a follower. I'd lost all track of you. Please send me an e-mail at Thornbush@rockisland.com and catch me up on your world.