Wish You Were Here!

Some pictures with Samantha helping with the final touches before Christmas!

Wish you were here to help too!  Speak with you soon!  Love you!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Christmas Cookie Party 2008

 You will never believe it, Mom and I got up at 5:30 to go to a Christmas Party at Sam’s in Massachusetts!  Dad got up to make sure that we had a good cup of coffee, the daily dose of grapefruit and of course cereal.  Once breakfast was done off we went for our three hour ride.  It was cold but mom made sure I was warm with my hat and overcoat on.

 When we arrived a few hours later, the Cherry sisters were in full swing with breakfast again – fruit salad, bagels, baked French toast, broccoli quiche, pumpkin bread and of course mimosas.  Humm all was sooo delicious.  Before we knew it, Mrs. Santa Claus and Santa himself came over.  There must have been hundreds of children all eagerly awaiting his appearance and they all could not wait to receive their first present for Christmas.

 I had such a great time meeting all those wonderful Cherry Sisters who all welcomed me!  You could feel the love emanating from them and surrounding the whole occasion.  Oh what a blessing for mom to have such nice beautiful women as good friends.  Here are some pictures:

Happy Birthday Surprise!!

It was fun to hear the surprise in your voice after we sang Happy Birthday to you.  I am sure that you never expected to hear your best friend’s voices on the phone!  We had a great time celebrating your birthday with them.  So you know, we had mimosas, fruit salad, Belgium waffles and other goodies.   Everyone was glad to speak with you as well and we also called Cathryn to complete the circle.   (I included a picture of the ring so you could see it for yourself!)

 

As always on your birthday we had snow and of course you know who had to go and play!

 

Happy Birthday! LOVE YOU and miss you!

 

A Trip to the City!

A few days have 

gone by since Thanksgiving; the

 turkey, stuffing, vegetables and other goodies have been eaten. December is upon us and since mom received tickets for White Christmas (playing on Dec.2) for her birthday mom decided to take the day off so we could spend it in New York City.  We ecided to go to The Cloisters, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, had lunch at The New Leaf Café (which was wonderful) and then we went to visit with some friends.  We later took a bus down to 59^th Street and 5^th Avenue to look in at The Plaza which recently reopened.  The Oak Room has just reopened as well and has not been changed.  From there we went to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree before it was lit.  Once we got through the mob (they were lighting the tree later) we headed for a wine tasting.  From there we headed to the play.  I must tell you, it is worthwhile seeing and I hope it will be back every year for the Christmas season! Anyway, here are some pictures.  After the play we once again went to see the tree which was now a lit!  We then had a drink at the Algonquin Hotel.  Sound familiar?  Notice anything missing? Love you!

Thanksgiving / 80th Birthday 2008

Off to the Busi’s for some Thanksgiving dinner and an 80^th birthday

 party for

 Grandpa.  It was sad that you were not able to be with us, but you were certainly there in spirit!  It also helped that we were able to speak with you even for a few minutes.  There was lot’s of good food and the usual great wines!

This was the first Thanksgiving that we were not together as a family and I must say it was somewhat hard for us.  The only consolation: knowing you were happy in Benin and made plans with some of your other volunteers so you would not be alone with Scout!  As you can tell by the pictures, Samantha certainly was kept busy with all your family.  Everyone asked about you and they all missed you as well.

Grandpa was surprised by his birthday gift as it was brought out by John and Tom.  Madeleine helped Grandpa unwrap it since it was so big a task.  It was set up the next day in the den.  Grandma is worried that the Christmas decorations will not be able to fit.  Hope they figure out how to do it.  Hopefully in the next few days we will go out and see it and will take a picture to post. 

We love you and miss you!