Birthday weekend with family & art

Julie celebrated her birthday with a visit by her parents and a full weekend of activities.

Hugh and Dolores arrived Friday, and that evening joined Julie, Dan, Christie and her boyfriend, James, and Andy and his girlfriend, Shannon, for dinner at a local cafe and a little more visiting at home. It was great to be able to have the group together before Christine and James headed back to Rochester the next day.

On Saturday, Julie, Dan, Hugh and Dolores spent the afternoon at the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, N.J. This was actually a birthday gift for Dolores: after Julie, Dan, Christine and Andy visited this extraordinary park last June, Julie gave her mom a gift certificate for a private tour.

The 42-acre park is filled with works by its patron, J. Seward Johnson, and various other artists. Johnson's specialties are lifelike figures in everyday poses and three-dimensional recreations of famous paintings. Besides bringing the paintings to life, the displays allow visitors to put themselves in the pictures.

That evening, it was dinner at home and a movie in the living room: "Singing in the Rain," a favorite of Julie and her parents.

On Sunday, Liz was able to join her grandparents, Aunt Julie and Uncle Dan for brunch in Brooklyn. Liz, currently living in Brooklyn while studying for her masters at NYU and working at WSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff's New York office, met the group at a small restaurant in Prospect Heights. They spent a good couple of hours catching up. Then Liz headed home to study while the rest paid a visit to the Brooklyn Museum.

None of the four had been to this museum before (even though Dan and Julie lived in Brooklyn for several years way back when), and all were impressed by the extent and quality of its collection. They spent a few hours checking out several exhibits, with special attention to anything involving needlework.

The foursome was rejoined by Andy and Shannon that evening for dinner and then more chatting, and present-opening, at home (with Christine joining in by phone).

The gifts included a special request from Julie: framed copies for herself and her mom of two photos each showing four generations of women in the family. The first was of infant Julie with her mother, grandmother Evelyn and great-grandmother Sadie; the other of infant Christine with Julie, Dolores and Evelyn.

Stephanie performs in Honors concert at OSU

--Updated 1/19 with more info and video clips-- 

Stephanie performed in the Ohio State University School of Music's High School Honor Band Concert on Sunday, Jan. 15.
A junior clarinetist at Hilliard Darby High School, Stephanie auditioned and was chosen to participate in this annual event. She was among 250 or so student musicians, mostly from Ohio but some from out of state. who were accepted to the program.

Darby was well represented, with seven students selected. The students all went through another round of auditions on Friday for placement in three ensembles. Stephanie performed with the Honors Wind Symphony, whose performance concluded the Sunday program.

The students spent Friday evening and all day Saturday rehearsing and participating in master classes. The instructors were all faculty members from the OSU music department. The Honors Wind Symphony was conducted by the university's Director of Bands. Stephanie was familiar with some of the five selections on the program, having performed them at Darby.

After a final rehearsal Sunday morning, the students performed on Sunday afternoon in the university's Weigel Auditorium. It's amazing how wonderful they sounded together just 48 hours after they all met!

UPDATE: Cathy has sent us five video clips of 3-5 minutes apiece that she recorded, occasionally zooming in so you can see Stephanie.

CLICK TO WATCH:

• Celebration Fanfare
• Second Suite in F - 1st Movement
• Second Suite in F - 2nd Movement
• Second Suite in F - 3rd & 4th Movements
• Carmen Ohio (OSU Alma Mater) & Across the Field (OSU fight song)

The concert was broadcast live over YouTube, and the full recording will be available for a short time at this link -- or use this link to start the video at the point where the Honors Wind Symphony takes the stage.

The Honors Wind Symphony was the third and final ensemble to perform. Its program consisted of: Celebration Fanfare by Steven Reineke; Second Suite in F by Gustav Holst; O Magnum Mysterium by Morten Lauridsen/arr. H. Robert Reynolds; Vesuvius by Frank Ticheli; and Carmen Ohio/Across the Field, arr. Roger Cichy. Russel C. Mikkelson conducted.

In November, Stephanie performed as part of the Ohio Music Education Association South Central Regional Orchestra, drawn from high schools in 20 counties. (See previous article.)

Catching up on recent career moves

With the new year under way, here are some updates on recent job moves by some of our family members.

Most recently: Shannon entered the U.S. Air Force just after Christmas, reporting to boot camp in Texas. "So proud of my girl for making such a life changing decision," her mom, Mary, wrote on Facebook.

In November, Genevieve moved from the New York Public Library to the Museum of Modern Art as manager of foundation relations. Genevieve had worked on foundation and government grants at the library since 2012, when she and John moved back east from California. She spent several months in the foundations department at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art before that.

Rick had a bit of a busy 2016, highlighted by his wedding to Shanna. He also completed his Ph.D from Rutgers University and started working in promotional medical education and medical marketing at Sudler & Hennessey in Warren, N.J.

Back in May, Shanna's brother Kevin joined HeBS Digital, which provides technology services to the hotel industry. He's a DevOps Engineer, developing software and working on all facets of the company's systems. His office is near Penn Station. Kevin previously spent about three-and-a-half years at Internap Network Services, based in Lower Manhattan.

Who else has made a move recently? Let us know!

Christine & James visit Florida & Potterverse

Butterbeer at the Leaky Cauldron

Christine accompanied James and his father on an annual January trip to visit relatives in the Fort Lauderdale area in Florida.

The group also took a side trip to Orlando and spent a couple of days at Universal Studios, where they particularly enjoyed the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (also visited recently by Marie, Brian and Xander and a couple of times by Liz).

Enjoying Florida sun

Dragon at Gringott's Bank

The group enjoyed immersing themselves in the Potter universe. "It's like stepping into the pages of the books," Christine said.

Their scheduled return flight on Saturday was canceled because of the awful incident at Fort Lauderdale's airport the previous day. And because they were headed for a small airport in New Hampshire, they couldn't arrange an alternate flight for a few days. So they stayed on at James' aunt's house, enjoying her (extended) hospitality.

Christine celebrated her birthday amid sunshine and palm trees - quite a change from the cold and snow that she's more typically seen on her special day.