A post-Christmas pre-New Year's celebration

Kevin and Kathy hosted this year's Christmas-time family gathering in Yonkers on Saturday. The food was fabulous food and the time flew by as everyone enjoyed one another's company and conversation.

As the party-goers posed for a group portrait, above, their doubles in an alternate universe did the same, as seen below.


Along with the host and hostess, this year's gathering included Shanna and Rick, Kevin, Kathy and Robert, Genevieve and John with Bea, Patrick, Brien, Dan and Julie with Andy and Shannon, Aunt Pat, Mary and Roger and, on leave from the Air Force, Shannon. We missed seeing Vivien and CJ (off on a skiing trip) and Christine and James (settling into their new home) as well as other far-flung members of the family.

Here's a batch of other photos from the gathering. Click each image for a larger view.

Please share your holiday scenes and stories. And may all our family have a wonderful New Year!

More Christmas scenes from around the family

We see that Genevieve, John and Bea; Vivien and CJ; and Patrick all gathered at Kathy's house in Yonkers on Christmas Day. (Kathy must be behind the camera.)


In Florida, we see Courtney and Chad posing in front of their tree. Was Nanette the photographer here?

And back in New Jersey, while Andy and Shannon spent the later part of the day with Shannon's family, Christine and James enjoyed Christmas dinner with Dan and Julie.

Please share your Christmas scenes with the family here on Birch Street Web!

Seasonal music featuring Stephanie

You've probably heard plenty of Christmas tunes lately, but you'll want to listen to some quality holiday music featuring Stephanie in the Hilliard Darby High School orchestra.

The school's band, choir and orchestra all performed in the annual Celebration Concert in mid-December. Stephanie performed with both the Wind Ensemble and the Orchestra Winds section as first-chair clarinetist.

Cathy has sent along four videos. Stephanie is front-and-center in the third and fourth videos.
Nutcracker Ballet, part one (Tchaikovsky)
Nutcracker Ballet, part two (Tchaikovsky)
The Eighth Candle (Steve Reisteter)
Waves (Brian Balmages)

And here's a link to an album containing all four videos.

As Cathy says, it was another "last" event in Stephanie's senior year.

Celebrating a Merry Christmas 2017

Please share your Christmas celebrations with the family on Birch Street Web!

To start - Here's the scene at Birch Street Headquarters, where Dan, Julie, Christine and Andy were joined by James and Shannon.

Christine and James are visiting for a few days before heading back to their new apartment in Norwood, Mass., where James starts a new job on Jan. 2 (see previous article). After the morning present-opening and big breakfast, Andy and Shannon headed to Shannon's sister's house on Long Island for her family's celebration and dinner.

Merry Christmas to all our extended family!

Best wishes to all for a wonderful Christmas weekend! Here are just a couple of holiday photos that we've collected so far. Please share photos and stories of your festivities!

Courtney posted this photo of her Christmas tree with the comment, "This year we went with a 12-foot tree!" Nanette is currently visiting Courtney in Florida.

Kathy posted this shot of Bea enjoying the Holiday Express exhibit at the New-York Historical Society in Manhattan. And Genevieve shares this classic pose with Santa.

New adventures for James & Christine

Christine and James are settling into new digs as James prepares to start a new job in the new year.

Having completed work on a bachelors degree in video game design at Rochester Institute of Technology in December, James starts Jan. 2 as a developer at Boston Productions in Norwood, Mass.

C & J were able to find an apartment just a few miles from the company's headquarters, and have spent the past week moving and starting to settle in. Their new home has a spacious two-level layout in a garden-style complex surrounded by a nice residential neighborhood, about a mile from the shops and restaurants in Norwood's village-like downtown.

Norwood Center

James is very much looking forward to working at Boston Productions (BPI), which combines game design and software development with audio-visual production to create interactive displays and "visitor experiences" for museums and other public facilities. Here are just a couple of examples of the company's installations.

At the Smithsonian Institution Castle in Washington, BPI created an interactive map for visitors navigating through the National Mall.

At the Georgia Aquarium, BPI created multiple game-like interactive educational displays.

Vivien and CJ become homeowners

After a couple of years of high-rise living in Jersey City, Vivien and CJ have made the move to the suburbs.

In a whirlwind couple of days at the start of December, they closed on and moved into this lovely house in Verona, New Jersey. We hope to get more details/photos soon.

A taste of winter: First snow of the season

The first snow of the not-quite-yet winter fell gently - and, conveniently, on a Saturday - at Birch Street Media headquarters in New Jersey. It put a pretty coating of white on the bushes and trees ... and on the big honkin' piece of construction equipment sitting across the street.

"New gas lines are being put in around the neighborhood," Dan explains. "Our street is probably next to get torn up. Yay."