Scenes from Brian's cross-country trip

Brian is on a cross-country auto tour from California to New Jersey. Here are a few of the photos he's taken along the way.



As previously reported, Brian and Marie are moving from California back to their native New Jersey. They originally considered making the cross-country car trip together with Xander, but changed plans. Marie and Xander will fly east later in January.

Christopher & Stephanie enjoy first Ohio Christmas

Cathy writes:

Here are some pics from Christmas - our first in Ohio. The kids were happy to get Webkins & Bionicles & a Wii & ipods.

Hope you all had a great holiday!

Genevieve and John are engaged!

They have not picked a date or made specific plans yet, but Genevieve and her boyfriend John are now engaged.

The couple met in their junior year of college at Cornell. After their graduation in 2007, John went to work for Facebook in Palo Alto, Calif., and Genevieve to Tufts University near Boston, where she is studying for her masters in art history and museum studies. The two have kept up a coast-to-coast romance, but hope to find a way to inhabit the same Zip code after Genevieve completes her degree in the spring.

Over the holidays they visited John's family in Seaford, Del., and Genevieve's in Yonkers, N.Y. It was at Genevieve's parents' home that John presented her with a ring, asked the big question and got the answer he was looking for. The couple jetted to California a couple days later to ring in the New Year.

Click 'comments' below and add your congratulations or other messages

Rebecca heading to national curling tournament

Congratulations to Rebecca whose curling team won the Grand National Curling Club Women's Junior Championship in a bonspiel (curling tournament) held in Wayland, Mass., outside Boston, last weekend (Dec. 27-29).


Rebecca and her teammates are seen here in front of the scoreboard in the final game of the competition. Beebe is the last name of the team's skip, or captain. Team Beebe finished with a 5-1 record to take the championship.

The team will travel to Devil's Lake, North Dakota the second week in February to compete in a field of 10 teams from around the country in the U.S. Curling Association's Women's Junior National competition.

Rebecca, her sister Lizzie and parents Doug and Lisa joined the Potomac Curling Club in 2003. Rebecca was on the club's team that competed in the U.S. Curling Association Club National Championships in March 2007.

Another Christmas get-together

Hugh and Dolores paid a Christmastime visit to Dan, Julie, Christine and Andy on Dec. 28-29. They saw Christine and Andy serve as acolytes at St. Paul's Church in Westfield on Sunday morning, enjoyed Sunday dinner together at the family's home and returned for breakfast (as seen above) before heading back home to Maryland.

Christmas gathering in Yonkers - 2008

The annual Christmas party at the Midland Avenue homestead in Yonkers took place Saturday Dec. 27. In this year's group photo we have Daniel and Lorraine (seated) flanked by Shanna, Andy and Vivien; and behind them (left to right) are Dan, Ted, Kathy, Kevin, Kathy, Kevin (is there an echo in here?) Brien, Genevieve, Patrick, Genevieve's friend John, Julie, Christine and Christine's friend Matt (making his first appearance at the yearly event).

There were plenty of goodies, gifts were exchanged, the traditional game of Capture the Flag was played and everyone marveled at how tall Patrick and Andy have gotten. It's amazing that another year has come and gone, but it was great to get together once again and share in the food and festivities.

Please write in to the Birch Street Web and let us know where and how you celebrated. Or just click on "comments" below and add a note to this post.

Merry Christmas to all...

Hope you're having a wonderful Christmastime ... and will write in soon to tell us about it!

It's Christmas Eve!

T'was the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there...

Continue reading the classic poem

Christine sings in SPFHS choral concert (Updated with video)

The Winter Choral Concert at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School showcased the various singing groups in the school's very active music department. The first half of the show featured performances by five specialty choirs and choruses, and then the full Concert Choir took the stage after intermission.



Christine and her boyfriend, Matt, are both members of the Concert Choir. Matt also belongs to and performed with the Men's Choir and Select Choir.

This first video clip has excerpts from a happy little number called Ding-a-Ding.



Next is a longer excerpt from a beautiful song called Can You Hear by New York composer Jim Papoulis.



This last clip, from "Let It Snow," shows the size of the Concert Choir - approximately 150 singers.



The entire show was very well done, with great performances by all the groups. In the spring the school's singing groups and bands will perform at Disney World in Florida.

Andy on percussion in winter concert

The holiday concert season continued Tuesday night (12/16) with the Park Middle School 7th and 8th Grade Winter Concert at the school auditorium in Scotch Plains. Andy played a variety of percussion instruments.

In this video clip he's playing suspended cymbal, tambourine and triangle in a number called Hanukkah Begins Tonight. (Since he's at the rear of the stage you can't really see just what he's doing, but you can tell he's busy!)



This second clip is from a jazzy version of the Carol of the Bells. This excerpt features the percussion section, including Andy on cowbell.

Daniel in Glee Club's winter concert

The Male Glee Club of Yonkers performed its annual winter concert Sunday. The club is now in its 83rd year, and Daniel has been a member since 1976. He's one of the group's second basses. You'll see him in the right rear corner of the group in this video of the second number in the show, "Get Happy."

Here are excerpts from the final number of the program, Handel's Hallelujah Chorus.

In the audience for the show were Lorraine, Dan, Kathy, Brien, Kevin & Kathy along with Shanna and Kevin. Following the performance, Dan, Kathy and Brien joined Dan & Lorraine at the club's "Afterglow" dinner at the Polish Center.

Look back at the club's spring concert from May 2008.

UPDATE: Track season off to a good start for Patrick

The 2008-09 indoor track season has begun for Patrick and his teammates at Fordham Prep. On Saturday (12/13) he won the gold medal in his category in pole vault during the Catholic High School Athletic Association Relay Carnival, held at the Armory in upper Manhattan.

It was his first vault competition of the season, and Patrick cleared the bar at 9 feet. He's been clearing 10 feet in practice lately, having come a long way from the 7-foot jump that was captured on video during training last winter.

Expectations are high for the Fordham Prep track team this year, according to this Journal-News article.

This fall, after playing as the starting goalie on the school's junior varsity soccer team, Patrick was added to the varsity team's playoff roster as a back-up. That gave him a close-up view of the varsity-level competition as the team made it to the Catholic High School Athletic Association finals, losing the Nov. 1 championship game 1-0 to Molloy.

Patrick hopes to be playing on the varsity team next year (and help it reclaim the title it held in 2006 and 2007). Meantime he's joined a New Rochelle team in a winter league to keep his skills up.

Thanksgiving 2008 in Yonkers

The Yonkers residents in the family all came together from their separate feasts for dessert at Daniel and Lorraine's home. And yes, pie was involved!



(If you click on the slideshow it will take you to Picasa where you can see larger images.)

UPDATE: Move east planned for January

Marie, Brian and Xander are now planning their cross-country move for mid-to-late January, rather than right around New Year's.

Marie writes that they've decided to stay in California a few extra weeks as they hand off operations of the Regal Ribbons business back to her mom. "We haven't settled on a firm date of arrival yet, but it'll definitely be January," Marie says.

Meanwhile they're getting ready for a fun Christmas with a 2-year-old. "We've been going out for evening drives to check out the Christmas lights around town. Xander's favorite house has an inflatable, light-up Thomas train and Mickey Mouse on the lawn, making it the coolest lawn he's ever seen." Yes, Xander is a huge fan of Thomas the Tank Engine.

Kevin's latest career move

Kevin moved to a new job this fall, becoming billing and operations manager at Smart Source LLC, a printing services management company.

Among other things that means that after a little more than a year of commuting across the Hudson River to New Jersey, he's working in Manhattan again, an easy trip by subway or express bus.

Following the merger of Lanier Worldwide, where he had been working, and Ricoh Inc., Kevin was promoted to Northeast manager of accounts receivable at Ricoh's regional corporate office in Fairfield, N.J. But the hassle and costs of the commute prompted him to look for another opportunity and he found it at Smart Source in September.

The company manages its clients' needs for printed materials ranging from stationery and forms to marketing and promotional materials. You can see more on its web site.

UPDATE: Shanna's return to MTV is on the Web

MTV has posted video clips from its "Britney's Fans: For the Record" special on which Shanna appeared.

Shanna tells us: "Today (Dec. 2) I went to MTV Studios in Times Square to be a part of yet another Britney Spears show! Not only was it a great experience, but it was extra special since today is Britney's 27th Birthday and the day her new album "Circus" hits stores.

"The show is different from the last one I did. Instead of being interviewed one at a time, 25 Britney fans filled a Britney-themed studio and commented on her documentary 'For the Record' which aired a few days ago on MTV."

The show debuted Dec. 3 following a rebroadcast of the documentary about the pop star. It was rerun Dec. 5 and 6, and posted on MTV's web site in the form of four clips. The first 5-minute clip includes Shanna's comments, beginning at about the 4-minute mark.

MTV Shows

The other clips from the show can be seen on MTV's web site. There's no more commentary from Shanna, but in the fourth clip she has moved to a spot close to the emcee and gets a good bit of camera time.

If you've got nothing better to do...

...check out the little extras on these Birch Street Web pages:

The Family Calendar - Shows upcoming birthdays and other notable dates. Please send in any that you'd like to add.

The Weather Station - See what the weather's like for our far-flung family members.

The Just for Fun Page - Feed the fish, play with the penguins, try a game of Hangman or Suduko, etc.

Got any ideas for things to add to the site? Send me your suggestions. Thanks.

--Webmaster Dan

Keeping the beat

Andy, who plays percussion in his school band and has been taking lessons on his snare drum, was anxious to start working on a full drum set. His Uncle Doug's drums were sitting unused in the storeroom over his garage in Maryland. Thanks to Doug, Andy's now following in his uncle's footsteps, rocking out in his basement in New Jersey on this vintage set.

Andy also follows his big brother Dan in his choice of instruments. Dan was part of the award-winning drum line of the Live Oak High School marching band, class of 1999. This photo was taken around that time in the garage of his California home.