Andy drums in holiday concert

Park Middle School Band presented its 7th and 8th Grade Winter Concert on Dec. 15. The program included the "Blue Notes" singers, the full school chorus and the school band. Eighth-grader Andy is the band's first-chair drummer.

Here the band performs a medley of "Carol of the Bells" and "Greensleeves." Andy is in the percussion section in the right rear, playing suspended cymbal and triangle.



This video gives a closer view as Andy plays snare drum on "Coventry Carol."

Singing out with holiday glee (Updated with video)

The Male Glee Club of Yonkers performed its annual Winter Concert on Sunday (Dec. 13), featuring numbers by the likes of Rodgers and Hammerstein and George Gershwin as well as holiday classics like the Twelve Days of Christmas and White Christmas.

Daniel, seen at top right, has been singing with the club since 1976. For this show the audience included his wife, Lorraine; daughter Kathy and her husband, Ted; sons Dan, Brien and Kevin, plus Kevin's wife, Kathy, and their children Shanna and Kevin.

Here's a two-minute clip of excerpts from some of the Christmas songs in the show.

First snowfall of the season

The view in Hamilton, NJ:

Getting into the holiday spirit

Xander went with his family the Winter Wonderland festival at Kuser Farm Park in Hamilton Township.


Xander's Grandma Barbara says "Blue was the hit of the night."

In memory of Anamarie (Updated 12/3)

Our family is saddened by the passing of Anamarie, mother of Larry, Emory and Nanette, grandmother of Courtney, sister of Daniel and their late brother Austin, and "Aunt Anamarie" or "Aunt Ann" to so many of us.
A wonderful and joyful lady, Anamarie passed away at her daughter's home in Florida on Thanksgiving evening. A memorial service will be held Saturday, Dec. 5 at 2 p.m. at Aycock Funeral Home in Jupiter, Fla. A second memorial will take place in New York at a later date.

We are building a web page dedicated to Anamarie's memory, so please send along any stories and photos you'd like to share. Click here to see the page.

UPDATE: A wonderful selection of photos from Anamarie's life has been posted at "Making Everlasting Memories" (www.mem.com). A few of them are also on our memorial page. For the rest, click here to go to the MEM pages dedicated to Anamarie and choose the "Images" and "New Gallery" links.

Happy Thanksgiving from Maryland

Doug and Lisa returned to their Maryland home to host a Thanksgiving weekend gathering for both sides of their family.
Above, Doug and Lisa are at top right beside Doug's sister Julie; her husband, Dan; Doug's parents, Dolores and Hugh; and Doug's sister Cathy. In front are Doug and Lisa's daughters, Rebecca and Lizzie, and seated behind them are their cousins Stephanie, Christine, Andy and Christopher.

Below, Lisa stands with her brother Rick, sister Sue and Sue's husband, Dave; seated between Rebecca and Lizzie is Sue and Dave's daughter Kathy.
It was a weekend of good food, conversation and relaxation (with a bit of clean-up work around the property thrown in).

Plus a spontaneous rock concert -- that is, a spur-of-the-moment trip by Rebecca, Kathy, Christine, Andy, Julie and Dan to a nearby theater to see Crack the Sky, a band that was very popular in Baltimore in the 1970s and still plays occasional concerts in the area. Julie has always been a big fan, and it's rubbed off on her husband and kids.

Happy Thanksgiving from New Jersey

Brian; his dad, Steve; Xander and Marie sit down for a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner, as Barbara takes the photo.

Send us your Thanksgiving stories and photos - Keep in touch!

Honeymoon in St. Thomas

John and Genevieve had a dream honeymoon on St. Thomas, and now we have some photos courtesy of Genevieve's Facebook page.

John gazing contemplatively from the balcony of their room.

Dinner on the beach.

Genevieve looking mahvelous on the hotel grounds.

During a catamaran cruise.

Birch Street Web's coverage of the wedding
Preview the official wedding photos

An early visit with Santa

Xander got a jump on the holiday season by getting in some pre-Thanksgiving face-time with Santa. Nothing like getting your requests in early!

Newlyweds settling in at home

Genevieve and John arrived home in California on Tuesday after their honeymoon in St. Thomas. "The trip was great," John says. "Will send some pictures soon, once we've settled in."

The newlyweds are hosting John's mother and sister Kelly for an early Thanksgiving celebration this weekend. After that they plan a fairly quiet T-day at home.

See the official photos from Genevieve and John's wedding (Updated 11/16)

Genevieve and John's photographers have now posted their wedding photos on the Ulysses Photography website. There are hundreds of wonderful pictures that can be previewed there.

You can get to the album by going to ulyssesphotography.com and clicking "Client Proofs" and then choosing Genevieve & John's wedding. You'll be asked to enter an e-mail address in order to see the proofs.

Meanwhile ... some of John and Genevieve's friends have been posting pics of the event on Facebook... Here's the best shot of the ceremony itself that we've seen so far:

Photo by Giselle

See Birch Street Web's coverage of the wedding

Doug and Lisa explore Death Valley

Continuing to make the most of their residency in Nevada, Doug and Lisa took a trip into Death Valley and brought back some great photos.

Darwin Falls

Mt. McKinley as seen through a natural arch at Alabama Hills, near Lone Pines, Calif.

Doug peers through an arch

Genevieve and John get married - and the crowd goes wild

Genevieve and John were married in a beautiful ceremony at Our Lady of Fatima church in Scarsdale on Nov. 7. They celebrated with family and friends in a joyous reception at the Tarrytown House, where bride, groom and guests danced up a storm late into the evening.

Here are some video highlights: First, John and Genevieve exiting the church amid cheers and birdseed.



John and Genevieve make their entrance at the reception.



Genevieve dances with John and with her Dad:



The evening wrapped up with this sing-along-dance-along finale:



Here are just some of the photos Dan took:



More photos in these albums:

Genevieve and John's wedding - Shanna's photos	G&J Wedding - Guests - Dan's Photos

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Now! A new Birch Street Web feature!
ADD YOUR PHOTOS!
Read this to find out how.

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See John and Genevieve's wedding website

Sneak a peek at the "official" photos

NEW! A way we can all share photos

Webmaster Dan says:

I've created a new account on Picasa where we can all share photos. Here's how:

->Click this link to Picasa
->Enter this in the E-mail field: birchstreetsharing
->Enter this in the Password field: keepingintouch

You'll see photo albums added so far, and you can add your own pictures by clicking the Upload button. Following the prompts, you can create a new album or add to an existing album. You can add captions to the photos, put comments on other people's photos, e-mail links to friends, etc. (I recommend setting the albums to "Unlisted" so they won't show up in web searches.)

Once you've added pictures, let me know by sending an e-mail to birchstreetweb@gmail.com and I'll spread the word here on Birch Street Web.

Any questions? Contact me.

Andy chosen for school's jazz band

Andy auditioned and was selected as one of three drummers in the Park Middle School Jazz Band. He placed first in the scoring (59 out of 60) and was assigned the most difficult piece to perform in the band's concert later this term.

He's also a member of the percussion section of the school's Concert Band, which has a holiday show in December and another concert in the spring. The spring show will include a number called "Jai Ho" from the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" on which Andy will play the drum set part.

The terror of Tibbets Road

At Kevin and Kathy's home, son Kevin takes charge of the Halloween decorations and creates his own spooky audio-animatronic display.

At left you can see a full-sized skeleton rigged up to move and a pirate skeleton emerging from the ground.

Shanna sent along a video clip of what nighttime trick-or-treaters saw when they came to the house.

"You can't see it all in the video but the front gate opened by itself when the trick-or-treaters got to it," Shanna says.

"There were skeletons with strobe lights and blinking eyes in the bushes. The skeleton on the stairs also moved when the kids were getting their candy."

(The video starts out pitch black, but give it a few moments.)

See more Halloween pictures

Share your pictures and stories

SPFHS marching band's season finale

The Scotch Plains-Fanwood Raiders Marching Band wrapped up its competition season with a great show Sunday night at the USSBA Northern States championships in Allentown, Pa.

Christine enjoyed her third year in the band's flute section, and her brother Andy is looking forward to joining next fall, the one year that both will be students at SPFHS.

Soccer update: Fordham Prep wins CHSAA quarter-final game

The Fordham Prep boys soccer team advanced to the semi-finals in the CHSAA Varsity A playoffs with a 1-0 win over Iona Prep on Saturday.

Patrick, a junior, is the backup goalkeeper on the Fordham Prep varsity team. They'll face Archbishop Molloy on Thursday in a game to be played at St. John's University.