Frozen scenes across the Northeast

Most of our extended family is in the deep freeze, as polar air drops deep into the U.S. At this writing, we're expecting temperatures to fall several degrees below zero early Sunday at Birch Street Headquarters in New Jersey.

The photo above was sent on New Year's Eve by Dolores and Hugh from their condo at Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland. Snow fell steadily there from Friday night until that Sunday morning, and the temperature went down to at least -2.

That was before the big East Coast snowstorm of the first week of January. The heaviest snowfall was in New England, and Christine took this photo from the window of her apartment in Norwood, Mass., the next day. At least a foot of snow fell there, but the apartment complex staff did a good job of plowing and shoveling!

   

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."

Stephanie performs with Honors Wind Ensemble

Stephanie participated in the annual Honor Band Showcase held Nov. 18 at the Capital University Conservatory of Music in Columbus. She placed as 3rd chair clarinet in the Honors Wind Ensemble.

Cathy reports: The student musicians "spent time on Friday and Saturday rehearsing music that was performed on Saturday afternoon. They performed two pieces by guest composer Frank Ticheli. Steph was very excited to meet him and work with him, as she has performed some of his works over the years" in her high school concert band.

We have two video clips in which Stephanie is featured:

• Honors Wind Ensemble performs "Sun Dance" by Frank Ticheli 
• Honors Wind Ensemble performs "Earth Song" by Frank Ticheli 

Back at Hilliard Darby High School the following Monday, an awards ceremony marked the completion of the 2017 Marching Band season. "Not only is this the end of Steph's career in Darby Marching Band, but the end of my seven-year involvement as well," Cathy writes.

"Steph was recognized for being a Squad and Section Leader, for being Band President and for her Outstanding Musicianship.

"Also all the Seniors were presented with their plumes. This is the same plume that they wore on their hats for Senior Night (their last home football game) and for the OMEA State Marching Band Finals."

Another musical highlight of Stephanie's senior year is coming up in February, when she takes part in the 2018 Ohio Music Education Association All State Band.

Giving thanks with family

We hope all our extended family enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Please share your pictures and stories!

This is the crowd at Doug and Lisa's home in Maryland, where they were joined on Friday by their daughter Liz; Doug's parents, Hugh and Dolores; Doug's sister Julie and her husband, Dan; Lisa's sister, Sue, and her husband, Dave; Lisa and Sue's brother, David, with his wife, Christine, daughter, Lawson, and son, Ben; and Christine's brother-in-law Sean with children Emma and Owen.

Julie and Dan joined the Maryland gathering after spending Thanksgiving with Marie, Brian and Xander in Virginia. After the long drive down from New Jersey, they enjoyed a wonderful feast prepared by Marie and had a fine time talking and relaxing. Fifth-grader Xander showed how he's using a simplified computer-coding program to create his own games and Brian talked about his latest Electric Catnip art projects.

Because Christine and Andy weren't able to make the trip, Dan and Julie celebrated an early Thanksgiving with them and Shannon the previous weekend.

Kathy posted this photo of herself and Bea enjoying "Thanksgiving Part Two" at Kathy's house over the weekend.

And Mary sent this photo from Ohio, where she spent Thanksgiving with her daughter Shannon, currently stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Wishing a wonderful Thanksgiving to all

Here's hoping everyone's travels, feasting and other activities are the best they can be.

Please share stories and pictures of your Thanksgiving fun!

Coda: Stephanie & band perform at OSU

Stephanie participated in one last event to cap off her career with the Hilliard Darby HS Marching Band. On the weekend of Nov. 11-12, the band performed with the Ohio State University Marching Band and OSU Fall Athletic Band at their "Skull Session" before the OSU/Michigan State football game.


Cathy explains: "What is a Skull Session?" you're probably asking. It is essentially a pre-game rehearsal and pep rally held in St. John Arena on campus that is free to the public (so, it's a big deal in Columbus). Since it was a noon game that day, it meant for a early morning for the students however they performed well. The band played a variety of stand tunes, pre-game music and segments from their award winning 2017 show "The Bridge."

Afterwards, a few Darby band students had been selected to attend the football game with two of the band directors as guests of the OSU Marching Band. Stephanie was one of those lucky students! Despite the cold temperatures, she enjoyed sitting behind the band and having special field access during halftime. OSU went on to win the game 48-3.

Cathy adds: This was the LAST time Steph (and her fellow seniors) would wear the Hilliard Darby Marching Band uniform! (sniff!!)

Dolores gives talk on historic tapestry

Dolores this week gave a lecture at the Oakland, Md., library about the Bayeux Tapestry, a 900-plus-year-old embroidered record of the Battle of Hastings that's housed in a museum in Normandy, France.

As we've previously reported, Dolores filled a long-standing wish to see and examine the tapestry when she and Hugh visited Europe in 2014. She later wrote an article about it for the publication Needle Arts.

"The lecture was a great success," Hugh reports. "More than 40 people showed up and filled the room to standing-room-only. At the end of her talk, Dolores laid out her 1/4 scale model of the tapestry. It was a great hit."

The week before her talk, the local newspaper in Oakland published a very nice write-up about it, which probably helped draw the crowd. You can read the article on the Garret County Republican newspaper's web site, or click here to see how it was displayed in the printed paper.

Catching up on her other recent activities: In October, Dolores judged the 34th annual miniature show held by the Fells Point Gallery.

"Dolores selected prize winners ​in various media including oil, watercolor, pastel, drawing, mixed media and sculpture from among 220 entries," Hugh writes. "The entries were all limited in size to no more than 48 square inches overall including the matte and frame, and most were much smaller."

On Sunday, Oct. 8, Dolores and Hugh attended the opening reception for the show. (Hugh notes that the gallery is no longer in Fells Point, having moved to the Hamden neighborhood of Baltimore).