Rebecca a silver medalist in curling Mixed Nationals

A little more than a month after taking part in USA Curling's Women's National Championship tournament, Rebecca was on the ice again in the Mixed National Championship competition, held March 24-30 in Denver.

Rebecca played second position on a Rochester-based team that took the silver medal. It was one of two teams from the Grand National Curling Club, an association of Northeast and Mid-Atlantic clubs, that qualified for the tournament. The other was based at Rebecca's former home club in Potomac, Md.

The two teams finished the round-robin with 7-2 records, won their semi-final games and met in the final, where the Maryland-based team took the gold.

At 2 days old, Lucy heads home

Shanna and Rick took their baby daughter home on Thursday, two days after she joined the family.

New grandpa Kevin writes: "Lucy Jean surprised us all when she decided March 26th was the day to arrive into the world, a little more than two weeks before her expected day -- but we couldn't have been more thrilled to welcome her."

"Named after Rick's Grandma Lucille and Shanna's Grandma Jean, she is doing well," Kevin wrote shortly before Lucy headed home with her Mom and Dad. "We are all so thrilled that she is now part of our family."

Shanna and Rick have a baby daughter!

Rick and Shanna welcomed their daughter into the world on Tuesday morning, March 26.

Lucy Jean arrived at 7:22 a.m. at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, weighing 6 pounds 1 ounce. "Everyone is doing well," reports grandfather Kevin.

More details as they become available!

Owen and Ellen are engaged!

Owen and Ellen are engaged to be married. The couple broke the news to family members at Brien's St. Patrick's Parade Party last weekend (see related article). They plan a quiet wedding October followed by a trip to Europe.

7th annual St. Pat's Parade party at Brien's

Brien hosted his 7th annual St. Patrick's Parade Watch party on March 23, bringing family and friends to his apartment overlooking the McLean Avenue route of the Yonkers parade.

Long-distance travelers to the event included Owen and Ellen from Cape Cod (see related article) and Mary and Roger from Saratoga. Also in the house: Dan and Julie, Kathy and Robert, Genevieve with Bea, Patrick and Kelsey, Kevin and Kathy and their friends Bob and Adele.

The parade itself grows longer every year, this time lasting over an hour under sunny skies with a brisk wind.

The elementary school that Dan, Kathy, Brien, Kevin, Kevin and Shanna attended.

Lorraine attended Sacred Heart High School

After the parade was game time: Mary has often told of how much she enjoyed visiting her cousins in Yonkers as kids, and playing a game called Beat the Clock. Kevin found and bought a vintage-1969 edition of the game so we could re-live the experience. Hilarity ensued!

Andy moving to Albany with new job

Andy will soon be starting a new job in Albany, N.Y.

After completing a "coding bootcamp" at Rutgers University and then serving as a teaching assistant for the program, Andy has been hired as a junior software engineer at Conduent.

The company, which spun off from Xerox in 2017, provides various services to business and government clients. Based in New Jersey, it has offices around the country, and Andy's job is at its downtown Albany location. He starts March 4.

This past weekend, Andy and Shannon picked out an apartment in Guilderland, just outside Albany, and will be moving there over the next two weeks. Shannon will continue with her online studies in web coding and design.

Rebecca's team places 4th in curling nationals

Rebecca in action on Tuesday

Team Senneker battled to the last rock once again on Friday in the tiebreaker round of the USA Curling National Championships, but Team Christensen took the 9-8 win to move on to the next round of the playoffs.

"We had one heck of a week at 2019 USA Curling National Championships in Kalamazoo," Team Senneker posted on its Facebook page. "We took 4th place and had a 5-3 record overall. That is awesome for a first-year team."

"What a team, what a week," Rebecca posted. "Disappointed with the outcome of our final game but still really, really proud of how far we've come this season."

Big win keeps Rebecca's team in contention

UPDATED 2/14: Team Senneker won another squeaker on Thursday, defeating Team Rhyme 6-5 in an extra end to advance to a tiebreaker against Team Christensen, to be played Friday at 1 p.m. The winner will advance to the semi-final.

Back-to-back wins Tuesday night and Wednesday gave Rebecca and Team Senneker a 4-2 record and a tie for third place going into the last day of round-robin competition at the USA Curling National Championships.

Tuesday's game against Team Dubberstein was featured on the live webcast on the 12th End Sports Network. Viewers were treated to a match that came down to the final rock. After falling behind 6-3 after seven ends, Team Senneker came back with one in the eighth, stole two in the ninth to tie and stole another two in the final end for the win.

On Wednesday, Rebecca and her teammates faced off against Team Sinclair - which had gone undefeated in its first five matches. The line score tells the tale of a see-saw battle, with another strong finish by Team Senneker.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Sinclair	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	4
Senneker	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	2	1	6

On Thursday, Team Senneker will be playing for the chance to be one of the three teams that advance to the finals. Its 11 a.m. game against Team Rhyme is slated to be featured on the webcast. If Team Senneker wins, and the other third-place team wins as well, those two will meet in a tiebreaker.

Footnote: A few hours after Wednesday's game, Rebecca joined Joe, a fellow Rochester Curling Club member, in the 12th End Sports Network's broadcast booth to provide commentary on the evening's featured game in the men's competition.

Rebecca's team off to a 2-1 start at Nationals

In this screen-grab from video, Rebecca (No. 8, left foreground) and her teammates celebrate as the final rock thrown by their skip settles right on the button to give them a 1-point victory in their third match at the USA Curling National Championships.

That put Team Senneker in a four-way tie for second after three of the seven rounds in the round-robin portion of the tournament. They lost the first game to Team Roth (which represented the USA in the 2018 Olympics) before winning the next two.

You can keep up with the scores and standings on USA Curling's website. And you can follow Team Senneker on Facebook. On Tuesday evening (Feb. 12), their match against Team Dubberstein is slated to be the featured game on the tournament's live webcast.

Charlie receives sacrament of Baptism

Charles Joseph, son of Vivien and CJ, was baptised on Saturday, Feb. 9, at Our Lake of the Lake in Verona, N.J. A large gathering of relatives and friends attended the ceremony.

The celebrant invited children in the congregation to "help" him bless the water in the baptismal font.

Here's Charlie with his parents just after his encounter with the water of baptism, as his godparents - C.J.'s sister Sara May and Vivien's brother, Patrick, look on.

After the ceremony, the gathering moved to Palazzo Restaurant in Montclair for a wonderful reception. Five-month-old Charlie seemed to thoroughly enjoy meeting so many friends and family members!

Rebecca & teammates compete for national title

The USA Curling National Championships are getting under way in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Rebecca will be competing with her team, led by skip Stephanie Senneker. Their first match is Sunday at noon.

Certain games will be live-streamed on the web, including Team Senneker's match on Tuesday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. Find the webstream here.

For more info, see our previous article or head to the tournament's website.

Winter's in full force - Stay warm, everyone!

As the "polar vortex" sends temperatures plummeting, here are a couple of photos Cathy took after recent snowfalls at her home in Ohio. About six inches fell the weekend of the 12th-13th, and then another six a week later.

"I wanted to go out and take pictures, since it's pretty and sunny," Cathy wrote, "but it's also only 10 degrees out! Brrr!!! So here are a few pictures looking out from the inside."

Andy sharing his web-coding knowledge

After completing a web-coding "bootcamp" through Rutgers University, Andy has now returned to the program - this time as a teaching assistant.

The six-month program trained Andy in "full stack" web development, encompassing a wide range of programming languages and tools. In addition to mastering the course materials, achieving a final grade of A+, he impressed his instructors with his ability to assist fellow students. Upon completing the course in October, he was offered a teaching-assistant job. He started in his new role in mid-January.

In between class sessions, Andy is interviewing for web-developer positions and working on independent projects to further build his portfolio (viewable here).

Rebecca heads to 2019 national curling tournament

Rebecca continues her curling career as a member of Team Senneker - which is headed for the 2019 USA Curling National Championships.

The team qualified for Nationals based on points accumulated in matches this fall. Three other women's teams and five men's teams likewise qualified on points. The top-ranked teams are those headed by John Shuster, skip of the 2018 Olympic Men's Gold Medal team, and by Nina Roth, skip of the U.S. 2018 Olympic Women's team.

Another four men's and three women's berths at Nationals will be determined this month in USA Curling's Challenge Rounds in Minnesota. A junior men's and a junior women's team will be selected to bring the field to 10 men's and 8 women's teams.

The 2019 National Championships will be held Feb. 9-16 in Kalamazoo, Mich. We'll try to keep you updated on Team Senneker's progress!

Rebecca has played in multiple national tournaments. Last year, she was on a team that finished fourth in the Women's Nationals, as well as a team that made it to the final round of the Mixed Nationals. You can find stories from past years by checking our Sports archives.

The Yonkers Christmastime Party, 2018 Edition

The Yonkers branch of the family held its annual holiday gathering Dec. 29. Kathy hosted this year's party at her home. Above, everyone posed for a group portrait, another long-standing tradition.

The crowd included the newest family member, Charlie, the almost-four-month-old son of Vivien and CJ, seen sitting with mom as dad stands behind them. To their left, Beatrice also sits with her mom, Genevieve, with her dad, John, standing behind.

The rest of the roll call: Left to right in the front, Andy and Shannon, Kathy and Robert; seated, Rick and Shanna; standing, Dan, Kevin and Kathy, Christine and Jamie, Kevin, Brien, Roger and Mary, Julie. Absent this year was Kathy's son Patrick, who was on a trip to Ireland with his girlfriend, Kelsey.

Here's just a handful of more-candid photos taken by Dan (click on them for larger views).