Happenings since January

I have some catching up to do!

• In February, my sister and I went to San Antonio to visit our other sister and help celebrate my sister's 50th birthday. We had such a good time with family and celebrating Texas style with good food, rodeo, Brooks and Dunn concert, shopping, Riverwalk, dancing in our new cowboy boots at Gruene Hall and much more.
  


• March we celebrated Lydia's 5th birthday! Can't believe she is 5 already.



• May we went up to dad's with our youngest sister meeting us there. Was more hands to do the work and so much fun visiting with everyone. Playing WII was a big hit also.



• June we went to Naomi and Lydia's closing program at school. Lydia loves to sing. Naomi played the handbells. It was fun to see her concentrate to make sure she did it just right.
  


• July we had a great deck cookout at Brian and Sarah's and played games. We took in a Phillies game on July 4th.



• Been enjoying the great summer weather we have had so far this year. We have yet to turn on our central air since the temps in the evening have been so nice.
  
  Will try to post little more regularly going forward and elaborate little more.
  
  

My sister, Donna

On January 10, my sister celebrated her 50th birthday with a surprise party organized by her children, Andrew and Christine. Family, co-workers from Glaxo SmithKline, and neighbors and friends attended. It was nice to see Donna so pleasantly surprised and enjoying herself. It was held at a restaurant/bar in Conshohocken where she lives. There was a light snow fall that night which made it look so pretty. My gift to my sister is a trip to San Antonio, TX to visit our other sister where we have some surprises for Donna there too. We leave on Feb. 12 and will stay a week. Donna is a very special sister to me since she has lived here near me for many years and is such a part of my life. I don't know what I would do without her. She has been my only family while living here all these years. I love her and am thankful for her. I wrote 50 reasons why she is special for her birthday. It was very easy to do since we do so many things together. Recently we have begun scrapbooking together. She is good at keeping me on task. Love ya, sis (my twin) :) and looking forward to going to Texas with you!

WHERE DID TIME GO??

I feel like I need to fill you in somewhat on what's been going on in my life to keep me busy.

So, after our September trip to celebrate my Great Aunt Faye's 100th birthday spending time with my sister Dee, Aunt Jo along with my other sister, Debbie and Donna, we did go make another trip up to my dad's for our traditional fall road trip visiting the corn maze/hayride. Fall is my favorite season and we love the farm country up in Williamsport. Plus this initiates us into fall!

(Christine, dad, and Donna)

Then we celebrated Naomi's 6th birthday in October. We had also had Dave's birthday, Melody's birthday, and Phil's birthday in October. Jon and Mel had family over to their house to help Naomi celebrate even though she was not feeling too well that day.

(Naomi, Darlene, Lydia)

Our first grandparents day at Open Door Christian Academy was in November. Naomi enjoyed having both sets of grandparents there and we enjoyed being there with her.

(Dave, Darlene, Naomi)

Donna, Jon, Mel and girls and Bethany and Phil were here at our house for Thanksgiving dinner which was fun. I tried some couple new dishes this year finding the recipes on the web. One was a new stuffing recipe and the other was with yellow squash. Both turned out good if I say so myself. We played games, worked on our Christmas wish lists, watched football, and worked on a holiday crossword puzzle. The weekend after Thanksgiving, Debbie and Ralph Shay from Texas came for a visit and we enjoyed seeing them a couple of times.

I celebrated my birthday before the Christmas holidays. December is always busy getting ready for Christmas, shopping, baking, wrapping, etc. Our family get together was at Jon and Mel's on Christmas Eve. Lydia said, I got everything I wanted! Naomi asked me after New Year's if she was ever going to see me again -- we did see a lot of each other from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Mel, Lydia, Jon, Naomi Phil & Bethany Brian & Sarah


Donna, Andrew, Christine Donna & Darlene

Happy New Year -- 2009!

Happy 100th Birthday, Aunt Faye

My great Aunt Faye turned 100 on Sept. 10. She is my grandma DeVillars sister (the only living sibling) and lives out in a nursing home in western PA where I grew up. We love Aunt Faye and her children and their children. It was certainly an honor to travel out to help her celebrate her birthday at a party on Sept. 14. My sister from Texas flew up to Philly and traveled with us to our dad's who then drove us out to western PA. We stayed overnight and spent some time with our sister who lives out there. Us sisters hadn't been all together in over 5 years. We saw so many relatives we hadn't seen in such a long time.

We also got to see our Aunt Jo from Ohio -- our deceased mother's only sibling. Four of her five children and their spouses came too for a picnic. My Texas sister hadn't seen Aunt Jo in about 25 years. It was a very full and jammed packed weekend in western PA. The trip back home that same day was difficult and long, but we enjoyed our time together talking. It was definitely a trip we will remember for a long time.

Is it really fall?

I can't move onto fall until I wrap up summer. In August, we spent a wonderful week in Stone Harbor, NJ. We had a perfect week of weather and fun. One person missing in this picture is my sister Donna who was taking the picture. She wasn't able to go last year and was sorely missed so we all loved having her again this year. She adds so much! We ate good thanks to the young cooks. We took the girls to the Cape May Zoo which was fun too. We enjoy the beach and pool equally and are glad to have both. Our one dinner out was in Somer's Point at the Crab Trap which was super and well worth the wait to get in. It is sad to see our relaxing summer come to an end but we cherish the memories and look forward to next year!

Summer's end

I am glad to have gotten to the beach three times this year -- Wildwood with my sister, Ocean City with Bethany and Phil, and then Stone Harbor with all the family. Ocean City was very relaxing. Bethany and I enjoyed sitting on the beach reading in the morning and then walking the boardwalk and shopping. We went back to the place we were staying in Somers Point for lunch and then relax some more playing games or more shopping while we waited for Phil to get off work. We went to a movie one night and saw Wall-E. The weather was nice. We found a new love -- Shriver's gelato. I think the coconut or pistachio were my favorite flavors. It definitely hit the spot and kept us coming back for more :)

Phillies and 4th of July

Fourth of July in Philly at a Phillies vs. NY Mets game -- complete with hot dogs, water ice, soft pretzels, Philly Cheesesteaks, warm summer evening with family and friends and the Phillies WON! Was a wonderful day!