The theme of this year's Tournament of Roses Parade was "Oh the Places You'll Go." The "Places" you go can involve either imagination or travels. The people of Leland Street always find something interesting to do whether it be in their own homes or elsewhere on the globe. So the theme of this year's seemed so right as a statement of the holiday celebration edition of the Leland Street blog.
Ayaz:
The Ayaz family enjoyed a relaxing Thanksgiving here at home. Tony's mom was visiting from California and we continued our tradition of frying a turkey! It is quite the endeavor but the turkey turns out juicy and delicious every year.
We went to Tucson, AZ to spend the December holidays with Nicole's parents and brother. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed hiking in Sabino Canyon, riding horses & hosting friends & family.
Nicole, Tony, and Nicole's brother went to Las Vegas for the New Year's week-end and went to see The Killers perform, as well as the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Both shows were at the Chelsea Theater in the Cosmopolitan Hotel, a great intimate venue. We enjoyed all the people watching in Las Vegas!
Nicole and Tony have very special news to share. Nicole recently found out she is pregnant.
This was a delightful surprise. and they are thrilled. Their baby girl is due in June. 2013 has already turned out to be full of surprises !
Bateman:
The Batemans enjoyed a relaxing Christmas at home then headed up to Deep Creek (Wisp) to hang out between Christmas and New Year's Day, enjoying the incredible snow - great skiing! - and just enjoying the slower pace. Claire and Jill enjoyed a cookie baking day. Terry, Annie and Claire selected this year’s holiday tree.
All five of us were able to go, along with Will's girlfriend, Jenny, and Annie's boyfriend, Liam. Annie and Claire stayed on at Deep Creek to join up with 14 friends who rented a house to spend a couple of days together ringing in the New Year.
Jill, Will, along with his girlfriend Jenny and annie took a wintery hike at Deep Creek Lake.
Will came home to go to the Redskins game which he said was very exciting albeit COLD. Claire is beginning her training as a yoga instructor. Her goal is to be up and running as a teacher while going back to grad school.
Taplin/Delancy:
Vicky’s sister came to visit in mid-November. We went to see “My Fair Lady” at the Arena Stage, and were singing “I could have danced all night” for days later!
We travelled to Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with Ben’s sister and family and to show Paul the University of Chicago and Northwestern. For movie night, we went to the Cineplex, where some watched “Skyfall” and others “Lincoln” – and everyone came away happy.
Paul’s soccer season is over and so is the B-CC football season. Paul played at those home football games as a member of the Pep Band (tuba), and just about always saw the Duffys there. He will miss his young fan club!
We drove to Massachusetts to spend Christmas with Vicky's family. Her three nieces did much of the holiday cooking, the most unusual and interesting of which was Yorkshire pudding to accompany the roast beef on Christmas Eve!
Russell and Paul show various sides of their personalities when the camera comes out.
After a movie outing to see Les Miz on Christmas afternoon, the evening's entertainment was home movies from Vicky's childhood, which elicited many laughs and snickers from the younger generation!! Game time is always part of family time.
Christmas Day was followed by Paul's 18th birthday on the 26th.
Paul, Russell and Cousins are gathered around the birthday cake. Can you guess the significance of the candles.
He celebrated his passage into official adulthood with all of his adoring extended family, topped off with a lively dinner at a Benihana-type restaurant -- with sake and flames flying!
On New Year's Day, between drafts of college application essays, we took in the NBC broadcast of the Tournament of Roses Parade, directed and produced by Arthur Forrest.
Duffy:
The Duffy's enjoyed being right here on Leland Street for Christmas.
Bonnie's parents came for a visit, and we hosted dinner on Christmas Day with Charles' brother and sister's families who live in McLean.
It was great fun and we all enjoyed having Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins around for the day. Matthew and Bonnie took a pre-Christmas trip to NYC, where we visited Charles' brother and took in all the holiday fun.
We both loved the musical Christmas Story, and the Rockettes too. A spider exhibit at the Natural History Museum entertained us all, but the best was just walking down the street - all the sights and people-watching. Both boys enjoyed some holiday performances - Matthew as a shepard in our church pageant, and Ryan in a songfest at his school.
We spent New Year's Eve with neighbors - the boys enjoyed doing sparklers, and the parents had a yummy Indian meal cooked by our hosts. Alas, we were all deep in sleep before the ball dropped and the Senate acted. On New Years Day we watched the Rose Bowl Parade, always in awe of Arthur Forrest's work!
Flakk/Surlien:
The Surlien Flakks had a lovely October and November, enjoying the beautiful fall weather and colors, especially at the Leland playground, our hangout after school. That was until Sandy started blowing. Water and batteries were bought, preparing for the worst (but at least we got to prepare the yard for winter in an efficient way). We soon realized Christine’s flight to Oslo on October 30 would be cancelled, so would she make the flight from Oslo to Beijing later that week? Luckily, she could leave an empty Dulles on Tuesday, and made it all the way to China. There she spent a week taking Norwegian tourists to all the highlights of Beijing.
For Thanksgiving, we had Christine’s cousin, wife, and two children driving from NYC to be with us.
We took them to Mount Vernon and the Zoo, together with the rest of the families in the DC area. For dinner we had a modified turkey dinner, turkey breast in an orange sauce, but with a big apple pie for dessert!
Forrest:
December is a very predictable month for the Forrest family. Marcy takes a friendship trip to New York City to dine with her gal pals and to see the holiday windows along Fifth Avenue from Bergdorf Goodman's to Rockefeller Center...this seasonal stroll never disappoints.
We have a joyful family celebration with gift exchange in between a holiday brunch and a holiday dinner. Nicole is holding the year’s best gift, our Grandson, Max.
Arthur and Marcy fly off to California for Arthur’s final production of the NBC Tournament of Roses Parade. The Parade festivities begin with The Directors Ball honoring the Grand Marshall and the broadcasters. Arthur and Marcy were thrilled to spend time with the Grand Marshall, Dr. Jane Goodall, world renowned primatologist. Dr. Goodall was incredibly gracious and every word of her speech was inspiring.
Arthur stepped into the control booth for his thirty-second year as Executive Producer~Director for the NBC Rose Parade. Marcy and along with her brother, John and sister, Sheila watched the parade from the NBC viewing stands. This year’s theme was “Oh the Places You’ll Go” this was a perfect theme for us, we grew up as Air Force Kids.
December is a very lively month and a terrific way to end our year. We look forward to the New Year and all that it promises each member of our family and we most especially look forward to every stage of our grandson, Max's first year.
Kazin/Horowitz:
The Kazins had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends from North Carolina with whom we've been sharing (brined) turkey for over 20 years. We were in a particularly celebratory mood because Ami Bera, for whom Danny had been the field director, had just been declared the winner of his congressional race in California District 7.
In honor of the political process, we went to see the movie "Lincoln" before stuffing. Maia left on Saturday for Stanford where she will soon be performing in Sam Sheppard's play "Cowboy Mouth".
In mid-December, Danny and Maia flew to South Africa to spend a couple of weeks together before Maia starts her winter quarter in Capetown.
Kinnaird:
Christmas was a fun time at the Kinnairds house. Joanie and Amanda kicked off the holidays with a quick mother-daughter trip to NYC, braving a trip on Dec 21st, the date rumored to be the end of the world on the Mayan calendar. Time Square was non-chalant about it, even at midnight. The next day while roaming around Little Italy Joanie and Amanda spotted teen heartthrob, Zac Ephron, filming his next movie.
Then it was off to Radio City, where they enjoyed their first time to see the Radio City holiday show. They especially enjoyed the high kicking the Rockette Reindeer segment.
Amanda and Joanie returned to Leland Street just in time to help Steve get the Christmas tree straight in the stand. During the holidays, the house was a festive and noisy headquarters for little cousins, aunts, and uncles who came to visit. Throughout the chaos, David would retreat from time to time to the attic to persevere on those looming college essays and applications.
Steve and Amanda spent their first New Year's Eve alone at home while the kids got together with friends.
Lee:
Thanksgiving at my sister and brother-in-law's mountain house in NC was wonderful as usual with all the singing, piano and guitar music. My concern this year was the 7 hour trip with my dog, Riley, who does not like the car. We had some miserable trips to the beach last summer. As it turned out, Maura and I took my son's dog, Marley, since Michael and Velina had a full car with the 2 kids. Marley and Riley are great friends and the trip couldn't have been better (except for the 7 hour drive!). There were 13 adults, 8 kids and 5 dogs, so it was a very lively time.
Ann has a painting in a juried show at the Strathmore now. The painting of Ian and another painting I will be entering in another juried show coming up. Ann shared some of her recent watercolor paintings with the LSSN blog.
Her grandson, Ian, was the inspiration for one of the works.
I was so happy to meet John and Ashley Holahan and their beautiful, almost 2-year-old daughter, Aisley, our charming new neighbors. And Riley is thrilled to see their big, brown, gentle lab, Logger, through the fence.
Payne/Simpson:
The Paynes enjoyed a fabulous getaway at the Homestead. The weather was perfect for long hikes, iceskating, horseback riding, and swimming in their new outdoor hot springs facilities...a great addition, which we highly recommend to anyone wanting a beautiful, relaxing getaway this winter.
It was so refreshing to see the kids unplugged from their electronics and movies and enthusiastically trying to outdo each other in some steep mountain climbing and spirited games of Scrabble and Mastermind (which was slightly complicated given the colorblindness that runs in our family).
Maggie’s sister's arrival from France for the holidays. The young cousins all had a wonderful time.
Riley:
The Rileys had a nice Thanksgiving. Mark's family traveled in from Erie, PA and Cleveland to celebrate at his brother's house in Triangle, VA. We had dinner with Christine's family at the Four Seasons in Georgetown and then caught up with Mark's family afterwards and spent most of the weekend with them.
We took in some sights with the visitors including the Space Shuttle Discovery at Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. monument downtown on Friday. No Black Friday shopping for us. It was a nice visit and we were thankful to stay in town this holiday.
In early November Mark ran the Ragnar Tennessee race with 11 of his work colleagues. It was a race from Chattanooga, TN to Nashville, TN.
He was up many hours as the race goes around the clock until you cross the finish line. The race was 196.3 miles split between 12 runners. Mark's legs were 5.6, 5.6, and 5.2 miles respectively for a total of 16.4. It was a very fun experience and he is now actually thinking about doing another one next year. The original plan was to never run another step unless being chased.
The Riley's had a quiet Christmas and New Year's. Mark's Mom came to spend about a week with us over Christmas.
Karasik/Rubashkin:
We had New Year's eve dinner at home with Hannah and friends Marin and Lily. Unfortunately, Sophie was in NYC single-handedly programming the Bach festival for WKCR.
Jacob, Pam and David saw Les Mis on Christmas Day and like almost all of the reviewers were unimpressed with the singing, although the staging is pleasing. If you have not already seen, we all recommend Lincoln. Pam and I are looking forward to having all of our children at home for a while.
STROTHER:
They do grow up!
That little boy with a big imagination, has shown that energy, enthusiasm, athletic ability and good schooling, will take you to interesting places.
Jim shared a couple of photos of WIll, one from a Leland Street Halloween and another recent shot from Trinity College.
Trocchio:
Elizabeth is still looking for a Wizards win - hopefully by the time LSSN comes out we will have had more than a few. But she loves dancing for them and is having a great time. Jennie continues to plug away on her dissertation, and stayed in Florida over Thanksgiving to give it the attention it needs. Wishing Leland Sreet a healthy and happy holiday season.
Wolff Daniel:
Larry, David, and Miriam spent a holiday week visiting Becky and her boyfriend Aaron in Washington State.David has finished his first three months teaching music in four Montgomery county public elementary schools.
We spent three nights in the town of Mazama in the Cascade Mountains. Highlights there: cross country skiing, splashing around in a hot tub, hiking and snowshoeing, no Internet or phone service, a great meal prepared by Becky and David, and a 100 point Scrabble game win by David who has replaced Larry as the family Scrabble king.
In Seattle we had dinner with Aaron’s parents and went to several really neat restaurants. Larry and David visited the plant outside of Seattle where Boeing planes are assembled (the pieces are flown and shipped in from around the world) in the world’s largest building.
Becky continues to produce fascinating videos for Microsoft touting Internet Eplorer, the most recent one with 2 million hits
(go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD9FAOPBiDk) and ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkM6RJf15cg).
Larry and Miriam recently had a new adventure, swimming with the Manatees in Crystal River, Florida.
Solomons:
We are living joyfully in Pennswood Village, a Quaker affiliated community located in bucolic Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
To an extraordinary degree, the residents here have been warm toward us. There are so many confortable and stimulating features of living here. One bonus is how close it is to the grandchildren, age 8 and 12.
We are making many new "high caliber" friends. Of course relationships necessarily start out as rather superficial when compared to those we had back “home" in Chevy Chase-- friendships that developed over decades of shared history. ln fact, we miss all of you very much and often feel homesick for the block. As most LSSN readers know, our two next door neighbors Jill Bateman and Ann Lee organized a beautiful party for us in early August. Marcy Forrest offered encouragement, saying "l believe that life is lived in chapters.” Actually the subsequent final packing and move was tougher than we'd anticipated. It’ll probably be a year before we are completely unpacked and organized our possessions. We discovered a new challenge in this, our 51st year of marriage.
