December 15, 2008
Editors: Vike and Wendy Vicente
Anyone still needing a Christmas tree can visit Sundback's on Wisconsin Avenue where Patrick Boland is working for the holidays. He'll be happy to help you. Patrick will begin training in Atlanta with Insurance House. After his training he will return to a local Insurance House office to work.
Many families look forward to sharing the holiday with friends and family while the children look foward to a Christmas Eve visit by a man in a red suit.
Leland Street is lighting up for the holidays. Our lovely block is sparkling after dark as we find our way home during the holiday season.
Ann Lee and her family's annual Caroling event brought merriment to a bitter cold first night of winter.
Following the caroling up and down Leland Street, everyone returned to the Lee home for mulled cider, wine, gingerbread cookies, and a tempting display of homemade holiday cookies.
The rain and cold that swept over Chevy Chase this fall has kept neighbors from seeing much of each other, so it was great fun to sgather together and catch up on family news.
Marcy and Arthur want to thank Vike Vicente for the greatest act of neighborly kindness and concern.
Arthur slipped on a pile of wet leaves late on a Saturday night upon returning from a trip to California. Arthur hit the street with such an impact it was immediately evident that stitches were called for. Arthur received terrific treatment at Suburban Hospital Emergency Room including a CAT scan, hand X-Ray and stitches.
After hearing about Arthur's injury, Vike came by to check on him and then returned a few days later to personally remove the stitches. It was great for Arthur to have such personal caring treatment in the comfort of his own home. We are grateful to have such a wonderful neighbor. (your editors humbly state, the Forrest's comments are unsolicited)
Ayaz
We spent Thanksgiving in Arizona this year and enjoyed the sunshine! Arianna and Sophia had a lot of fun with their Grandparents. We celebrated Nicole’s father’s 60th birthday and her brother’s 40th. Arianna learned how to go down the big water slide for the first time! We are excited to be back in Chevy Chase and are looking forward to all of the Holiday festivities. We wish every one a very happy Holiday Season!
Boland
Our wonderful Thanksgiving was followed two days later by the Baptism of Mae Catherine Burkhart, Shannon and Joe's second child. The two events, attended by extended family, created a memorable weekend.
In January, Leanne and Jimmy will enjoy a weekend in NYC seeing "South Pacific" and "In The Heights".
Neighbors have expressed interest in ordering a tree plaque in memory of Dorothy and Henry Bedell, as was done for Sue Patch. Dorothy lived at 4111 Leland Street for 45 years, and Henry for 24 years. The plaque would be placed below a young tree, previously planted by the town, close to 4111. With more donations this plaque could be ordered soon. Kindly send donations to Leanne Boland.
Cosmas
Late breaking news: Daughter Jennifer and her husband Evan Boone had a BEAUTIFUL baby boy on Friday morning (just after midnight) in California. His name is Casey William Armstrong Boone. 7lbs. 8oz. 20.5 inches. Mother and baby are fabulous, but exhausted after 28 hours of labor and an ultimate C-section. His grandfather and I are beyond ourselves. What a magical and wonderful thing to happen just before Christmas.
Will was home for a week at Thanksgiving and it was such a treat to spend so much time with our busy newly minted lawyer.
A high point of the week was meeting the family of his lady-love, Karen Clawson, on Saturday night. Karen, who lives in Cambridge, MA, came from Pittsburgh with her mother and step-father to celebrate the 30th birthday of her brother, Ken, who lives in Germantown. Happily for us, they were all able to join us for a Greek feast at our house. Karen is smart and beautiful. Her family is terrific. In fact, her step-father, Phil, is an affirmed member of the Bad Joke Club. This is an invention of mine to explain the great affection I feel for my husband and Arthur Forrest during joke swapping sessions.
Call it mother's intuition, but watch this space for more Will and Karen news.
Duffy
Matthew and Bonnie travelled to Chapel Hill, NC for a few days leading up to the election. On election morning, we were tickled by this very creative effort to get voters to the polls.
Bonnie reports that callers to the Duffy household should not be surprised if Matthew answers the phone. Editors note: Matthew is a pro, and is more polite than any of the adults I spoke with today (okay, maybe other than Bonnie.) When Matthew pulled into the parking lot of White Flint Mall to see Santa Claus this year, he asked, “Mommy, is this the North Pole?” The whole family looks forward to spending Christmas in North Carolina. Here is a photo of the family gathered in North Carolina. The day after Thanksgiving we celebrated Charles' mother's birthday. All of Charles' siblings and their children were there - Matthew loved being with his large group Duffy cousins.
We all recently enjoyed a trip to Homestead farm where Matthew enjoyed helping Charles cut down our Christmas tree.
Forrest
Arthur and Marcy had a quick trip to California for Arthur’s first production meetings for the NBC Rose Parade. This year’s theme is “Hats Off to Entertainment.”
Upon return, they had a full house prior to and throughout the Thanksgiving week. Zak returned home along with two friends and production buddies from a five day film shoot of concert bands in NYC, Connecticut and ending with the 20 plus band Brainwaves Music Festival in Boston. They immediately immersed themselves in the round the clock editing process before setting out for a project with another rock group.
Also checking into the “Forrest Inn” was recently married, niece Emily and husband Rob. In addition to the pleasure of their company, Rob, a professional photographer, took individual portraits for his project of capturing every extended family member at this point in time.
If there is a Washingtonian happening, it seems Nicole is there. She recently attended the DNC election night party, the reopening of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
and she also attended the Mark Twain Award night at the Kennedy Center posthumously given to George Carlin. Nicole said it was wonderful to laugh all night long. The guest list included performances by Jon Stewart, Denis Leary, Lily Tomlin, Lewis Black and Bill Maher. Marvelous entertainment. Nicole says, anyone who ever made her laugh contributed their humor to the evening's presentation.
Marcy is preparing for the family Solstice celebration and loves seeing all the holiday decor go up in their home, on the street and in town. She is also quite pleased that our exterior lights went up without any tumbles.
Arthur was honored that Maria Olsen took an interest in writing an article about him for the November-December edition of Bethesda Magazine. Maria did an extraordinary task of sorting out the information and quotes she collected in researching for the article. Arthur particularly thanks Vicky Delancy and Charles Duffy for being kind in their quotes about him....he says he is sure they have material to the contrary!
Kazin/Horowitz
Our big news is that Maia got into Stanford last night. We're all thrilled.
We had a lovely Thanksgiving with friends in North Carolina. Michael is reading Half a Life by V.S. Naipaul, which is brilliant and depressing. Beth is reading a biography of Lincoln by Fred Kaplan, which traces the literary influences on his oratory. The four of us will be in Key West for a few days over Christmas, chasing the sun.
Strother
The Strothers have enjoyed their usual Thanksgiving and pre-Christmas activities, beginning with Thanksgiving dinner for twenty in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania hosted by Molly's sister and brother-in-law. William is in tenth grade at St Albans, has made the transition from being JV quarterback to lacrosse winter conditioning and Sunday league play, and is winding up his thirty hours of driver's education. Molly was a house chair for the St Albans Christmas House Tour, showing a beautiful Georgetown home that all of us could dream of inhabiting, and Jim helped out with the buses transporting guests between the houses and the school.
Trocchio
We had a houseful for Thanksgiving: my sister and her sons visited from Wisconsin and the boys looked at some colleges. My brother and his family came back from their new home in NYC and of course we had Jennie and Elizabeth. Jennie loves her job at Casa Blanca Academy in Hollywood, a brand new school for autistic children. If anyone wants to make a Christmas donation that would make an impact, the school needs lots of thing. Ask Julie for a wish list.
Your editors wish everyone a safe and happy holiday.
