Everything is Coming Up Roses

Marcy and Arthur enjoyed a rosie start to the New Year at the Tournament of Roses Parade where Arthur once again served as
Executive Producer/Director for the NBC production. This year's theme was "Hats Off to Entertainment."

The new year brings New Neighbors to 4111 Leland Street


We extend a warm welcome to Phil and Jody Fidler.
Jody writes:
We're looking forward to warmer weather so we can be outside more! We arrived here at the beginning of January with Max(10), Jack (soon to be 7) and our shitzu-poo Suzie, after nine years in Fairfield, Connecticut. The boys have been playing a lot of basketball at the Leland Center and they are enjoying the fact that school closes if there is a snowflake sighting. They are both looking forward to playing baseball in the spring and Jack is hoping for "kid pitch". We are very grateful to Melissa, Doug, Molly and Gordon for their hospitality, local guidance on important things like Chinese delivery and most of all, outgrown Pokemon cards! We look forward to meeting everyone. Feel free to stop over! Jody

AYAZ:
Nicole reports that the family celebrated the holidays with many visitors! Nicole's parents came from Arizona and her brother came for his first visit from Los Angeles. They enjoyed several family reunions with relatives visiting from Philadelphia and San Francisco!!!

They took Arianna and Sophia to New York to visit the ice rink at Rockefeller Center and take a Carriage Ride through Central Park. The girls were thrilled with the snow in NYC!!! Leland Street was beautiful and the whole family enjoyed everyone's festive decorations. We took the kids sledding at Chevy Chase park. The girls are loving the snow! Nicole sends wishes for a happy and healthy New Year to all her new neighbors!

COSMAS: The Cosmas family had a wonderful Christmas holiday. Will was home and Bill and Farrell spent a quite day with him and Ned and Lisa Fitch, brother and sister-in-law. Before Will went back to move into his new apartment in Somerville with Lady-love Karen, they all saw a lot of his old friends from St. Albans. It was great fun to catch up with all of these young men who used to gather at our house virtually every weekend and who call Farrell "Mama Cos" and Bill "Hot Bill." They are all now thirty and pursuing careers from acting, performing and writing music to promoting sustainable fish cuisine, doctoring and lawyering. Hard to believe! Time does fly.
Bill and Farrell welcome to the world their new grandson, Casey William Armstrong Boone. New born son of daughter, Jenny and husband, Evan Boone.

The family enjoyed a visit by daughter Lisa and her two toddlers Oscar and Josie on January 23rd.

Matthew Duffy and Oscar enjoyed the first snowfall of the year, it was so cold that icicles froze into fangs on Papa Bear at the Forrest home!


Delancy:
Special thanks to Ann Lee for hosting her annual caroling party. It was such a festive start to the holiday season, and a cheerful setting for catching up with neighbors. Most of Vicky's family was here for Christmas and Paul's 14th birthday, which was on the 26th. For a birthday outing, we all went to see the movie "Valkyrie," which worked for all ages, teenagers and up, and then later had dinner at Clyde's in Friendship Heights. Russell and Vicky spent nearly 5 hours at the MVA on new year's eve day and came away with Russell's driver's license. Mission accomplished in 2008!!

Other movies we saw recently and would recommend are "I've Loved You So Long" and "Gran Torino," (though we didn't take the 14-year-old to either of these -- these are adult movies!). Now that school has started again, we are hoping for snowy days and school cancellations, so that we can take the boys snowboarding. Paul's birthday present was a snowboard (or was it his Christmas present?!? --it's all a blur.) May 2009 be a happy, healthy year for all!

We had a wonderful day down at the inauguration. So exciting! I think we did well because we didn't have tickets. We just took the metro down at a reasonable hour and walked over to the WWII Memorial, in front of 2 jumbotrons.



Then later walked over to Ben's office on Penn. Ave. to get a good window view of the parade. Saw the Obamas for a split second before they got back into the car. It was a wonderful, memorable day!!



DUFFY:
Bonnie reports that they all enjoyed being with family in Chapel Hill for Christmas. Afterwards, they joined Charles' sister and family on a short trip to Philadelphia. They found the city to be quite fun and interesting.

Matthew particularly liked the "Please Touch" children's museum and the Fire House Museum. The older cousins were fascinated by the history lessons of Independence Hall. And Matthew's cousin Sophia found out how loud the guards yell when you reach past the cord and touch the liberty bell.
Charles' mother joined the Duffys for an extended visit to ring in the New Year. Matthew enjoyed a January visit by Farrell and Bill Cosmas' grandchildren, Oscar and Josie.

Matthew and cousins got into the full spirit of the 2009 Super Bowl game.

Happy New Year to all our Leland Street neighbors.

FORREST:
Marcy and Arthur flew to California on Christmas Day for Arthur's final production week for the NBC Rose Parade. It is a lively week of socializing with long time friends in addition to NBC events and Rose Parade events. A highlight of the week for Marcy is taking a tour of the Rose Parade float constructions. It is fascinating to see everything from petals to peppercorns attached to the huge floats. Here is a photo of the magnificent "Wizard of Oz" float under construction.

The parade rolled down the streets of Pasadena in bright sunshine and cool breezes on New Year's Day. As Arthur stepped into the control booth and put on his head set, Marcy was joined in the stands by family and friends. Following the parade, Arthur flew home to Chevy Chase and Marcy and her family drove south to Laguna to clear out and close down a family home.

Zak had a full house between the holidays with production buddies enjoying hours and hours, day after day of friendship, film, food and editing work they have recently filmed at music festivals.
Nicole hosted a holiday brunch with her girlfriends, and enjoyed a full vacation week of holiday fun catching up on newly released films and seeing the classic "It's a Wonderful Life" at the AFI in Silver Springs. She also enjoyed a varied round of holiday parties including a poker party and a New Year's Eve dinner.

Nicole and Steve were among the warm hearted souls with cold feet and frozen fingers on Inauguration Day. They had a great view of the proceedings from the lawn of the Capital. It was a thrilling experience on many levels.

PAYNE: The Paynes had a wonderful Christmas. Maggie's three sisters and their families flew in from France and Ohio to celebrate their mom's life and had a family reunion at the Inn at Vaucluse Springs in Virginia...a wonderful old, rustic country inn only an hour and half from DC. We first read about it in Washingtonian and have been going there for past 2 years...great place in winter and summer...a world away, which we highly recommend, especially the Chumley House.
The whole family then drove 9 hrs to our beach house in Charleston, where we had a fabulous week in 75 degree weather with sunny skies and a very happy puppy.

Yes, our big news is that Santa brought a puppy for Xmas. We have a 12 week old Golden Doodle called Chloe. Our first dog ever and we are loving the new addition. Hope to see all of you more now that we have great motivation to take long walks around the neighborhood. Chloe is particularly fond of the Taplins front lawn polar bear which she will miss greatly when the Xmas decorations come down.

TROCCHIO: The Trocchio's had lots of company over the holidays, travelers from Atlanta to Long Island. Jennie was home for Christmas but went back to Florida where she spent New Year's Eve in Key West. Julie saw Marley and Me and loved it, Elizabeth saw Yes Man and said it was mostly good.


WOLFF/DANIEL: The Wolff/Daniel family spent Christmas and New Years in Sarasota and Long Boat Key, Florida, where Miriam's father lives, and were joined by many family relatives. Highlights included gorgeous weather, wonderful fresh fish meals, tennis, yoga on the beach, beautiful sunsets, and warm reconnecting with relatives. They also spent a morning canoeing and kayaking the Myakka River, where they nearly ran into a six feet long alligator and also paddled up to great blue herons, roseate spoonbills, black vultures, egrets, and ibises.

David spent a long weekend after New Years in Atlantic City with his college buddies and decided that gambling was not for him. Becky has since returned to snow and rain in Seattle, where she works for Microsoft helping to market Windows Live. Toby (dog) stayed home but was happy to see the family again.
Larry traveled to Pretoria South Africa to attend a conference on education assessments in early December. He visited the Apartheid museum in Johannesburg, and began to understand the dynamics of South Africa's multi-racial society. He did not have time to travel around the country but did get to pet baby cheetahs in the mini game park near the hotel.
Elizabeth saw Yes Man and said it was mostly good.

Miriam recommends the Indian movie "Slumdog Millionaire" which is violent yet deeply moving.
The Wolff Daniels wish everyone a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year.

From from our dear former neighbor, Sylvia Jones exciting news about her daughter in law Emma:
Robert Skalli, chairman of family-owned St. Supery Vineyards & Winery, is pleased to announce the appointment of Emma Swain as president of its acclaimed Napa Valley estate winery effective March 2, 2009. In this newly created position that reports to C.E.O. Michaela Rodeno, Ms. Swain will assume responsibility for vineyard and winery activities as well for SFWAmericas, the winery's import division focused on the Skalli family's wines from the South of France.
Elizabeth saw Yes Man and said it was mostly good.

Ms. Swain brings a strong background in strategy, sales, marketing, finance, operations and export to her new position from 17 years of experience at Sebastiani Vineyards, a venerable Sonoma producer she helped restructure as a super-premium winery, and Niebaum-Coppola.