Christmas 1998

Dear Family and Friends,

Happiest of Holidays to you and your families! 1998 sure was the “turn around” year for our family. Julien took a transfer back to New York (as Director of Finance and Business Operations) so in July we packed up our gang (once again) and headed on back home. We had already sold our house in NY, so we were ever so grateful to be able to rent a townhouse with our 3 beasts (1 mean the dogs, not the kids). New Hampshire was wonderful and we felt sad leaving family and friends behind, but we got a great opportunity to go back “home” — and so we did!

The kids are doing great - and we’re back in the same town that we left 1 year ago, so the transition back into school was an easy one. Chris is in the 1(9” grade, about 6’2”, 175 lbs. or so and spends all of his spare time doing an internship at the local cable station taping t.v. shows. He’s already thinking about college and has high hopes for what he would like to do, but will need some “big” scholarships if he chooses a private university. Stephanie is in 8th grade, and just began training for “Track & Field” events so that she can become part of the spring track team at school. Believe it or not, she is learning to pole vault (yes, that’s right) and jump the hurdles. Miracles never cease! She got her braces on her teeth in April and finds it quite the fashion trend to visit the orthodontist to change the color of her bands. Nick is 10 years old and weighs in at about 110 lbs. He just finished his first year of football and has found his “niche” in this sport. He is proud that he never missed one of the 50 some-odd practices, nor missed any of the games won the “Coach Gallo Award” for this accomplishment. He and Steph are both now playing town basketball and it seems that just as one sport ends another has already begun.

We had a crazy summer as Julien was working in NY for 6 weeks before the family could move and then we moved in with my folks for 2 weeks until our place was ready. I’m sure they could tell you some stories to curl your hair, along with the one about us arriving at their house on a Friday night with 2 cars UI, 3 kids, 3 dogs, I bird, and oh — Julien and myself too! We were able to get a few days away as a family and went up to Maine to my Aunt Glady’ s camp to visit family we hadn’t seen in “way too long.” My sister Meg was home from Michigan at the same time and she, too, came along in the van with the dog and us as we headed on north. The kids and Meg made a “royal” attempt to water ski and Steph and Meg were the only ones in our family who got up to an actual standing position! We had a great time visiting with cousins, fishing, picking blueberries and just relaxing.
This was a busy year for me too! I’m back volunteering as the secretary of the “puppy club”, and the newest member (dog) to our family is Atlas, a “white” golden retriever who is a hefty 90 lbs. already! Our club took a trip to Hershey Park, PA with the dogs in September and it was quite a “hoot” riding the monorail and other rides with our dogs. We sure left a lasting impression! I am back working at the middle school in town, but now my official title is “intramural coach” and I work ½ the day running a sports program for the students during their lunch periods. I sure blow a mean whistle and have learned a lot about refereeing games. Who’d ever think — sports and me in the same sentence! I also officially turned 40 this year — and to prove I can do “anything’ went out and bought my first tent. I’m going to get this gang to go camping, no matter what, but I’ve not yet figured out how I can plug in my hair dryer out in the woods!

We’re hoping to be in a house sometime this coming year, and are all looking forward to spending more time with our families again!

God Bless you all .... you’re all loved and missed! Have a Merry Christmas and a safe, New Year!

Love,Pam & Company

This Christmas Season

I have been thinking a lot about Pam lately. I am sure it is the holiday season that Pam always loved so much. You can't help but remember the holidays of years gone by and how warm and wonderful they were. We put up our tree last week and the Pammie ornaments are my favorite (even though when I unwrap them, they make me cry).
-The red, white and blue painted little chair, which is a memory from making garden chairs in Michigan on our first trip there.
-The Appalachian trail marker, which is a memory from the year we hiked on a few(very small) sections of it. Pammie loved the book "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
- A handmade (they all were) ornament with a picture of me and Ed from the first Christmas after we got engaged. The picture of me is not great, but I love it.

We also took out our collection of snow globes. If you told Pam that you were collecting something, you were guaranteed to get one from her. I told her that I decided to collect snow globes for Eddie. So, the little train set snow globe, that is from Polar Express she bought for Eddie. She read that book to Eddie one Christmas Eve. The little snow globe with the angel in it that plays Silent Night and the First Noel she gave to Eddie. When I took them out I told Eddie to never forget that these were from Aunt Pam.

Thank you Pammie for leaving us so many things that remind us of you.

Christmas Letter: 1996

December 1996

Dearest Family, Friends, and Country Folk,

Holiday greetings from Warwick, New York! Another year has flown by so quickly and as I approach that magical birthday #39, I appreciate more and more the times our family has shared all through the year (I guess I should be happy I’m not turning #40 yet). Where does the time go?

The kids have all grown so much this past year and we’ve now reached the point that Julien will borrow stuff from Chris. They now have the same shoe size, are almost the same height, but Julien still beats Chris out in “bulk” (although Chris weighs at least 10 pounds more than me)! I’m sure that it won’t be too long until they are an even match! Chris is doing well in school. He is in three honors courses and has found golf to be his sport. I’m not sure where he gets his “smarts” from - it’s sure not his mother. Next year he’ll be in high school and then we’ll be thinking about college. He is sure he wants to be a computer engineer and who knows where he’ll end up going to school. Maybe he’ll join my sister, Meg, out in Michigan! Stephanie n doing well in the 6th. grade. She played girl’s softball this spring and starts her Red Cross Junior Lifesaving Course in February. She also just began girl’s basketball and keeps me running with her love of shopping, clothes, jewelry, and her fetish for pocketbooks (all shapes and sizes). She sure is a typical pre-teenager and has a terrific sense of humor Nicolas is sports, sports, sports! We did baseball this past spring, football and baseball camp this summer, we just completed soccer, and have now just started basketball. We have already signed up for baseball this spring and who knows what else! When he is home, he hangs outside playing Street hockey and I am convinced he’ll never get through high school with his front teeth intact. He’s doing well in the 3rd grade but would pick sports over homework anytime. He, too, is tall like Chris, and soon will be a match for his dad.

Our summer was busy, but fin! We started off the summer with Chris having sinus surgery and his recovery went great! In July, the whole family went on a 4-day cable convention to Newport, Rhode Island and Julien and I even got to go out and have dinner at The Hammersmith Farm (the Kennedy’s summer home). The kids had a wild time as Disney, Nickelodeon, The Learning Channel, and The Discovery Channel came up to do activities with them. Chris even had teen nights and one night we went to pick him up and we discovered him in the front of the Electric Slide line. We were told that he had beat all doing karaoke to the song “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” (he is a country music fan). It was a vacation to remember - what a blast!

Julien is doing great at his job - traveling up to Massachusetts a lot, but really enjoying it (the regional headquarters is there). He spent his summer weekends in his garden and he’s become quite famous for the “sweetest cheery tomato.” We even grew eggplant. O.K., we only grew two, but they made the best half-a-plate of fried eggplant I’ve ever had. He and I also spent a few weekends attempting to wallpaper our entryway, hallway, living and dining room walls. We now appreciate the money paid to professional wallpaper hangers as I am not exactly sure how we got the project done without killing each other! Our most recent adventure was a trip to the city to see the Broadway play “Beauty and the Beast, which included fighting the elements of a hurricane, flooded and closed roads, and a 4 ‘/2 hour drive home!

Meg was home during the summer and we did some great day trips. We went to The Catskill Game Farm and there was a llama there that was convinced I was his mother. He constantly followed me around and knew if I could I would have brought him home. For those of you who don’t know my love for animals, we have Woody (a guinea pig that we adopted last December after we saw the movie Toy Story). That’s where he got his name from. We also have Tulip (a huge mutant bunny I brought home from the local Agway store Easter weekend). Now, you have to understand that I was sure Julien would not let me have it, so I took him from the store and showed up at Nick’s baseball practice with it to show to Julien. I was sure he wouldn’t refuse me in front of an audience of baseball spectators. His concern was “where is this rabbit going to live” and I thought I convinced him that a recycling bin would do just fine. Well, he did come home with a cage for Tulip (not for me) and the bunny has been doing great, but she is the biggest rabbit I’ve ever seen. Fm not sure if she is mixed with part dog or part dinosaur!

Now, about my dogs! We now have Gypsy, a female German Shepherd we were raising for The Seeing Eye that failed the program. We adopted her in February, and in April we started to raise another puppy whose name is Carol. Carol is now nine months old (also a female German Shepherd). The first dog we raised, Doreen, did beautifully in her training and is now a Guide Dog for an 18 year old girl who is a freshman in college down in Virginia. They are studying music together. We miss her terribly but are very proud of what she has accomplished. Now, here some the clincher! All I wanted for Christmas this year was a new puppy (to own) and the other day we adopted little “Nebraska”, an 8-week old shepherd/boxer mix. He is a little doll, but puts us up to now having 3 dogs which Julien says is the absolute limit or the divorce papers are in the mail! I’m not sure how he allowed me to have 3 dogs. It must be all that charm I ooze!
i’m still working at the Warwick Valley Middle School but am now in the Media Center (library). Part time is plenty as I’m so involved in The Seeing Eye program and running constantly with the kids. I’ve gone for special leadership training and if I could would raise 100 dogs. It’s so much fun and so rewarding!
Well, over and out for now. God bless you and yours this wonderful Christmas season. Wish we could all be together - you’re all missed and loved.

All my love and kisses... Pam

P.S. For those of you who didn’t know, I had two nephews born this year. Julien’s sister has a k new son named Joseph, and my brother, Ed, has a new baby named Eddie

Christmas Letter: 1995

Dearest Friends and Family (both near and far),

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Our life this past year has been crazy and hectic which is why I’ve finally graduated to this generic-type letter. I love you all and want to tell you so much, so please don’t mind that I had to jot it down this way so I could share it all.

Summer was HOT, but fun! Stephanie and Nick both did swimming lessons in town all summer and Nick became a terrific swimmer. He now lives in the 10’ end of the pool and is sure he’ll be in the Olympics someday. We did lots of day trips (the Renaissance Festival, the Drive—In, the beach) and we even dragged my morn and sister to the Great Adventure Amusement Park. We haven’t yet decided, though, if the highlight of the day was when they had to stop the Big Wheel (ferris wheel) to let me off because I was crying (what a great example I set for my kids), or when my mom got drenched at one of the water shows (the rest of us stayed perfectly dry - although Julien says he got wet too)! We didn’t really pay attention to him — we were too busy drying off my mom.

Our fall has been full of activities too! I’ve gone back to college (part time) to finish my degree and go on for a masters of arts in teaching. Boy is it tough to do homework again — but I love getting out of the house all by myself and using those dead brain cells again. I work part time in the Warwick Middle School as an Instructional Teacher’s Aide and have decided that when I teach it will be with adults (middle school kids have too many hormones flying around). Nick has just finished playing soccer after a full spring of baseball games. Chris ran Cross-Country for the Warwick Middle School — The Purple Waves and the high school team just won the New York State Championship. Stephanie and Nick both swim on Friday nights and Stephanie will be going for her level 5 Red Cross Swimming Course in February. The kids keep me running, and with two now in the middle school the homework is hard and long.

Now, about my dogs! Yes, I now have two German Shepherd/Seeing—Eye Dogs (Doreen and Gypsy). I’m a crazy woman — but I wouldn’t give it up for the world. They are my “kids with fur” and require more time and attention than all of my three kids combined. Our club is called “Pals with Paws” and I am the secretary. We meet every other Friday night to train the dogs, but spend more of the time laughing at the 15 dogs trying to get along. We’ve marched with the dogs in a parade, took them into town for an ice cream outing, have done demonstrations of them training for various organizations, and basically can take them anywhere we want to go. Doreen is due to be picked up by The Seeing Eye any day, and unless she fails the program we will not get to see her again. My box of tissues is already out and waiting.

Julien’s job is doing great and it requires him to travel some. He travels mostly to New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and enjoys every minute of it. Maybe it’s that he likes getting away from those dogs! (NO, not really — he loves them as much as me). It gets kinda hard at night, though, trying to sleep with two huge dogs trying to share the bed with us!Well, over and out for this year. I wish you all a blessed holiday and a wonderful new year in 1996. I miss you all very much.

*Note: I used Courier for this entry because mommy actually typed it on a typewriter...