Anna Grows

Grandma, Anna & Grandpa Christmas at the Virginia Fagella household, like many families, has its traditions.  We attend Christmas Eve mass at 5 PM, where Anna sings in the choir.  We light the luminaries, along with the rest of our neighbors, on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  We have a seafood dinner on Christmas Eve (this year it was scallops with a side of linguini and clam sauce).  We open one present each on Christmas Eve.  Christmas Day is usually quiet with lounging around, opening gifts, calling family members and watching Christmas movies.  Since the weather was so nice, we enjoyed the Christmas lights at Meadowlark Gardens in the evening.  Our other tradition is leaving the day after Christmas to visit family.  This year's destination:  Ohio. Fortunately for us, Ohio was experiencing a record warm Christmas so there was no need to worry about the snow.  We flew into Columbus with the first stop at Uncle Tim's for a late Christmas dinner.  After juggli

Anna & her pop choir friends - Kate, Maggie C., Petra & Maggie P. It's the most wonderful time of the year!  Well, that is what the song says.  It is definitely the busiest time of the year, complete with parties and concerts. Anna is a member of the pop choir at school as well as the youth choir at church.  She decided to take a break from piano (at least Theresa hopes it is a break....it may be a permanent break as far as Anna is concerned) and focus on singing.  She is really honing her skills and is doing some occasional cantering at mass.  This year, the pop choir performed a joint Christmas concert with a local Catholic high school on December 11.  The concert featured a former St. Mark student who is quite talented at arranging music and composed a new Christmas song for the high school choir.  You can check out more about Matthew's work here. Checking out the Biltmore Replica at the Gardens Anna also performed with the pop choir at St. Mark's ann