Anna Grows

July 2026 was one for the record books! Not only did the country celebrate its 250th birthday, but our family also celebrated a milestone of its own as Andrew and Carlye were married on July 5. What better place to celebrate than just outside Boston, surrounded by the history of the American Revolution? The Fagella sisters, their families, and the Virginia contingent gathered at a beautiful beach house for a weekend that quickly taught us one important lesson: modern weddings are no longer one-day events! Between dinners, gatherings, and outings, there was something happening every day. We're fairly certain Andrew managed about four hours of sleep the entire weekend. Thanks to the holiday weekend, we enjoyed multiple nights of spectacular fireworks over the beach. July 4 featured a backyard BBQ with enough food to feed a small army, plenty of music, and lots of time catching up with family and friends. When the big day arrived, New England delivered perfect wedding weather. The cer...

 It is with great sadness that we said goodbye to Benny today after a rapid health decline the past few weeks.  He was 15 years old. Benny joined our family 3 years following the loss of Storm.  Theresa and Anna had been watching rescue sites and convinced Joe that he was the dog.  He was found as a stray in Baltimore and listed as "around 8 years old."  It turns out he was probably 12 years old, but who is counting?  He quickly assimilated into the family, bringing his calm, gentle nature.   He quickly went to work training his new family.  He got attention for what he wanted not by barking but by staring.  He would stare at his targeted human, usually Joe, for long periods of time until he got what he wanted.  Joe often had a battle of wills with him, but we all knew Benny would wear him down at the end of the day.  Benny was a food enthusiast who quickly taught us that all bread needed to be secured on top of the refrigerato...

 Sometimes you get to the end of a month and wonder, what did we do?  This was one of those months.  It required looking back at the calendar and photos to figure out what we did.  Here is what that research revealed: Anna was working.  She put her artistic schools to work and created the new seasonal board at the coffee shop.  She is also working shifts at Wolf Trap, where she is finding her new supervisory skills at the coffee shop are being put to work training new staff at Wolf Trap (many have never handled cash before, which really should not be a surprise). Theresa is adjusting to full-time work at St. Mark, where every day is a new adventure.  She has also managed to keep some volunteer shifts at Wolf Trap to keep up with friends and enjoy ticket perks.  She was able to combine these perks with friends Joy and Trisha for the Sing Along Sound of Music, complete with costumes.  You know you are in character when people come up to you for...

 May was a whirlwind of a month so we will start with the biggest news.  Cousin Aidyn graduated from high school on May 23!  He had a particularly big month starting with a 4th place finish with his robotics team in a state competition.  He also landed his first job - a full-time position thanks to a recruiting event at his school looking for students from the robotics program.  His graduation gift from his aunts and uncles was a trip to Florida - his first beach vacation.  You can find photos of all the festivities  HERE Graduation weekend in Ohio was a rainy one, but the weather did break for the actual graduation.  Theresa flew in early to organize the festivities, which included a pulled pork and chicken barbecue and of course a graduation cake with Aidyn's photo on it (a must have).  The graduation was held at the World Harvest Church - a local megachurch down the road from the school.  It was HUGE and looked like a theater for a m...

 This year cousin Aidyn joined us for part of his spring break.  He spent the first weekend with Theresa at Grandma and Grandpa's and flew back to spend the second half of the break in Virginia.  Flying was more suspenseful thanks to the continued government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, including the TSA agents who were working without pay.  By the point of this trip, they were 6 weeks in without pay, resulting in growing security lines as many agents were not coming to work and quitting (who can blame them - they were not getting paid).  This meant arriving at the airport at least 2 hours before flight time.  Everyone else was also on spring break, which meant a crowded airport with frustrated travelers.  Fortunately, there were no major issues getting through security and just more time sitting around. Aidyn arrived in DC for record heat and exploding cherry blossoms.  We went on a hike one day at Riverbend park and enjoyed t...

 March definitely came in like and lion and seems to be going out like a lion.  We had everything from 70 degrees to measurable snow throughout the month and once on the same day (70 degrees to snow within 6 hours).    There were howling winds and threats of severed storms (schools actually let out early one day for thunderstorms that did not materialize, although flooding rains did).  While the weather was the main story, other March activities included: Theresa celebrating her birthday on March 1.  Highlights for the day included cake and roller skating (although she felt the "retro" skate night was misleading as there was little 80s music).  Actually, she celebrated multiple times with friends, including a lovely tea with Pauletta. A trip to see "Tina" at the Capitol One Center with Anna.  This was the Tina Turner musical, which was fantastic.  Who needs the Kennedy Center when you have the Capitol Once Center nearby? Cleaned the filter on...

A show at the Capital One Center  February has come and gone and with it more snow and cold weather.  In between the snowstorms, Theresa made a trip back to Ohio for President's weekend.  Grandma & Grandpa celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary on February 17.  The main objective of this trip; however, was to set up Grandma on a new iPhone (she was operating on an iPhone 6 and upgraded to a 13...a big leap in technology world).  Aidyn and Uncle Tim came up for a visit as well and Aidyn provided technical assistance to Grandma (he also several times offered to take the phone if Grandma did not want it since it was a newer version than his).  He trained Grandma on swiping since there is no longer a home button and adjusted all of Grandma's display requirements.  She was fully operational when her tech support left.  Also, in case you are wondering - Grandma & Grandpa celebrated their anniversary with dinner at the local Mexican restaurant...

 Joe at last realized a long-time retirement dream:  going to Florida in the winter.  In this case it was only for 2 weeks, but Theresa suspected he was using the trip as a scouting mission for something much longer.  He secured a beautiful Gulf-front condo in Sarasota, Florida.  Anna stayed behind for work and school and to serve as Benny's human companion.   Joe and Theresa had a chance to explore the greater Sarasota area as well as catch up with friends.  They enjoyed the Ringling museum (Sarasota was the winter location for the Ringling circus), the local botanical gardens, an electric bike ride around Venice (that was Theresa) and an eco-boat tour of the Sarasota Bay, complete with lots of birds and dolphins.  They also enjoyed lots of local seafood (there was some concern about the lingering fish smell in the condo from cooking fish almost every night - hopefully it aired out before the next renters arrived).  They did an overnigh...

 Christmas has come and gone along with its traditions and new adventures.  One of the traditions of the season is sending Christmas cards.  Did you ever wonder why we send Christmas cards?  Apparently, it dates back to 1843 in Victorian England.  Sir Henry Cole, a civil servant, found himself overwhelmed by the volume of holiday letters he was expected to answer.  The new "penny post" system made mail cheap and popular, thus everyone was writing to everyone else.  To save time, Cole commissioned an artist to design a ready-made holiday greeting card - the first commercially produced Christmas card.  Affordable postage made sending cards accessible to regular people and industrial printing advances made colorful cards cheap to produce.  While physical cards have diminished over the years and have been replaced by digital technology, cards still remain popular - especially photo cards.   The Fagella household has sent holiday photoca...

November brought the start of the holiday season and provided Anna the chance to get together with family to celebrate the holidays.  The season kicked off November 8 with a trip to Ohio for Veteran's Day weekend followed by Thanksgiving in Virginia with a visit by Aunt Loren, Aunt Mary, James & Sundance. Grandma's family gets together every year on Veteran's Day weekend for an early Thanksgiving celebration.  This is a large gathering of extended cousins and can be anywhere from 65 - 90 people (no joke).  Much of the gathering is spent trying to figure out how people are related.  While it is supposed to be a potluck, Grandma and Uncle Rolland make massive amounts of turkey, potatoes, gravy and stuffing for the group.  It is quite a feast.  There were a couple of added adventures on this trip.  First, Grandma & Grandpa's minivan was in the shop for an extensive repair.  As a result, they only had Grandpa's convertible to drive (this is a ...

Voting in Virginia  Fall is in full swing in Northern Virginia, which means it is the home stretch of the election season.  Virginia is one of two states (the other being New Jersey) that have a gubernatorial election this year.  Fun Fact:  Virginia is the only state that limits its governor to a single consecutive term.  This year Virginia will elect its first female governor (both candidates happen to be female).  Anna appears to be the targeted voter in the household as she receives reminders to vote at least 4 times a week, including handwritten postcards.  Ironically one of the post cards was postmarked from Columbus, Ohio and another one was from Long Island.  Will she get a postcard from Massachusetts next? Thanks to early voting in Virginia and in an effort to make the postcards stop, the family did their civic duty on October 29 and voted.  It was a festive atmosphere at the local polling location with both parties and the election w...