Anna Grows

Christmas Morning  The holiday season is winding down and it is time to say goodbye to 2022.  We spent a quiet Christmas at home, which is becoming our regular tradition since the pandemic.  Anna sang in the choir for Christmas Eve mass.  We had our traditional Christmas Eve seafood dinner (for those of you who are wondering, we had cod wrapped in prosciutto with a lemon butter sauce - delicious along with shrimp cocktail).  There was no snow, but the weather was frigid - one of the coldest Christmas Eves on record.  Here were some of the holiday happenings from Virginia: Anna is enjoying two weeks off for holiday break and has spent lots of time hanging out with friends, reading, crocheting, and watching movies. We enjoyed Christmas morning with lots of gifts.  As always, we are reminded that Grandma and Grandpa are the real Santa Claus.  Anna got lots of makeup items and her traditional lego set, which she immediately put together.  Everyon...

Grandma & Mary Lou The Madison High School holiday choir concert was held on December 17.  There was some question about whether the concert would be held thanks to a potential ice storm and subsequent school day.  Fortunately, it was a false alarm that school (and the concert) went on as planned.  Mrs. Latimer joined us for the evening show.  Anna is part of the Madison Select Singers, an all- female choir.  Here are some of the selections from their group (with apologies for the amateur video): I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus Jingle Bells There are a total of 4 choirs and all combined for the grand finale of  Auld Lang Syne  via (electric) candlelight.  It was a great concert! The other major event of the week was Theresa's quick trip to Ohio for her Dad's surgery.  He had an overnight hospital stay and is fortunately doing well.  While he was recovering, Theresa also had the opportunity to kick off the holiday baking Grandpa Assis...

 The 2022 holiday season is here, with all of its festivities....and germs.  Our goal for the holidays is to make it through without anyone getting sick with them many viruses going around (COVID, the flu, RSV, pneumonia).  This is an ambitious goal, especially given that Theresa just came off a week of holiday parties at work and is about to travel and Anna's friends are getting sick.  We are bringing back the masks!  The hospitals are nearing capacity in the greater DC area, especially for young children.   We made some changes to the holiday traditions this year to mix things up (or just save some work because let's face it, the year has been tough).  You won't be seeing holiday cards this year (we see most of you on social media anyway).  We changed up our tree and went with a red, white, and silver theme with WAY less ornaments (this may be the fastest decorating ever).  Theresa has pledged to scale back the baking, but with two wee...

Thanksgiving 2022 marked the first time the Kohler family gathering for the holiday since 2018.  The Kohler's gathered in the mountains of Deep Creek Lake Maryland, not Disney (as the title may suggest).  We were excited to get together and rented a lovely mountain top house with a distant view of the lake.  We arrived just after dark on Wednesday night and did not realize all the house had to offer until daylight the next day. We rejoiced in the gas fireplaces on both the main and lower levels.  Uncle Tim, Theresa, Joe, Anna and Aidyn decided to take the bedrooms in the lower level (Uncle Rod and Aunt Courtney were arriving the next day) while Grandma and Grandpa had the master suite on the main level.  Wednesday night, Theresa was up late and decided to turn on the lower-level fireplace to enjoy while reading a book. This resulted in the carbon monoxide detectors going off throughout the house at 11:30 at night.  That was the end of the gas fireplace....

Joe & High School Friends  Joe made it to New York the weekend of November 12 to attend his first ever high school class reunion.  It wasn't the first time his class held a reunion, but rather the first time he attended (you can guess how many years).  After some last-minute travel scrambling thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Nicole making its way up the coast, he caught a flight to Long Island, where Aunt Mary picked him up.  He had a great time catching up with old friend as did Aunt Mary, who noted most of his friends had a sibling in her class.  Name tags were one of the most important features of the event.  It was a great time catching up with friends and seeing Mary and Loren. Anna at JMU While Joe was in New York, Anna and Theresa went on the first college visit to James Madison University (JMU).  JMU was having an open house on November 12.  After touring the campus (it is beautiful and located in the Shenandoah valley) along with o...

VYS Soccer Fall 2022  The end of October and first week of November held beautiful weather and an exciting end to the soccer season.  Anna's team were undefeated going into the tournament and had already won their division.  They dominated most of their games.  No undefeated team had ever gone on to win the tournament and the team sought to change that.   The first game was Saturday, November 5 on a beautiful fall day.  Coach Tom came to watch the game since half of the team had been on his teams at one time or another during his 9 years of coaching.  At halftime, the team was down 0-3 (they had never been down at halftime before).  The second half was a big co Coach Tom & his former Players meback resulting in a 4-3 win.  The final game on Sunday was one of those unforgettable games.  They were playing the other team from Vienna, so most of the girls on both sides knew each other for a friendly rivalry.  The game was ...

You may notice from the photo that there are a few family members missing from the October 22 family reunion photo, including the Virginia Fagellas.  After weeks of planning and a beautiful weather forecast, Anna came down with the latest flu-like virus going around Northern Virginia and was sick all weekend.  We still tried to go (Theresa even dropped Storm off at the dog sitter on Friday night).  Alas, it was not to be.  It was quite disappointing (except for Storm who was quite happy to come home Saturday morning).   While we are glad for those that were able to get together, we were sad to miss seeing everyone.  Better luck next time....