Anna Grows

The 2023 Christmas season is coming to an end with lots of fun and traditions.   Anna enjoyed a two-week holiday break from school that included a little bit of work, a Christmas visit to Ohio, and a lot of time hanging out with friends.  She received word on college acceptances, including Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), which was her first choice.  Benny enjoyed his first Christmas with us and took a particular liking to the Christmas tree skirt, which he repeatedly pulled out and fashioned into a bed for himself.  Only non-food packages could be placed under the tree as Benny would definitely open them.  Here are some of the holiday highlights: Anna, Aidyn, Grandma & Grandpa Anna sang in the choir for Christmas Eve mass with several of her St. Mark friends.  This was another milestone before they all graduate in the spring. We visited Grandma & Grandpa in Ohio for Christmas this year, along with Uncle Time & Cousin Aidyn.  We...

Madrigals on Tour  Anna has been busy with the Madison Madrigals the past two weeks caroling around the community.  She lost count of all of the performances, but it is somewhere between 10-12 plus 3 performances on the last day of school.  The group appeared everywhere from the Vienna Mayor's holiday reception to a memorial service for those who have lost loved ones this year sponsored by the local funeral home, to an assisted living facility, to a local country club to the Vienna rotary club to the local elementary and middle school music concerts.  She met a lot of community members along the way, including a resident of the assisted living facility that came up to the group afterwards to let them know he was an original member of the Madrigals back in 1962! Joe & Theresa got to watch five of the 40 songs (that's right - Anna had 40 songs in her caroling binder) at the annual choir holiday concert on December 14.  Here is a link to the  2023 Madrigal...

The Fagella family (or part of the Fagellas) celebrated Thanksgiving this year in Northern New Jersey thanks to James.  Since James was house sitting for his boss, they were very generous in letting us use their large home in their absence for a Thanksgiving celebration.  We joined Aunt Loren, Aunt Mary, James and Sundance for a Thanksgiving feast.  We could have easily fed another 20 people with all of the food, which meant lots of leftovers.  We also celebrated Aunt Mary's birthday (November 22) and Aunt Loren's (November 27) with a homemade coconut cake courtesy of James. Joe carving the turkey with his assistants. The festivities continued the next day when James hosted 22 of his high school friends for his annual Friendsgiving dinner.  Anna was kindly invited to attend the event.  Since she has attended previous dinners, she already knew many of James' friends.  Once again, the amount of food was staggering with everyone bringing a dish. Aunt Mary...

 It was with great sadness that we learned Brett Leis passed away unexpectedly on October 25.  He was only 52 years old.  Brett was the unofficial mayor of our neighborhood.  We knew him from his role running the swim team and as a fellow dog owner - always walking with his trusty white retriever, Bismark, without a leash.  If Brett was the unofficial mayor, Bismark is the unofficial neighborhood dog.  Brett hails from Australia and in his honor, there are Australian flags all over the neighborhood.  His loss leaves a huge void not only for his wife and 13-year-old son but for the entire neighborhood.   In his honor, I am posting a message to our neighborhood swim team families from one of the team officials and neighbor Scott Nuzum.  This tribute says it perfectly.   There Goes My Hero Whenever a new family moves into Lakevale, one of the first questions they’re asked is, “Do you have kids?” If the neighbor responds in the aff...

It is Halloween week!  Where did the month of October go?  What did we do?  Here are a few highlights (at least what we remember): Anna ready for murder-mystery Anna's first choir concert was October 17 as part of MAD music day (noting that she goes to James Madison high school).  The choir and orchestra director team up and host all of the elementary and middle school choir and orchestra students from the feeder schools.  It is a great recruitment tool so that the kids see what they can do in high school.  Anna did four concerts that day.  It was really a treat to watch as this is the one joint choir/orchestra show of the year.  Our neighbor, Mrs. Latimer, joined in for the show.  You can watch Anna perform  Sunny Side of the Street  and  The Call  with her choir. For the first time since 2009, new carpet was installed in the family room and basement.  This required lots of moving and subsequent discovery of items fo...

Anna at Homecoming Game  The end of September is upon us, and we are closing out the month with a harvest moon (and the last super moon of 2023).  It has been a busy few weeks since Anna's birthday, especially for her.  Here are some of the highlights. September 29 was the homecoming game and Anna's choir sang the national anthem.  You can check out the  National Anthem Performance .  Note Anna is in the front row on the right side. Anna joined the National Arts Honor Society, which requires her to do service hours each quarter.  Apparently, community groups frequently contact the school art department with projects.  Her first event was face-painting on Friday at a local elementary school fair.  Stay tuned for more art adventures. In between school activities, Anna started a new job at Crepe Amour  after the concert season at Wolf Trap ended.  She is learning to make coffees and crepes.  She was thrilled to have her parents st...

Anna celebrated her 17th birthday on September 3, which also happened to be a long Labor Day weekend.  Anna decided to celebrate with seven of her friends at home.  The festivities included a taco bar and Mexican food for dinner, a homemade hummingbird cake and almond ice cream (along with some vanilla and chocolate cupcakes), presentation night (that would be Anna's friends showing up with power point presentations on a topic of their choosing.... you had to see it) and watching Anna's favorite movie,   Monty Python and the Holy Grail .   Benny may need a few days to recover from the festivities.  He was quick to realize the party as a target rich food opportunity and quickly integrated himself into the group while they were upstairs (he also got lots of pets from the girls).  He slept in the next day and spent most of the day resting. Other adventures for the week included the following: Benny managed to break open a box from Chewy that arrived and m...