Winter Rundown

Winter has flown by for us! OK, not entirely. But mostly. Just not the cold, gray days. But still...

A week before we went to Japan, Brie and I ran the GOTR 5K! After loving Girls on the Run in elementary school, Brie jumped at the chance to go back and coach at Maple Dale. It was the cutest groups of kids...

The other high school coaches were all seniors (which meant I was the only parent driving Brie to and from weekly practices 😜). 

Medals and the Ohio River! 👏

Then a week after we went to Japan, Dad retired!! I flew to Virginia Beach for the big celebration. The night before, my parents hosted my dad's lifelong friends the Hacks and Bookouts for dinner. There were so many good laughs!

Fancy!

Lots of good memories and reminiscing...

I always love being back in VB because I never see things like this in Cincinnati!

The party was at Bayville, which was beautifully decorated for the holidays...

With Aunt Sarah and Aunt Jan. 😍

Beth and I welcomed everyone...

And then we played the gorgeous slideshow that Beth created of Dad's many life milestones, events, and adventures...

And we celebrated Jan's birthday!

Then Dad took the time to thank each and every guest for the important and meaningful role they played in his life and career. It was WONDERFUL to listen to...

Toby and me after...

And during the party, Brie (coincidentally) presented all about Granddaddy Rob for their world history class. The research and pictures that Brie put together were so lovely to read, and Brie wore Gammy's dirndl from 1974! It fit Brie perfectly and was good for some extra credit points (wearing clothing or bringing food from the country where your subject's family originated from)! 

This was followed by the high school's winter band concert. Samuel had a beautiful solo...

You can see Samuel toward the left and Brie to the right...

The fabulous flutes!

And then the holiday season kicked off in fine form with the Storybook Progressive (so glad they invited alumni!), where we ate, drank...

Were pretty silly...

And danced until Tony dragged me home after 1 a.m...

Sadly, we made one last trip to Entertrainment Junction, our favorite train museum for years and years. The museum was forced to close when no one would take it over. The trains will go to other museums and the building will become a community center!

Farewell! 

Dinner Club holiday night out!

Samuel turned 16!! Crazy, right?

The Dredelites were back!

I attended my neighborhood's hilarious holiday ornament exchange "Festive AF." It was great fun! 

And then we blinked and headed to Virginia for the holidays! Here we are with David and Steven over pizza lunch in Arlington...

Then we went to meet Julia! She will be a seeing eye dog one day!

And spend time with Jackie, Justin and the girls!

We also visited the Building Museum...it was so cool!

Followed by Brie and Nonna setting up the Presépio. 🥰

And grabbing dinner with Jay and Courtney!

Christmas Eve! Brie made origami cards for the cousins! 

Christmas Day! Cousin time...

Gifts... 

A delicious lunch...

Cookie decorating...

And similar sweaters! 

Cousin silliness. 😐

Then to VB for (more) Hanukkah...

Lots of good gifts...

And latke making! 😋

And Slurpees?? 😉

We had a beautiful day for our annual cousin picnic!

Also annual: our holiday JET Zoom! 

By the way, I love jogging in VB. People are interesting, funny, AND outspoken!

And it's gorgeous to run around...

The 34th Street lights were out in full force again this year, including a big Hanukkah showing at the home that always has a menorah. Chabad was there with a DJ!!

Brie got to show Granddaddy Rob the outstanding (and aforementioned) poster board they made for him in World History!

One highlight of our visit was several dinners out with Beth and Brian. Yummy and so much fun!

Cheers to being together!

The next day, Blossom said, "I'm bored..."

So we went to the beach! We were 100% certain that Blossom would go nowhere near the water since she does not like bathtime...but whadya know?? She chased some birds in...

And then enjoyed splashing in the waves! We were all surprised (= shocked)! 

Blossom was VERY proud of herself...

And glowed all day long...

A music performance for the grandparents! 

And Jungle Golf, of course!

Gammy makes her famous coffee cake EVERY year and I think (=know) that it's the best. 😋

I snapped a pic of the very loved recipe (finally)!

And then it was New Year's Eve! 

Cheers! 

The kids tried neon golf and had a great time! 

And we headed to Isle of Capri for dinner! 

Here's to 2025!

After we returned to real life, we had A LOT. OF. SNOW. Like so much snow. The kids didn't have a full week of school for weeks into January. 😠 Blossom loves snow and thought it was great, and the kids did do some sledding, but it got old quickly and took forever to melt.

What else filled our winter months? We visited the Cincinnati Art Museum to see the Ansel Adams exhibit. It was wonderful!

And Brie kicked off an 8-week Spanish class (online) with the Cincinnati Spanish School...with only adults! 

90's Day at the Greene School! 

Brie got a dog onesie. Remind you of anyone??

For MLK Day, Brie and I volunteered at Rockdale...helping to prepare and then serve lunch at a local men's shelter. It was a very nice day. 

Despite the cold, January flew by and it was Family Retreat time! We had a lakefront room again this year, so this was our welcome sunset... 😍

Cheers from our deck!

Annual hike! 

Games and learning!

And, of course, karaoke!! Can you tell that I'm really into "Pink Pony Club"?? I'm not even holding a mic! 😂

Here's Tony performing "California Love." We mean serious karaoke...

This begs the question: "Has 'De Falco' ever been written in Hebrew before?"

The Family Retreat is the best. It was #10 for us!

More snow...

For Valentine's Day, Tony and I went to the new Turkish restaurnat near us. It's soooo good. 

Brie and buddies went out for coffee for Galentine's Day!

Winter band concert!

Brie on the flute.

And Samuel had another solo! 👏

There were a few fun distractions from the cold temps: our good friend Barrie turned 60. Her party was loads of fun!

And Mr. Samuel goes to Washington!

With RAC-OH, Samuel was part of a 9-student team from Ohio that went to lobby on Capitol Hill.

Here they are outside our Congresman Greg Landsman's office. 

And meeting with Greg!

Reading speeches they wrote. Samuel's was in favor of common sense gun reform.

Let's go, Gen Z!

While near NoVa, Samuel got to grab dinner with Nonno, Nonna, and Uncle David!

Next stop: the Odd Couples Dance! Every year, the high school has an event where students bring an adult of their choice. (Only a bit odd, right?? 😉) This year's theme was "Carnival."

Brie, Paige and Caroline organized it, so the moms came along...

We all had a fantastic time! 

And Blossom turned 4, so we we baked "dogentaschen" for her since it was around the same time as Purim! 

She got lots of love and gobbled down her cookies. 

Speaking of Blossom, she is just funny. We love it. 

Happy almost spring!

P.S. Samuel got his driver's permit a few months ago, so we've been working on that. It's slow-going. Mostly, we just got a really big kick out of how much his photo resembled Tony's college ID. Ha!