All the Best to our Family and Friends
for a happy and healthy 2012!
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| Rachel and Ciara 2011 |
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| Ciara, Barb and Leann |
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| Janet and Ciara |
Ciara just
left to go back to Massachusetts, staying with the wonderful Norrman family,
after spending a week with us. We celebrated Hanukkah (a bit early) together
which was heartwarming. Ciara's finishing up her contract with Becker College
where she was the head coach for the field hockey team and assistant coach for
girls basketball. She'll be coming back home in February to finish her last 6
months of grad school at CSULB in Sports Management.
In July, she's headed back
to Mass. where she will be taking on the head coach job at Becker for field
hockey and hoping to secure a full time job at the school doing Sports Information
Management (SIM), a career goal at this time. She experienced SIM while
interning at UCI this past year and discovered a passion for that aspect of the
sports industry. So, it is with mixed emotions that we will be seeing her move
back to Auburn, MA in 2012, but we love her and are so very proud of her
accomplishments. Best of all, she is as happy as can be! Who could ask for
more?
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| Grandma Rosa Lee, Rachel, Ciara and Janet |
Rachel is a junior
at Newport Harbor. After two years at OCHSA, she decided to give Harbor a try
and is enjoying it (as much as any teenager enjoys school). This year Rachel
had her sweet 16 celebration and had her Confirmation and Congregation Shir
Ha-Ma'alot.
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| Performing with NDT at South Coast Plaza |
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| Rachel and Kenyon |
Rachel continues to dance with Newport
Dance Center and has a wonderful boyfriend, Kenyon. We adore him and enjoy
spending time with both of them.
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| Rachel and Kenyon |
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| Kenyon and Rachel |
Rachel took her PSAT and is
preparing to take her SATs and other college preparatory tests. It's hard to
believe that our little Rachel is preparing for college! Even more amazing is
that Rachel now has her driver's permit, meaning that Greg and I are getting
chauffeur driven everywhere! She's doing a very good job driving and plans to take her driver's test in March. Rachel brings us much joy and laughter, is
quite bright and engaging -- she makes us so proud and we love her very
much.
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| Greg and Biscuit |
Greg is in his fourth year
working at Mission Hospital in the radiology department. In his
"spare" time, he continues to do amazing graphic design. In fact, he
was part of the team that earned an international award for the 2010 annual report created
for United Therapeutics. It was a great honor
and we are very proud of his accomplishments! Greg continues to create beautiful landscape in our back patio and side yard. Everyday I open the blinds and see the beautiful flowers and vines that he maintains.
This year, Greg and our wonderful neighbor Marwan, planted a garden which has yielded many delicious tomatoes, bell peppers and chilies. Greg loves to spend time with our
wonderful beagle Biscuit, now in his 12th year and is bringing us lots of joy
and laughter.
I am in my 4th year working at Experian in Costa Mesa doing project
management in the Global Project Management Office. I just became certified as
an Experian Ambassador, so I can now train others in the community on
understanding, building and managing credit. My desire is to help high school
and college age students understand how to use and manage credit wisely.
Continuing with my photography, I am now a freelance photographer with Orange County Jewish Life magazine. In
addition to being on the Board of Trustees for Congregation Shir Ha-Ma'alot, focusing on Social Media (Facebook) and managing the SHM Photo Gallery, this year I represented
the Irvine Jewish Community at the annual Global Village Festival.
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| Pumpkin Chili with Corn Bread |
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| Danielle, Rachel, Janet, Greg, Susan and Grandma Rosa Lee |
I've spent a lot more time creating
interesting and often successful dishes in the kitchen. Something about cooking
for my family helps me to express the great love that I feel for them. I love
spending time with family and friends and keeping everything.
One of the extra benefits of living in our wonderful neighborhood, is spending time with our next door neighbors, Marwan, Rula and their beautiful daughter Chloe. She had her first birthday this year, was Baptised and was the star at the celebration!
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| Grandma Rosa Lee, Greg, Chloe, Marwan and Rula at Chloe's Baptism Celebration |
Ciara's dad John, his girl friend Tina,
Greg and I took a weekend trip to Paso Robles and had a fantastic time tasting
wine, dining and taking in the beauty of the land. What a gorgeous town -- like
being in Italy, without the expense!
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| John and Tina |
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| Greg and Janet |
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| Paso Robles |
The four of us, plus Ciara,
Rachel and two of Ciara's friends from the East Coast are headed on a cruise to the Caribbean in
February as an early gift for Ciara's upcoming July grad school graduation. We had
planned it before she took the head coaching assignment at Becker College, so
we decided to just keep the reservations and celebrate before the graduation -
sort of like, "Life is short, eat dessert first."
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| Dessert made by Rachel and Janet at TSpoons Cooking School |
We are ever so grateful to have you in our lives and we wish you
good health, peace and much happiness in 2012.
Love, Greg and Janet
