2005
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Dear Friends and Family, Seasons' Greetings to All! I hope the end of 2005 finds everyone warm and well. Here are a few good moments from my year. Hoping you have many warm memories, too. No really interesting trips to report on this year, but at least I was employed for most of the time. This year I mourn the passing of four people who have been very important in my life at one time or another: my dear, sweet Aunt Georgia Foreman, and long-time friends John Pynchon Holms, Alice White, and Janet Zastrow Cook. But I celebrate the birth in February of my 3rd cousin/cousin twice-removed/ whatever, Sydney Lee, whose sweet personality has completely won over everyone she meets, and the arrival in April of my year-old great-niece Lily Ling from China --the smartest, cutest, best little girl in the world--and you-all know how I feel about babies and children. |
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Top News Stories of 2005: 1. Hurricane Katrina Batters the Gulf
Coast Makes you want to crawl in bed and pull the covers up, doesn't it? |
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Favorite Movies Gunner Palace, March of the Penguins, Constant Gardener, History of Violence, Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Pride and Prejudice, Syriana, Transamerica, and Brokeback Mountain Live Performances The Pillowman, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Spamalot on Broadway; Lincoln Center's Light in the Piazza; City Opera's Turandot, and The Mines of Sulphur; and the Paul Taylor Dancers anywhere CD's I Am Listening To Alison Moyet - Voice; Bill Charlap & Sandy Stewart - Love is Here to Stay; Buddy DeFranco - Plays Artie Shaw; Dianne Reeves - Good Night, and Good Luck (Music from and Inspired By the Motion Picture); Coldplay - X &Y; Bill Frisell, Fred Hersch & Renée Fleming - Haunted Heart; Dave Glasser - Dreams Askew, Dreams Anew; Jane Monheit - Live at the Rainbow Room; Madeleine Peyroux - Careless Love; Paul McCartney - Chaos And Creation In The Backyard; Rolling Stones -A Bigger Bang; Eric Clapton - Back Home, Juan Falu - Manos a la Obra Books I Enjoyed This Year Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem; Candy Freak by Steve Almond; The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto; The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason; The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini; Devil in the White City by Erik Larson; Madam Secretary by Madeleine Albright; The Duchess Who Wouldn't Sit Down, an informal history of hospitality by Jesse Browner; and the current Book Club selection, 1984, where descriptions of Doublethink are especially timely in this political climate. Favorite New Cartoon Chicken Cartoons on Sticky Notes by Doug Savage Christmas Poem Best wishes for your Christmas But if wishes was health and money, From Charlie Russell's 1914 Christmas card And that pretty much sums it up for me. Love, |
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Last Year's Pre-xmas Festivities
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Morning latkes
with Rebecca and Matt |
| ...Holiday Dinner at Dean & Lorraine's
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...Sunday Brunch and Opening Gifts
Nancy and John investigate the pie course
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Christmas 2004 in Springview
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Lee & Nettie in their cheerful, holiday living room. The little tree behind Dad is artificial and older than I am, and permanently decorated, but the holiday spirit is youthful. |
Luckily, no heavy snow, but a lovely frost on the old homestead. |
Lee, Nettie and LRH down by the Niobrara canyon south of Sparks., NE. We went to see a house that had been moved from Long Pine--friends of Lori. |
at chez LRH
Dennis and Ginger celebrate the new year... |
...as does Steve--in his own special way... |
Verizon's staff meeting in Arlington,
Virginia found me hanging
out at Union Station for the next available Acela train home on a balmy
January afternoon.
Capitol building from Union Station
In February, Christo and Jeanne-Claude brought The Gates to Central Park. More pix here. |
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A glorious splash of orange against the grey trees and skies |
Since Steve and Judy were married in Vegas, few of us were able to attend the nuptials. However, in April, several of their friends threw a little NYC party for them.
Cutting the cake.
Easter Holidays in Brigantine, NJ
Spring! Finally! Big Meat! And a chance to meet Sydney Lee Diaz.
Cousin LRH meets Sydney
(hat and the blanket made by
Great-great-aunt Myrtle)
Grandma Nancy with Sydney and spring flowers
In April, my niece, Lori and her
husband, Bob, went to China to get their new baby, Lily.
Lily has her own web page.
In May, I had the opportunity to visit New York City's Potter's Field on Hart Island.
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Hart Island is run by the Department of Corrections and is not normally open to the public, but I was fortunate to accompany a friend who had made arrangements with the department to join a group, St. Benedict's Roman Catholic Church in the Bronx, who have held a regular memorial service on Hart Island, in the form of a Mass every Ascension Thursday, 40 days after Easter, for the past 10 years. We had a friend who was buried there a few years ago. We were curious to know if there was any way we could find where he was buried. (The answer is definitely not after 10 years or so, and it doesn't really matter--it's all the same.) Director of Historical Services, Thomas C. McCarthy, served as our tour guide. Here, he shows us the only 'formal' marker in Potter's Field. It is an amazing place. If you ever get a chance to visit, do so. Some of my photos are here. |
End of an Era -- The Houseman Wrecking Ball
In May, the John Houseman Theater, the Douglas Fairbanks Theater, The Tank, and a half dozen small off-off-Broadway theaters were all closed for demolition, as another high-rise apartment complex consumed Theatre Row on 42nd Street.
But we went down swinging, literally, as the Houseman became the scene for one last gasp.
Kilburg Reedy (attorney) and Eric Krebs (producer)
of Eric Krebs Productions
In May, back to Springview
for my 40th High School reunion |
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Front Row: Margaret Williams Linse, Shirley Fullerton Adkinson,
Margo Nilson Dawson, |
 Lee and Nettie Ross before the Alumni Banquet at Keya Paha County High |
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Dave and his Grampa Lee |
Cousin Jim, Ruth, Rachel, Mom, Aunt Helen, Dad |
Once again, Sara's sister, Laura, provided us with the bounty of the great northwest for a special birthday dinner for Sara. Here's the menu. |
Sara brought us all aprons from Mexico. Front: Suzie, Ginger, Candace |
We had many other opportunities to misbehave
Steve & Dennis enjoy Connie's birthday cake. |
Jason, Nancy L, Shane, Susan, Nancy, John |
Dean and Lorraine celebrate their 80th birthdays Nancy and Susan take us all to The Palm |
Lily and Great-grandma Lorraine Sydney wears an Elvis T-shirt and a lavendar
kilt -- |
Brunch at Gilchrist's Blueberry pancakes a specialty! |
I love to celebrate my birthday
Lunch with the "cupcakes" (aka Dean and Lorraine.)
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At Lorraine & Dean's |
LRH's Birthday Luncheon |
More Pictures Here
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Candlelit Birthday Dinner |
Dawn on the North Farm |
More photos here
Hot, sweaty and happy in the kitchen at the farm |
Draft Horses Competition |
I went to my first US Open this year. Had a fantastic time. Definitely going again. We went to Mets game that night to help celebrate Pat's Birthday.
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Steve and Judy at the US Open |
Nephew Dave and family moved to North Carolina this
year,
so I flew down to be with them for Thanksgiving and to meet Miss Lily.
At the table: Kevin, Von, Chris, Cory, Dave, Kathy, Gary, Lori, Lily and Bob
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Setting this shot up was pure torture, |
Lily and Lorraine Want More Popcorn! |
This year Christmas in New York, with cousin Mary Margaret coming to stay over New Years.
That's all, folks!
Until next year.
A variety of related holiday links:
