Happy New Year to all!

Caleb was off school last week and Alana stayed home from daycare every day except Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday I took Caleb and his friend across the street, Phillip, to see Night at the Museum (cute movie - we all laughed, though at different things). We went to McDonald's a couple of times and to the Science Museum once. I considered going to the children's museum in Rochester (The Strong Museum), but decided I didn't want to drive all that way (and the weather was iffy that day). We'll have plenty of chances to get there.


Larry was off Sunday and Monday both weekends, so we saw more of him than we have in a long time - he's been working 6 days a week since September. He started working up in Watertown a couple of weeks ago. The opening date of his restaurant was moved up from March to February 12, so he's been very busy (the mild weather helped the construction get finished early). But it seems to be going well, he's not freaking out yet. They've hired over 100 people already (out of a total of 180 that they'll need to open). Because of the mild weather, the commute has largely been painless (so far!) He quit smoking (again!) on New Year's Day, so if you talk to him, encourage him to keep it up.


The kids wish there was snow, so they could go sledding. We only had one minor snowfall early in the week, but it melted within a couple of days. We had fun taking Roxy for walks at the park on the (mostly) nice days that we had both holiday weekends. In general, it's been a really mild winter here, as it has all over the east coast. It's 50 degrees today, which is really crazy, but it's gorgeous.


We had pretty low key holidays. The kids got lots of small gifts (they're young enough that they're still happy with that), and we ate lots of latkes - at home, at the Hanukkah party at the synagogue, and at a Hanukkah party that my neighbor had (I made all the latkes for that).

We went over to my neighbor's house for New Year's - the kids ran around and the adults played Songburst, a song lyric game that my sister gave Larry years ago (unfortunately, Larry stayed home and went to bed early that night b/c he was very hard hit with some persistent cold that we've all been fighting all week). The New Year's party was very low key and fun. Now it's back to the routine - everyone back in school. I've finally gotten some good news on my job search - the Anestheisology Dept at the Medical Univ is looking for a research coordinator and have all but offered me the job. But things are delayed by bureacracy, so it's not actually settled yet. But it's the closest I've come to actually being gainfully employed, so I'm pretty hopeful right now. At this rate, I hope to be working by the time Larry's restaurant opens.

I'm attaching a couple of pictures from Hanukkah and the one snowy day photo that we've gotten.


My favorite cute kid quote of the holiday - we all spent the day together on Dec 24 for the first time in a long time, and when we sat down for dinner Caleb said, "What are we going to talk about - we already know what everyone did today." I thought that was hilarious. You'll be happy to know that we muddled through, conversation-wise!


Hope your new year is filled with health and happiness.

Love fromThe Gang in NY