Dear Family and Friends,
Happy New Year! I
hope this letter finds you all happy and well.
The Cohen’s had a fun and exciting 2012.
We started our year off by going to Costa Rica on
the Gray family trip. We had a ball, as we
zip lined through the rainforest, rafted down through a river with monkeys,
alligators and beautiful toucan birds.
We then headed to the coast for some relaxation by the beach and
pool. It was not a vacation, but
an adventure like always.
We had Easter at our house this past year. With the entire family present, I was not up
to par. I thought I just had a bad case
of ingestion. This was not the case. I
ended up in the hospital for a week with pancreatitis and then had my gall
bladder removed. Thanks to good friends
and family I made a speedy recovery.
Summer came as we traveled through upstate NY and into Canada for a
family trip. We were joined with our good friends the Lapidus’s in Cooperstown. Marty
and Brian had a great time at the baseball Hall of Fame. The Lapidus’s then headed home after
Cooperstown and we continued through Skaneateles, Niagara Falls, Toronto, Jamestown, and Corning. It was a nice trip, though not as exciting or
exotic as going cross-country or traveling through Europe.
Those trips will be hard to match or surpass.
Fall brought us back to school, where Amanda is now a junior
and Rebecca is an eighth grader. Amanda
is still involved with Girl Scouts and is in the process of beginning her Gold
Award. She continues to play tennis and
enjoys hanging out with friends. Rebecca
is a cheerleader, plays flute and piano and continues to enjoy her dance classes. Brian was at HSBC until a couple of months
ago when, after two rounds of earlier downsizing, the company then was able to
have a third downsizing consolidating managers.
I love having him home I didn’t have to rush home from work to shuffle
the kids and he took care of many of the household items. This is now coming to an end. He is starting at Wells Fargo as a Private Banker
on January 9th. How much stuff can I squeeze in until he goes back
to work? He is very excited, me not so
much. Knowing that Amanda is going to
college soon, then followed by Rebecca, I guess he needs to work. I would rather him home personally.
Amanda also turned 16 on September 30th. To mark this special birthday she decided that she didn’t want a party, she wanted something different. This turned out to be Hot Air Ballooning with a few of her closest friends. We left home at 3am and drove to upstate NY so they could make a sunrise balloon ride. It was an adventure for all of them. A few were a little scared, however they all went up and had an amazing time, and were thrilled that they did it.
We also celebrated three milestone birthdays in our extended
family. Lauren turned 40, and we celebrated that during Easter. My
brother-in-law Tony turned 50. My sister
Susan threw a huge Cowboy theme birthday for him with a mechanical bull to ride
on too. Brian Dassatti, my other brother-in-law, turned 40. This celebration
was marked by a family and friend party with an Italian theme. All the events were great.
Fall also brought us Hurricane Sandy. We were very lucky, as we lost power for just a few hours and had no damage. Our home became a hotel for many friends. It was fun for us, but not as much for our friends without power.
We look forward to 2013, and wish you all a Happy and
Healthy New Year!
Love,
Debbie, Brian, Amanda, and Rebecca
