Dear family and friends,
Happy New Year! I
hope you all had a wonderful 2014 and are planning to have even an even better 2015. So as usual our year was a good one with lots
of laughter and fun. We started off with the Gray family trip and we went to Curacao.
We stayed in a huge villa with lots of room for the seventeen of
us. The weather was beautiful and the
beaches were gorgeous. We had lots of
fun and adventures.
Brian turned the BIG 5-0 this year. So he allowed me to plan a big blowout
birthday party for him. We had so much
fun I converted the garage into a blue disco room with flashing lights and a karaoke
DJ. The music was so loud you could hear
it from the street. Lots of families and
friends came to celebrate the big event.
To continue the “50” celebration Brian with his two good friends from
his elementary-high school days, Bob and Dave went to Atlantic City this summer
which was followed by us going to Long Beach Island to spend a couple of days
at Bob and his wife Christine’s beautiful beach house on LBI.
We also had a trip to Saratoga Spring in upstate NY with the
Farmer’s. We planned it so we would be
there during the races. We had so much
fun dressing up (all the ladies wore fancy hats) and betting on the
horses. If you haven’t been there it is
a lovely town with stuff to do, it is also close to Lake George. Saratoga is old charm and lots of history to
explore. FYI did you know it is where
Broadway in NYC starts (or ends, depends which way you look at it)? It is also known as Route 9 in upstate NY
until you get into NYC and the name changes to Broadway. OMG, I am becoming my Mom with useless
information. To continue…
Amanda graduated from High School and decided to attend SUNY
Farmingdale as a commuter student. She
continues to work at Carillon nursing home and Value Drugs in Greenlawn to earn
some money. The exciting news is she is
planning to live on campus next semester.
Whether she continues working we will see, for now we are waiting to see
who her roommate is and start shopping (good thing January is known for its
White Sales). Rebecca is already planning to knock down the wall between their
bedrooms. Not happening!
Rebecca is in 10th grade and working hard in
school. She is now a co-captain of both the
competition as well as the side-line cheerleading squad. She continues to play
the flute and piano. She is as I put it “sassy”
and believes she knows everything. She
makes me laugh, she is a typical 15 year old teenager.
September it was back to school for me, nothing has changed
there. I still work with a wonderful
co-worker Beth and we laugh the entire day.
My students are so funny and it makes my work lots of fun. After all these years, I am enjoying work
more and more.
Brian continues to grow Core X Wealth Management with his partner
Chris. The good news is they are expanding by adding another partner, Joe
Favorito. All three of them worked at Fidelity together and excited to be
joining forces, They will be changing the name of the company to Landmark Wealth Management (http://landmarkwealthmgmt.com/). They
just finalized the papers with the lawyer last week and are starting the combination of the two firms, which should be completed in the next few weeks. Joe will be joining them at their office in
Melville. Brian is super excited and he enjoys
going to work every day. As you know, I
consider it boring, I would much rather be in glue and glitter watching my
students make steady progress. I guess
that what makes our relationship work so well.
Go figure!
Brian is even more involved with the church (Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington) than he was before. In addition to continuing as the Finance Chair, he also is on the Investment Committee, and just started a three year term on the Board of Trustees.
Even though a lot of what he does revolves around finance and investments, he does find time for all of us, and he has managed to get back into playing racquetball.
Brian is even more involved with the church (Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington) than he was before. In addition to continuing as the Finance Chair, he also is on the Investment Committee, and just started a three year term on the Board of Trustees.
Even though a lot of what he does revolves around finance and investments, he does find time for all of us, and he has managed to get back into playing racquetball.
Brian's mom turned 70 this October, and we had most of the local relatives join us for dinner in the city to celebrate.
For Christmas it was spent at my parents’ house. They just returned from a trip to Fiji, Australia
and New Zealand. They spent Thanksgiving
with my cousin Jackie and husband Lachlan and their two daughters in Australia. They were gone a month so we were all very
excited to see them at Christmas and listen to their adventures. They had a wonderful time. Some of you may not know that we have a “theme”
often on Christmas. This year’s theme
was “A Christmas Story.” As we walked
into the house in the foyer was the famous “leg” lamp from the movie. To top that when we didn't smell dinner
cooking we were all a little concerned to say the least. When dinner time approached we were all
handed Chinese food menus and told to order what we wanted (just like in the movie).
Well, we howled with laughter, and the dinner was absolutely delicious, with a
ton of leftovers. We are not a conventional
family!!
We hope you had a wonderful 2014 and we wish you all a happy
2015. We look forward to seeing or hearing from you in the coming year.
With lots of love and laughter,
Debbie, Brian, Amanda, and Rebecca
