Christmas 2003

We don't send Christmas newsletters (though we do like to get them!). Therefore, this year I decided to use the technology of the day. Strictly speaking, this is not a Christmas letter. Those are missives in a pleasant type face, on fancy holiday paper, carefully folded and sent through snail-mail with something attached called a "postage stamp", what ever that is!

Anyway....Lyd's (some family members call her Maudie) Dad, George, died March 5th at the age of 94! He was a very special man and we will all miss him a great deal. Her mom, Margaret, is doing extremely well and thriving in Salisbury, Maryland. She celebrated her 92nd birthday in September and is living and loving life.

In early April, I officiated at the Florida Commissioner's Academic Challenge at the Contemporary Resort and Convention Center at Walt Disney World. (Yes, it's a nasty task, but somebody has to do it!)

The high point of the year can only be Saturday, April 19th. At 4:00 P.M. at the Lakeside Inn in Limerick, Pennsylvania, Katherine Victoria Welsh became Katherine Victoria Ferrarello, the radiant bride of Mr. Salvatore (Sal) Ferrarello, our handsome and talented new son-in-law. (He is a technological genius, musician and magician and teaches high school math in downtown Philadelphia. They met at Ursinus College.) The mother and father of the bride (that would be us!) are ecstatic that she caught such a wonderful guy. (It is rumored that his family thinks he got the better deal!) One week later, on April 26th, the bulk of the wedding party greeted Kate's Florida friends in a party at our house jointly hosted with my mother, Audrey.

Monday, May 19th, marked Kate's entry into graduate school at Arcadia University. She has begun a rigorous two-year program which will make her, upon graduation, a Physician Assistant.

Just after the completion of the school year here in Jacksonville, Lyd flew to Maryland to enjoy the bulk of June with her mother. While she was gone, I returned to the Contemporary Resort and Convention Center at Walt Disney World for the Panasonic Academic Challenge. I returned from Orlando just in time to meet Lyd's flight back from Maryland.

Following a decision made a month earlier, on July 3rd, Lyd decided to be done with a ten-year history of problems and concerns and had a complete hysterectomy. Most doctors predict a minimum of 6 weeks recuperation. Lyd's was 5 and she only missed the first day of the 2003-2004 school year with her students.

We spent our Anniversary weekend at the beach. The beginning of the school year finds Lyd in her 29th year of teaching and her 13th at James Weldon Johnson, still teaching Gifted Science to the 7th grade. This is her 21st year teaching Gifted and her 19th in 7th grade Gifted Science. I am opening my 4th year as Director of Research Services in Research, Assessment and Evaluation.

In mid-October, Mother had her right knee replaced. She is doing extremely well and has recovered much of the mobility she had years ago.

Later this month, Lyd and I will fly from Jacksonville to Salisbury, Maryland to spend the Christmas Holidays with Margaret, as has been our habit during all 29 years of marriage. Kate and Sal will drive down from Philadelphia for a few days before they go out to visit Santo and Ann, Sal's parents, in Lake Tahoe.

Thus is the Holiday ~~News~~ Greetings from Jacksonville. Please let us hear from you!

It's Christmas time in Jacksonville, 2003!

Here is our 2003 tree	The wise men are over Lyd's new clock

We lit the mantle this year	There is lots of "stuff" on the chest	Nutcrackers