Christmas 2008

"I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" and it is actually snowing as I write. However this song which has been a holiday standard in my head each year has been replaced by "I'll Have a Blue Christmas Without You" . Now although Elvis is sooo much sexier than Bing, I'd rather be having that White Christmas. Thank you very much !!!

I hope this letter finds all of you in a loving and healthy Christmas Spirit. We here in New Jersey are thinking of you all and missing you.

The year has been a veritable roller coaster ride. And although my usual advice in that case is to strap in and enjoy the ride, I would really like off right now.

Last November 2007 my Mom was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer with brain metastasis. She battled for four and a half months losing the fight on March 17. It is a "Blue Christmas" without her. I was able to be with her for the last three weeks. A truly loving and moving bittersweet time for us. Thanks to all for your generous outpouring of love and support to the whole family. We couldn't have done it without you.

Up we went shortly after that lovely diagnosis with the winning of a trip to Australia. You can imagine the skeptic in me giving the prize awarder a hard time what with all the identity theft and money scams going around these days. Turns out it was real and when we finally went, a really great time. Steve highlighted our adventures below.

Still up on that roller coaster and strapped in because this year we have been awed by excellent report cards due to Alec's increased efforts. He'd never admit it but I think he likes school. Let's ride this one as long as possible. Alec also enjoys all things computer and game related. He is also quite a talented little artist with the tools available through Apple. Alec and Steve are planning a ski trip in addition to their occasional weekend jaunts to the Poconos in Pennsylvania. Their big adventure this year will be learning to scuba dive. Woo Hoo count me out.

Then down again with the deployment of Lance Corporal (LCPL) John G. Vanderfleet US Marine Corps to Afghanistan. OOh that got the old gut wrench going again. He is currently in the Farah province in a Forward Operating Base (FOB) in what is described as an austere place to be. His main base is Camp Bastian in Helmand Province. He is involved in counter insurgency operations for the next 9 months and we expect him home sometime July 2009. He can receive mail at 3/8 Kilo Co., Unit 73260, FPO AE 09510-3260. My Mom promised she would watch over him and if anyone can do it she's the one. Let me share here a little Christmas story. John, Mary (his lovely girlfriend ) and I were at the Mall the day before he left (he was AWOL). The two of them thought it would be fun to visit with Santa. You should have seen Santa's face when he asked what a couple of twenty year old's were doing these days and the answer he got from John was "going to Afghanistan tomorrow". Well it turns out that Santa is an ex Navy man, don't tell the little ones. Santa had some very good advice for John and wished him well, promising to look out for him. My Mom and Santa on your side can't get any better.

Still a "Blue Christmas".

And so all of you joined us on the ride of our lives with the economy going for a beep. Strap in friends and family it's another spin, drop and blah before we smooth out again. Thankfully Steve still has a job and is working hard to keep it that way. Steve has also kept himself busy with gardening, took the plunge and installed a sprinkler system. He embarked on a stain glass project with a quilt challenge to match for me. Steve mainly enjoys logging the miles on his bicycle.

On the level and boring part but certainly not the end of the ride there is my quilting. Still at it with a passion that has kept me sane. There is nothing like sitting around the table with a cup of tea, your friends and your hands producing some beautiful work. And those friends slapping me upside the head when they can hear "I'll have a Blue Christmas without you" streaming out of my ear.

Merry Christmas to all with love and cheers from

Barbie, Steve, John and Alec

Melbourne Australia

About a year ago we were notified by Whole Foods that we had won a trip to Australia, at first we didn't believe them but after a little investigation it turned out to be true. The trip included air fare and hotel for a week in either Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne and we chose to go to Melbourne. It also included a couple of day trips and we chose a hot air balloon ride over the city at dawn and a trip to Phillip Island to see Little Penguins.
We picked Melbourne because we had heard that it was a great city for food and wine and had a more interesting mix of things to see than Sydney. I think we did pretty well, Melbourne is small enough that we had enough time to get to know our way around and to see pretty much everything that we wanted to in the time that we were there. Some of the highlights were:

The Queen Victoria Market - A huge permanent market that is parts flea market, farmers market, deli and butcher. The flea market part was pretty much what you would expect, vendors flogging cheap junk and we weren't too interested in it. The other parts however were fabulous and we wished that we had something like this in NJ. The fresh produce in the farmers market were gorgeous even though it was only spring/early summer and the cheese and meat vendors looked wonderful. Having nowhere to cook, we obviously couldn't take advantage of the place, though we did buy several cheeses to nibble in our hotel room for the rest of the week.

The Royal Botanical Gardens - I love Central Park, but the botanical gardens here really put it to shame. The foliage there is somewhat tropical reminding me of California with lots of Palm Trees and outdoor house plants. The gardens contain a very large variety of plants and trees though not a huge abundances of flowers (at least at this time of year). It is an incredibly pleasant place to walk around and many people were having picnics. There was a good variety of birds including one called a Bell Bird that made the most unique sound. We liked the place so much that we returned a second time and had a picnic.

The Yarra Valley - We rented a car and drove out to a local wine region and did some tasting. It was a very scenic mix of light brown hills and Eucalyptus trees. The wineries were very nice and the wine was good, though we liked the first one that we visited the best. It was called Yering Station and is one of the oldest in the area. One thing that we really did notice here was how incredibly nice and friendly the Australian people are.

Hot Air Balloon Ride - One of the day trips included in the prize was a flight over the city at dawn in a hot air balloon. We had to get up pretty early for this but it was definitely worth it. The weather was cool but clear and we had an amazing time watching the sun come up from 2000 ft in a balloon. I've always wanted to go up in one and was amazed a what a simple device it is. While the pilot has no directional ability at all, he was able to direct the balloon to the target landing field simply by using air currents at different levels.

Fairy Penguins - The other day trip was to Phillip Island to watch the The Penguin Parade. We really didn't know what this was except that it sounded interesting to Barb, and I like penguins. We sort of thought that it was a park that we would spend the day in and and then watch the penguins come out of the sea at dusk. Instead it turned out to be a bus tour with a very chatty Canadian driver called Phil. There were various stops along the way to the island where we got the see all of the required Aussie wildlife including Kanagroos, Koalas, Wallabys and Wambats. Viewing animals sitting around was not really that exciting but the penguins were worth the trip. Every night in various places along the coast of southern Australia, Little Penguins come home from the ocean to their barrows on the hillsides to feed their young and shag their mates. They wait until it is almost dark and then they come out of the ocean in the hundreds and waddle up the hills. The place we went to is set up so that tourists can watch the little guys go by a few feet away with out interfering with them (unfortunately no photos were allowed). It was pretty interesting to see and they are incredibly cute, they grow no more than 12 inches high and have blue backs instead of black.

Fifteen - We are big fans of Jamie Oliver and one of the eating highlights of the trip was a visit to Fifteen. Unfortunately Jamie is not really involved in the restaurant as he has licensed it to his buddy Tobie Puttock. That said, it is a really nice restaurant and is true to the spirit of Jamie's style of cooking. We both greatly enjoyed both the dinner and the atmosphere.

Well that's our trip, we really had a great time and would recommend Melbourne to anyone thinking of going down under. A full photo album of our trip can be found here. (Note: I didn't take the photo at the top of this page).