Holiday Greetings 2010 From All the Clarks!

Merry Christmas 2010 from All those crazy Clarks!

Looking back on my past few letters, I always seem to start them on the first day we have snow. This year is a bit different as the small snow we had was last week and I hurt my right hand and I was unable to type, so, now with my hand all better, I am playing catch up, but do not want to miss wishing you all a happy holiday and letting you all know what we have been up to this past year.

After spending a lovely Clark Family Christmas up in Massachusetts at Chris and Susan Clark’s with the whole crew including Leslie and John Freeland, Allison, Mariann and Jeanne and Doug Boschen, the following weekend Pete and I trekked down to the Eastern Shore of Maryland to go to Angie Hartley’s wedding to Ben Sprenkle, her high school sweetheart! We had a ton of fun and it was lovely to reminisce with Angie!

The beginning of February found us visiting with Dave McConkey and seeing the Pink Floyd Laser Spectacular at the Patchogue theater which is always a good time. During the middle of the month Peter hopped down to Virginia to see Curt and Toni Corl for a visit. I also launched my new career as a food blogger with the introduction of my website at www.amoderatelife.com where I talk about all things food and fun. It has been really great getting back to cooking with passion and abandon and I am actually starting to make money doing it!

In March, Blue Oyster Cult threw me a birthday gig at Bb King’s blues club in New York City (I can dream can’t I?) and it was lovely to visit with Steve LaCerra and Don Roeser. The following weekend we went up to Massachusetts with Sydney Andree to celebrate my brother Matthew’s daughter Evie’s first birthday. It was great to visit with Diana and her family, and Evie had such fun with all her presents. At the end of the month Samantha was inducted into the National Honor Society and we were all very proud. Over the Easter school break, we traveled down to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to Massanutten for a much needed vacation in the woods. We enjoyed hiking, swimming and vegging out. On the way back north, we stopped into Washington, D.C. for a long overdue visit with Fred Zeytoonjian and Karen Sosnoski and their adorable kids Forester and Anton. Fred acted as tour guide of the Cherry Blossom Festival on the Mall and then we went to see the Red Sox play the National’s in an exhibition game at the new stadium. We really had a blast and are so glad we hooked up with them all!

At the beginning of April we were so pleased to attend Dana Roach’s Bat Mitzfah and had a wonderful time celebrating with Sheryl, Brian and Dan. Samantha’s select choirs were invited to travel to Philadelphia for the national Heritage Choir Festival and they brought home all gold medals and were the overall winners for the competition. This was quite a feat and due to their accomplishment they were invited to sing at a festival at Carnegie Hall next winter, which is a musician’s dream come true!

Christina’s choir was also invited to sing at a choral festival in Hershey Park in May and the also brought home top awards. Christina participated in NYSSMA as a soloist this year as well and made top marks and has been invited to join the All-County Chorus for next spring’s festival. At the end of May my old college friend Marcia Podsiablo came for a day trip to cook and make Kombucha with me. It was so great to catch up with her.  Samantha went to the Senior Prom with Nick DeLeo and spent the next day at Six Flags in New Jersey. Everyone had a ton of fun!

June brought final exams and the completion of the Girl Scout Gold Award for Samantha and the Girl Scout Silver Award for Christina. We are so proud of them both for accomplishing so much through scouting this year. Karen Sosnoski came up for a few days with Anton and Forester and they had a blast playing with our pets.  Anton is definitely a dog whisperer! Mid-month we went down to Lancaster PA to visit the Stoltzfus Amish farm where we get our dairy through a milk club and had a terrific lunch and visit with Cheryl and Larry Landis and their family as we toured the farm and got to pet the cows, horses and new puppies.  We spent the night at Cha Coventry’s mom’s house nearby and had a great visit with them. The kids were very intrigued that they lived next to an old cemetery!  At the end of the month, Christina bridged to Senior Girl Scouts in a lovely ceremony and I took the girls and their friends to Six Flags for the day and went on every single roller coaster they had. I think I might have been a bit crazy that day!

Over the July 4^th weekend, I hopped on a plane and traveled to Seattle to hook up with Alma Heffling and we drove up in Alma’s Razmanaz Mercedes to Vancouver, BC to join the Nazareth Canadian tour for a few days in Coquitlam and Vernon. It was a beautiful trip through some spectacular countryside, but it was rather cold at the outdoor festival in Vernon! It was nice to get to see Stevie McCormick again and the rest of the Naz crew. We spent a few days driving back to Seattle and had a blast enjoying some girl time.  When I got home, we traveled up to northern Connecticut to see Blue Oyster Cult for two shows and it was nice to have some time to hang out again with Woody, Richie Castellano, Don and the rest of the crew. We also got a chance for a quick visit with Eric and Despina Lipkin and their beautiful daughter Anna who is growing up so fast!

In August we went to the Clark Family Summer Reunion at Chris and Susan’s and it was wonderful to see everyone, but even more wonderful that Pete’s mom had cochlear implant surgery and could hear us all speaking for the first time in a long while! So happy the surgery went well and she is continuing to hear better every day. Uncle Dave Clark was also there along with Jenny, Blair and Morgan, so it was certainly a full house and the girls had fun hanging out with William, Andrew, Claire, Emily, Max and Hannah swimming in the pool and playing sports on the front lawn. Went to Robert Moses for our mostly annual Clark-Revuelta breakfast at the beach day, and Sydney came along too. The waves on Fire Island were huge though because of an off shore tropical storm so eventually we all got out and barbequed and lounged on the beach. Over the Labor Day weekend we went back north to Boston for a Red Sox game and a few days touring the city. It was great to see our friend Terry Watts and Samantha got to tour the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University which she is interested in for college and did some sketching at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. On our swing back down south we went to the Woodstock Country Fair in Connecticut to see Blue Oyster Cult again before getting ready for school the next day.

September found Samantha in her senior year of high school and Christina in her freshman year at Walt Whitman as well. Sam took driver’s education and is now preparing to take her road test. She has turned into a very conscientious driver, of which we are very happy!  Christina was accepted into the Walt Whitman Choral and Women’s choir in which Samantha also participates, and Sam started her first job working at the Elwood Movie Theater as a self proclaimed “Candy Girl”.  She really likes her new job and has made many new friends. We also love it because we can go to the movies for free now!  Stephen and Krissy Karas came for a great visit when Stephen had his 20^th reunion at the Merchant Marine Academy. My parents threw a lovely barbeque with Mark, Veronica, AJ, Daniel and Sydney Andree also in attendance. Had a great dinner with Noreen Revuelta and Tina Whyte, our old neighbors, at the end of the month, and it was just like old times!

October is always busy with birthday celebrations, and this year was no different! Jack and Alma Heffling came east to celebrate Peter’s birthday, their 25^th wedding anniversary and our 23^rd with a fall foliage swing through New England and three more Blue Oyster Cult shows! The foliage was not as spectacular this year as in the past due to the drought we had this summer, but it was still wonderful.

Samantha is in the thick of researching colleges for next year and wants to study art therapy and go to college in the Boston area. November found us on the road again to Boston with AJ Andree in tow to visit Emmanuel College and Northeastern University. Samantha’s first choice is Emmanuel and AJ loves it too. She has applied early action so hopefully we will hear back soon. On the trip back home, we stopped in to visit Matthew and Diana in their new home in Shrewsbury, MA. Evelyn dressed up like a lady bug and gave us a tour of their cozy ranch house and even let Samantha and Christina do her hair in pig tails! We are also thrilled that Diana is expecting another baby which is due by summer, so the Karas Clan grows and grows! We took the ferry home across the chilly sound and started prep for Thanksgiving. Veronica’s family came to celebrate at our house along with my mom and dad and Uncle Christo Karas. We had one of the best Thanksgiving dinners ever! I wonder if my recent daily focus on cooking and food had anything to do with that!?

In December both Samantha and Christina had roles in the Walt Whitman Center Stage production of the comedy, Come on Over to our House, which was wonderfully funny. Sam played a 12 year old bratty girl perfectly, and Christina did a wonderful impersonation of a crazed fan bobby soxer! My parents were not able to come because they were off traveling again through the Panama Canal, but they are home for Christmas and Matthew and Diana will be down as well with Evie.  My brother Stephen is home for the holidays with his family in North Carolina on leave from working as an engineer on a merchant ship in the Persian Gulf, so we are happy he will be with his family at this blessed time of year. Veronica will have Christmas Eve at her house and then it is on to Mom and Dad’s for Christmas day and then up to Massachusetts for Clark Family Christmas over New Years.

Wishing you all the best in the New Year and may 2011 be your best year ever! Tons of love, Peter, Alex, Samantha, Christina, Maggie, Slinky, Calle and Scarlet Clark!