Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Long live Albania!



Our son-in-law, Matt Mullins, served his LDS mission in Albania. This is a country you don't hear much about, however, Paul and I joined in an Albanian celebration the day after Thanksgiving. We were actually visiting Little Italy in the Bronx when we saw a gathering of people, draped in red and black flags singing and cheering. We walked down the street to see what was going on and found ourselves surrounded by Albanians celebrating their liberation day. We cheered along with them, hummed along as they say their national anthem and shouted after the poem of the flag was read. Children were dressed in the national dress and performed an Albanian dance. Paul and I proceeded to do our shopping for an authentic Italian dinner we were hosting the next day, but the Albanian festival continued with young men driving their cars around the blocks with loud speakers attached playing Albanian music while they honked and waved and demonstrated their true Albanian spirit. Albanian Pride is alive and well in the Bronx.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Time flies.....!




Thanksgiving seems like it was yesterday and here we are already counting down to Christmas. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week with a visit from our dear friends, Larry and LaDawn Gibbons. Along with some friendly competition in the evening playing board games, we watched football, ate, laughed, ate, watched the Macy's day parade, ate, and laughed some more. We had about 12 friends for Thanksgiving dinner and then hosted our annual Thanksgiving Day Bingo game for about 30 people. There were hundreds of fabulous prizes won and several pieces of pie eaten. It was a great New York Thanksgiving.
And now we are in full swing getting ready for Christmas. Merry Christmas to all.