January 2024

Hi everyone. The big news of 2023 is that Kayla graduated in May with a Masters of Social Work degree from Rutgers University! We were so excited to attend her graduation ceremony and to watch her receive her diploma. She worked very hard to get to this point. You may remember that she has been working at Catholic Charities in Camden, first as an intern and then as a full-time employee. She had been there for over 2 years, and really liked working there. However, she recently felt that she needed a change and just last week she started a new position as a Social Worker at St. Mary’s Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare. We are so very proud of her!

In other Kayla news, she is now living in an apartment in Voorhees, NJ, with her very cute kitty, Nova. It is great that she is living so close to us. Her apartment is conveniently located close to her new job and to shopping.

Mike and Mindy had a very fun trip to Florida to visit with our aunt and uncle. We had a relaxing time hanging out, going to the beach and pool, and flying Mike’s drone. The weather was beautiful. We also had a wonderful visit with cousins in Cape Cod, where we enjoyed each other’s company and shared in some delicious food, in addition to exploring areas nearby which we hadn’t been before.

We attended two lovely weddings of cousins – one outside of Philly and one in Ypsilanti, Michigan, which is near Ann Arbor. We loved helping the newlyweds celebrate and were honored to have been included. We had some time to explore Ann Arbor, which we had never been to before.  The whole area there is really delightful.

We had many visits to the beach much closer to home during the summer. We enjoyed visiting Atlantic City, Margate, Long Beach Island, Ocean City (NJ), Cape May, and Bethany Beach (in Delaware) with both family and friends. We hope to do more traveling in 2024.

Mindy has been continuing to see a few private clients, both in person and on Zoom. She enjoys hanging out and walking with friends and playing Canasta and Mah Jongg weekly. She has also been keeping busy with her crafts and selling them at craft shows and on Etsy.

Mike has been keeping busy as well, doing lots of reading, photography, droning, music, watching movies, and some computer and web-related work. He also attended several concerts – two highlights were seeing Bruce Springsteen and Buddy Guy.

Unfortunately, our beloved cat Cookie passed away in February. He was only 5 years old. We only had him for 3 years, but he had some serious feline diseases which we knew did not have a good prognosis. He was a sweetheart, and we miss him very much.

We hope that everyone is doing well and that we can see more of you in the coming year.