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What's New in the Muncy Family
December 2002 through December 2003
(Click on pictures for an enlarged pop-up window)
What happened in 2001
What happened in 2002
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| December 2002 |
 Erica and Paige both performed
in the Christmas cantata at our local church. Paige sang with the
Kids of the Kingdom choir and danced with the God's Gift of Grace dance
group. Erica, after 5 years of working her way up from manger
livestock, to
 angel, to star of Bethlehem, finally got the starring
role of Mary. The following Sunday Erica (who was drafted for her musical talents), rang with the
talented adult bell choir. Our 2002
Holiday Card was just added to the site.
 You can find it here.
Much to her delight, Paige received a pair of Russian
dwarf hamsters for Christmas, along with a fancy cage. Needless to
say, she just loves them. |
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| January 2003 |
Erica got off to a fast start
in 2003 by moving her birthday up 7 days and throwing a New Years Eve
sleepover with a bunch of her friends. We have the carpet cleaners
on speed dial now.
The biggest news of the year is that Darlene
accepted an offer to move from McNeil (part of J&J) to Johnson & Johnson
Consumer Products, in Skillman, NJ. Her new title is VP of Research
and Development for Oral Health (toothbrushes, mouthwash, floss,
toothpaste, etc.). The best news of all is that she trades her 1hr.
15min. one-way commute for an 18 min. commute.
 Mom
and dad took a break from the kids and skipped off to Washington DC for a
three day getaway weekend by themselves. We hooked up with our old friend
Joan Rothenberg who now lives and works in DC. While there we enjoyed some
fantastic dinners and shows. We saw the great jazz vocalist
Angela Bofill
at Blues Alley in
Georgetown and we saw the brilliant political satire group, the
Capitol Steps,
perform at the Ronald Reagan Building downtown. Click the picture at
left to see Joan and Darlene at
Blues Alley
hiding from fur protestors. |
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| February 2003 |
 Paige's
artwork was selected to represent the Copper Hill Elementary second grade
at an exhibition at the
Hunterdon Museum of Art.
Todd and Darlene celebrated their 27th anniversary.
We took a four day family vacation to Puerto Rico
 over
presidents day weekend. All the gorgeous pictures are
here. On
Sunday we found out that our Monday flight back to NJ was cancelled due to
the huge blizzard that hit the east coast.
 Our bad luck turned out to be great luck. The
hotel gave us an extra night at a great rate, the airline bumped all four
of us to first class to squeeze us in on Tuesday, the flight arrived
early, the limo driver brought a 12 passenger super stretch because he
hadn't dug the sedan out of the snow yet, our landscaper finished clearing
the driveway 15 minutes befo re
we arrived home and Cathie had dinner almost ready to serve when we walked
in the door. The only question that remains is why didn't we buy a lottery
ticket on the way home?
The brownies held their annual Father/Daughter dance.
This year the theme was Mardi Gras and all the girls had a great time
dressing for the part. |
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| March 2003 |
Four big new
slideshows of our family
tours of England and
Alberta, Canada, Todd
and Darlene's Asian cruise
to China, Korea and Japan, and our getaway
weekend in Puerto Rico
during the blizzard of 2003 have all just
 been
added to the site.
The family made their third trip to the
Big Apple Circus
in March. It's a wonderful show that we highly recommend to anyone.
It is under a small big top with a European flavor, quite different from
the three ring Barnum and Bailey type of circus.
Best of all, after playing Lincoln Center, they set
up at Commerce
 Bank
park in Bridgewater, only twenty minutes up the
road.
We were all very proud when Erica was named the Middle
School's "Student of the Month" for her excellent grades, study habits and
deportment. |
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| April/May 2003 |
 April
brought relief from the winter weather and, of course, Easter. Both girls
participated in the Easter programs at church.
 Cathie took the girls and two friends to Six Flags,
Great Adventure right
after they opened for the season.
 In
May our honeysuckle bush blooms,
much to the delight of our
local butterflies. The yellow one pictured to
the left, is known as a painted lady.
For the second year, Paige played softball with the
local recreational league. She brings a big left-handed bat to the
party and really loves the game. We think she was particularly
pleased to find something lefties can do better than righties. |
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| June 2003 |
 Cathie
cut her hair! We kid you not. After many many years of
wearing it long she suddenly got a very short cut. Everyone loves it
and wants her to keep it short.
Paige and Erica both had piano recitals on the same day,
for two different teachers in two different towns. Thankfully one
was in the afternoon and the other in the evening, so everyone could
attend both performances. Both girls did a great job. Click on these
song titles to hear Paige play her two recital selections:
Bugle Call
Golden Trumpets
Click here to listen to Erica's
recital performance. |
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| July 2003 |
In July, we actually repeated
a previous vacation, something we almost never do.
Back in the summer of 2000, we had
such a good time at
Smugglers Notch in Vermont, that we decided to do it again. It's
a huge ski resort, built at the base of the highest peak in Vermont, with
over 3,000 time-shares available for purchase or rent. The included
kids program is the big draw for us. The kids check in after breakfast and
are handed back to you a little before dinner. They run their butts off
and send them home tired and happy.
 We
did take them out of the program one day to see the local attractions
including a tour of
Ben &
Jerry's Ice Cream
Factory which is definitely worth the stop. We also made some
evening trips. One night we took a two hour canoe trip at dusk, just
when the beavers become active, and we saw lots of them.
 What,
you might ask, could we do to top all of this for two jaded kids?
How about a hot
air balloon ride for four. We drove about 30 minutes up the road
to our meeting point, refusing all the way to tell them where we were
going. Imagine their surprise when we wandered down a long gravel
drive and off into a field
where a balloon was waiting to be inflated.
 We took off about 30
miles east of Lake Champlain, the sixth largest lake in America after the
five great lakes. No problem our pilot said, the prevailing winds
blow
 from
the west, which would take us away from the lake.
This was not a typical evening and the winds aloft were blowing from the
east, taking us straight toward the lake. Our 1 hour
ride was cut a little short as we landed in one of the last two farms between
us and the lake after just 53 minutes. Notice the approaching lake
in the backgrounds of the pictures of Erica and Paige shown above. Click
on the pictures for a pop-up enlargement. The kids had a
 blast
and never noticed the pilot's white knuckles. We then enjoyed a
repast of champagne and Vermont cheddar cheese and crackers upon landing.
All this, of course, was shared with the gracious couple who owned the
farm. Click on their picture with our pilot at left. |
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| August 2003 |
Way back in 1986, when Todd
was a district manager for Carrier Corporation in
 Fairfield,
NJ, he had a whiz of an administrative assistant named Angela. She was the
kind of assistant anyone would kill to have. Todd moved on to other
opportunities in 1987, while Angie stayed with Carrier until she retired a
couple years ago. Over
the years they lost touch.
In 2003, Angela discovered the
internet and tracked Todd
 down, sending him a note via snail mail.
They got in touch, met for an elegant lunch, and arranged for her and her
husband Nick to come visit us at our home. We all had a great time,
but Erica was particularly pleased, because Angie gave her a ride in her brand new
punch buggy convertible, a car Erica has begged for since she could talk. |
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| September 2003 |
September is back-to-school
month and always a hectic time in our household.
 Paige
is now in third grade, while Erica is a seventh grader. Erica killed
herself to make the soccer team this year. It is extremely competitive at
her school, with only about half the girls who try out making the team.
Several years of recreational soccer and some summer clinics did the trick
and she made the team. They went on to a very successful season. |
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| October 2003 |
Not to be outdone by her
sister's honor roll status, Paige was accepted into the "gifted and
talented" math program in third grade. The bad news is that all the
adults in the house now struggle to help her with her homework.
 Dad celebrated his 50th birthday by taking a luxurious
vacation with mom and without kids. First they spent three nights in
a suite at the top of the
Chateau Frontenac
(at left) in Quebec City. They
then boarded the the ultra luxury cruise ship the
Seabourn
Pride, bound for Manhattan, via Halifax in Nova Scotia, Boston, and
New port,
RI. A wonderful time was had by all. A picture of a shipboard suite
is at right. The elaborate 56 photo slide show of our trip can be found
here.
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While mom and dad were having fun in Canada, Cathie took
the kids and their friends to pick out
pumpkins and go on a hay ride.
  Mom
and dad were back in time for Halloween. Paige decided she wanted
the Minnie Mouse costume mom made for Erica the year before, while Erica
and one of her silly friends wore matching lion pajamas with lion masks.
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| November 2003 |
  On
the seventh of November, Paige celebrated her ninth birthday. She
chose a home party with a fashion theme, even including a piñata in the
shape of a lipstick. The highlight of the party was a
huge dress-up fashion show judged by Erica and her teenage friends. For a
picture of all the models in their costumes, click the picture to the
left.Thanksgiving was a relatively quiet affair
at home with just the immediate family plus Darlene's brother Tom and his
wife Margaret. |
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| December 2003 |
 Preparations
for Christmas are well underway as this is being written. Paige's
brownie troupe went caroling at a local seniors home.
 You can click the picture on the right to see the view of
our new 12 foot tree as you enter through the front door. This is an
artificial, pre-lit tree that goes up in 15 minutes. We bought this just
before Christmas last year. If you're interested in getting one like this
we highly recommend the people at
treeclassics.com.
They have fantastic post Christmas sales if you're looking for a bargain.
 Erica
just picked up another award for her trophy case. The seventh grade
teachers bestowed their "Caring and Compassion" award on her. We're very
proud to see her receiving awards, not just for being a good student, but
for being a wonderful person.
Our 2003 Holiday Card was
emailed to our friends and added to this site. You can see it
here. We noticed that we no longer
have valid email addresses for many of our friends because they changed
them or switched to broadband during 2003. If you a re one of those friends please email us with your new
address .
Send it to (Everyone<at
sign>MuncyFamily.com). Replace <at sign> with @ of course.
Darlene's younger brother Bill and his wife Melinda
visited with us on Sunday the 21st, so they could attend the Christmas
cantata at the church. Paige was an angel (in the pageant).
Following the services, a large covered dish luncheon was held in the
fellowship hall, where Erica and the rest of the adult bell choir performed several beautiful
selections.
Darlene's brother Bill Hardie, with his state-of-the-art collection of Nikon SLR
digital cameras and lenses, gets the photo credits for the three shots
above. The two individual shots were 200mm telephotos taken from the
rearmost pew of a large and very dark church, hand-held, without any
flash. The bottom picture is two ultra wide-angle shots stitched
together with special software. Do not expect these results with consumer
point-and shoot equipment.
The 58 picture slideshow of Todd & Darlene's vacation in
Quebec City and subsequent luxury cruise back to Manhattan was added to
the site today. Click here to view
our best slideshow yet.
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What happened in 2001
What happened in 2002
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