Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

from Ron & Marlene Robershaw!!
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for , behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord! Luke 2:8-11
For our Christmas present last year, my son Ritchie gave Marlene and I, opera tickets to see the opera Turandot, in January. Ritchie, his wife Pauline and sister Cindy are regular ticket holders. It was the first opera I attended!! The picture on the right, is my daughter Cindy and I. We had gone out to celebrate her birthday!!
For grandaughter Katharine's 17 birthday, we all went on a Whale Watching cruise out of San Diego. It was a beautiful day on the ocean. Besides spotting a few whales at a distance, we went thru a pod of Dolphin. The Captain said we were surrounded by about 2000 dolphin !! Valerie and Ken and girls seated at left.
February was a really exciting month. We had the Usticesi Reunion at our house and also the pleasure of hosting Pietro and Pina Bertucci from the Island of Ustica, off the coast of Palermo Sicily, and Maria Bertucci from New Orleans. Both Bertucci's are cousins of Marlene thru her Great, Great grandmother Maria Manfre, on the Marchese side. The Reunion was a gathering of people in Calif. with roots in Ustica. We had around 70 here. -----Top left - the Bertucci's at Cabrillo Point after arrival, top right - desserts at the party with Maria ---bottom left - Marlene with cousin Pietro (her and Tom had met him when in Ustica in 2010)--Bottom right - almost all of the Marchese's Family at reunion. Usticesi Reunion Photos
This is pictures from our Easter with son Tom and wife Kim and kids. on left, family picture taken at Saddleback Church in Orange County, CA--on right, Chloe and Olivia modeling their Easter dresses. They are now 6 yrs. old and son Justin is 3.
Here is some time with son John and wife Elaine and boys. top left and right are pictures of Nieto's big day of getting another special ACE award at school. He gets one every year. It is for Academic Excellence and Citizenship. He is standing with Mom and Dad. bottom pictures are their fun times this year ---at left is their birthday tripin April to Paradise Pt. an island at San Diego Bay. Right is the boys at zoo taking picture by an elephant statue.
On February 26th, we all had a big surprise, real SNOW, in San Diego !!! It snowed all night and the next morning it was so beautiful. !! Marlene was so excited, she could hardly stop from taking pictures and playing in the snow. Left is the view of our valley from the house, and on the right, Marlene on the mountain behind our house.
This year Marlene got back into sewing some clothes, sort of out of necessity. To the left is a summer dress she made (pushed into doing it by grandaughter Rachel). Right is a photo on Mother's Day, flowers from Tom and family.
 

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