Middletown DE December 2011 Volume 32 Published annually since 1979

From Sheila and Richard Rausch

Sheila and I often reflect that as we get older each year seems to pass faster than the one before. As I look at the calendar it is hard to believe

that it is time to begin thinking about preparing our 32nd Holiday Newsletter.

Each year offers something different and 2011 was a year with no exotic International trips although, we had several weeklong vacations to various

parts of our beautiful country and several shorter trips to spend time with

family and friends. I will try to present the highlights without boring you too much.

February in Florida – We continued the tradition of the past 10

years by spending the cruelest winter month in Florida. February weather was milder than it

had been for a couple of years. We shared a

beach front condo in Daytona Beach with Sheila’s sister Kay and brother-in-law Jim.

Lauren, one of Sheila’s three sisters, had a

business trip to St. Petersburg and

was able to spend

a few days with us at the end of her trip. During Lauren’s stay we drove to Christmas FL where

we met niece Kim (sister Pat’s daughter) and

took an exciting 45 mph Air Boat ride through the St. Johns River. We saw hundreds of alliga-

tors, blue herons and golden hawks, etc. During

our stay we had lunch with old friends, Joan & Bernie Kostlenik and Marilyn & Bob Gartleman at the Ocean Grill in Vero Beach. We also visited the Golf

World Hall of Fame in St. Petersburg again. All in all it was a pleasurable month.

Brooke’s Birthday in CA – We stayed closer to home for a cou-

ple of months before leaving for Los Angeles at the

end of May. We took a few days before getting to

San Marcos to tour the Santa Ynez Valley wine

country. We visited the wineries featured in the 2004 movie “Sideways”. We had a nice picnic lunch

at the Firestone Winery in Pasa Robles, dinner in

Solvang during the 100th anniversary of this recre-ated Dutch Village. We spent a day in Santa Bar-

bara and toured the

beautiful Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove which will soon be part of the Catholic

Church. We arrived in San Marcos a couple of

days before Brooke’s 9th birthday. We helped Debi settle into her new apartment. We

watched Brooke during an equestrian lesson,

where she cantered for the first time. We watched Blake

show his basketball prowess during a league

game. After attending Brooke’s party we drove north along the Pacific coast stopping at Dana

Point, Newport Beach (for lunch at the Crab

Cooker) and spent a night in Costa Mesa. On our last day we drove to Long Beach to see the

Queen Mary and spent the night in Los Angeles

where we had a great dinner at the Hummus House.

Troy & Tori take a trip with us - On July 31, 2011 Troy

Bergwall, 16 and his sister Tori, 14 joined us on a weeklong trip. It was a whirlwind trip with visits to three universities (Univ. VA,

Univ. Richmond and Annapo-

lis), two state capitols (Richmond and Annapolis), two

historic sites (Monticello and

Appomattox), a national park (Shenandoah National Park),

short trips on Skyline drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Add to this daily use of the hotel's pool and hot tub, 15 meals, a little shopping and watching a

funny movie (Horrible Bosses) made this trip memorable.

Sheila & “the Sisters” – Sheila had a couple of trips with her sisters in 2011. The first was a 5 day visit to

Myrtle Beach during the second week of June.

They played Par 3 Golf, floated in the resort’s Lazy River, shopped, dined and did what the

sisters generally do when they are together. On

September 21st Sheila left for Newport News. Pat, Kay and

Sheila then drove

to Charlotte, NC to pick up Lauren for a trip to Nashville where

they spent several days. Highlights of that trip

were The Grand Ole Opry, The Gaylord Hotel and time spent with Wendy, Brett and Maylee

(Pat’s son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter

who drove in from Little Rock. Blake’s Birthday and Las Vegas – While Sheila was in Nashville

I took the opportunity to fly to San Diego to spent

a few days with Debi, Blake and Brooke right after Blake’s 11th birthday. Debi and I had a

chance to have lunch at Poseidon a favorite place

in Del Mar where we walked along the beautiful beach while the kids were in school. On the way

back home I stopped for a couple of days in Las Vegas. I was the guest of Pennie and Goeff

Walser, ex neighbors

from DE. I spend a few hours at an industrial trade

show at the Las Vegas Hilton where I had lunch

with Paul Berge and met several people I worked

with over the past 30 years. I visited Zappo’s with Geoff, had dinner overlooking the “Strip”, saw a

good show (Gordie Brown) in Downtown Las Vegas

and visited the new Hoover Dam bypass bridge where we walked from Nevada to Arizona while

looking down at the dam.

New England with Camille & Bernie – A day after Sheila and I returned from our separate trips we repacked for a trip to Maine. We drove to

nephew Philip Rausch’s beautiful waterfront home in

Kittery ME. We toured southern Maine for the next couple of days with trips

to LL Bean in Freeport, a

tour of and dinner in cosmopolitan Portland, a

nice meal in the artsy

town of Ogunquit, a close up view of the Bush compound in Kennebunkport and some shopping

in the famous Kittery Outlets. We stumbled upon

Apple Acres Farm which is a bit off the beaten path in South Hiram, ME. We snacked on Apple

Cider donuts, fresh apple cider and bought a bag

of hard to find Honey Crisp apples. Bernie had a long discussion with Bill Johnson, the owner

about being an apple

farmer. On the way home we spent a day

in Boston visiting

Quincy Market, the impressive Boston Holocaust Memorial and toured

my old haunts near Northeastern University. After

a night in Framingham we stopped at Stew Leonard's in Danbury for lunch and to look around in this “world” renowned grocery store.

Family and Friends play an important part in our lives – In February we had lunch with the Marilyn & Bob Gartleman and Joan & Berny

Kostelnik in Vero Beach. They have been friends for about 30 years. We

were neighbors for about 5 years and have gotten together at least once a year for the past 25 years. See picture on Page 1. We saw niece Kim, for the first

time in many years, while we were in Florida in February. See page 1 photo.

On March 12 Camille & Bernie, Sheila & I had dinner at Seasons 52 in Cherry Hill, NJ with my cousin Judy Drobes and her husband Joel. We don’t

see them very often but always enjoy catching up on

each other’s lives when we get together. On April 2 Sheila and I drove to New York City to spend a full

day with my oldest friend (since kindergarten) Ed

Goldberg and his friend Ann McGrath. We had lunch, saw a Broadway Show (Wonderland), had drinks at

the Renaissance Hotel and dinner at a Swiss restaurant

(Mont Blanc) to end a nice day. Maizie & Richie Frenkiel were neighbors of

ours in Manalapan, NJ 45 years ago. We moved from

that area over 30 years ago but stayed in contact with them over the years. When we realized that their daugh-

ter Kathy and her family lived near Longwood Gardens

we arranged to tour the Gardens together on May 20. We had dinner at a nearby

Chadds Ford restaurant. The Frenkiels

invited us to spend a couple of days at their Long Beach Is-land vacation home in July. It was our first visit to LBI and

we got a tour of the Island from their home near the National Wildlife Refuge north to Barnegat Light. During our many

hours of discussion we mentioned

Christmas in Odessa, an annual event that occurs near our home on the 1st Saturday of

December. Maizie & Richie spent December 2-4 at

our house and we had a great time touring the His-toric Houses of Odessa, listening to Bell Ringers and

having dinner in Chesapeake City. It was our third

get together of the year and we plan on doing it again next spring. Lyle’s Seventy-fifth Birthday – Sheila’s brother Lyle celebrated

two important events in 2011. In early May their children arranged a surprise

50th Wedding Anniversary party for Lyle and Sylvia in Yorktown, VA. We could not attend that

event but we did attend Lyles 75th Birthday Party

at the Colonial Farmhouse in Surry, VA on September

10th. It was another

“surprise” and was attended by over 30 of Lyle’s family

and friends. Sheila and I had a chance to see many

“long lost” relatives who we do not see very often. The party had several guests providing tributes to Lyle

in the form of song, poetry and speeches. Lyle’s sisters (Kay, Lauren, Pat and

Sheila) performed an original parody that was written by Pat. Jordan Green’s Bar Mitzvah – A few days after returning from

VA we repacked our bags for a weekend trip to New

Jersey to help celebrate grandnephew Jordan’s coming of age. The weekend festivities

began with a dinner at Syna-

gogue Har Shalom followed by Friday evening services and an

Oneg Shabbat where we sam-

pled delicious pastries. Har Shalom is about a mile from

the Warren, NJ house where we lived for 10 years. We had a chance to drive

through the old neighborhood. We did not see many changes in the 15 years since we left. On Saturday there was a dual bar

and bat mitzvah ceremony for Jordan and a young

lady. Jordan did a marvelous job during his part of the service and mother Stephanie gave a moving

tribute to Jordan. A spectacular party was held at

the nearby Primavera Regency where the food and entertainment were “over the top”

Our grandchildren give us joy - Travis, 22 graduated from Kutz-town University in May with a Bachelor of Sci-

ence degree. He worked

as an intern for Center City Film and Video in

Philadelphia during his

last semester. His hard work landed him a full

time job as a Production

Assistant a couple of months ago. Travis travels throughout the mid-Atlantic area working on

various projects. He lives in South Philly, a stones throw from Pat Steaks

which he prefers to Genos. He is in a relationship with Erin Elizabeth who he met at Kutztown.

Trevor, 20 is a sophomore at Temple University and lives in a just

off campus apart- ment with his roommates. He is planning to major in Sports Management

and hopes to spend part of his junior year

studying in Europe. Trevor is an avid sports fan and attends many games in the

Philadelphia area. He is in a relationship with

Dana McCabe. They met last year year when they both had rooms on the same floor of

their dorm. They recently celebrated their first year of friendship.

Troy, 16 is a sophomore at Rustin High School in West Chester PA. He has been in the Boy Scouts for several years and is

closing in on completing all the requirements for Eagle Scout. He is an enthusiastic video gamer and seems to master all of

the games rather quickly. During a trip last summer (see story

on Page 1) he visited the US Naval Academy in Annapolis and now has an interest in applying when is a senior.

Tori, 14 is in the eighth grade at Stetson Middle

School. She is looking forward to entering Rustin High next year. Tori received her ten year award from Kicks

Academy of Dance this past spring. She has been in-

volved in all types of dance from tap to ballet. Tori plays soccer. Her current infatuation is with Cody Simp-

son, a 14 year old Australian Heartthrob, who she met

this summer. Tori takes after her mother and loves cooking and baking. Tori and her brothers are very

devoted to the family pets TJ and Trixie.

Blake, 11 is in his first year at Woodland Park Middle School in San Marcos, CA. He like his cousins, back east, is an

avid sports fan. His true love, though, is basketball in

which he excels. He was on a a Coastal Elite team earlier this year and has just graduated to the Celtics

where he was responsible for half the teams scoring in

a recent game. Blake loves to read and play Flight Simulator and other video and computer games.

Brooke, 9 attends Richland Elementary

School where she is an excellent student. Brooke has been taking horseback riding lessons for the past couple

of years. She has learned to groom and tack the horses

she rides. Learning to ride a horse is a progression of stages and Brooke has been taught to canter, trot and

jump. She looks very elegant sitting with a straight back

atop her horse. Both Blake and Brooke are also devoted to their pets Cody and Cassie.

Bergwall Family Vacation - In late August Becca & Eric took the

family to Jamaica for an all inclusive vacation. Everyone enjoyed the sun and fun before school started a week later.

Camille & Bernie Return from 45 day Trip - They left from San

Diego on October 30 and returned from Sydney on December 12 with stops

in Hawaii, Pago Pago, Fiji, New Caledonia, Wellington, Auckland to name a few. International Dateline and Equator were crossed as well.

Happy Holidays From Sheila and Richard Page 2

Photos - Jordon & Zoe with Sheila and Richard in the background; Proud Grandpa

Bernie with Sheila; Friends Stan Rosen, Ashley Brooks and Uncle Philip.