Playing with my christmas present- the imac!

Mary Rose took this great picture of the Munch in front of the White House
You can see the grandstands on the left of Pennsylvania Avenue here prepped for Jan 20th
Strangely such a warm day...

We ventured down to see the National Christmas tree on the Mall

Here is the munch with her gift from Chrissie- a leap frog table-- very kind of Chrissie!  We called her in Cuba and thanked her on Christmas!

Mary Rose was visiting, so we took the opportunity to go downtown to 

1. see the grandstand being built for Obama's parade- which i doubt we will even get close to on Jan 20th, and 

2. to see the National Christmas tree on the mall.  It was super successful plus it was almost 65 degrees warm!

The Christmas Crazies

What an absolute blast it was driving out to Hagerstown to not only see Grandma and Grandpa rock and family but also play with Matt's sister Beth plus her 7 kiddies!   Zara learned fast from Nate, Jacob and Laurie how to play a toy basketball game; i was SO suprised!  I am just so happy she has so many wonderfully vibrant and sweet cousins to show her the ropes!   I often wonder if she is missing out with no siblings.. so i love the interaction with her cousins.

Christmas morning:  Zara discovers her baby grand piano and plops down on her new potty to play it! I have no idea how she didn't fall through the hole!   HA HA  ( its actually very cute with a toilet paper holder and its own magazine rack! Meg and Renee were with me when i bought it at the Frederick Crafts Fair)

This evening we skyped Uncle Anthony and Auntie Becs in the South of France- sadly they did not have a camera on; but it was great nevertheless!  Anthony and Becs are visiting her family and it is Anthony's first time seeing Bec's brother's new twins!  So sweet!

The ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS PRESENT!

Look who arrived just in time!!!!!

Missy's daughter is the most precious, perfect, smiley, gurgling little one...landing ontime all the way from Addis! Missy was all lit up inside-

even after 18 hours of flying!

A sweet reception party was waiting... Zara and I thank Missy and her family for letting us "suprise" them at Dulles. I won't write more now--- but I could tell that Sitinia & Zara

will have a lifetime friendship- almost like sisters!

Granny and Grandpa Zarr are back in the country!

the much with new arrivals...just back from Spain and Portugal- spending some quality time...

Missy arrived in Addis... and last we heard was trying to rest before meeting

Sitina for the first time! but nothing since, i am sure its whirlwind of emotions and she has no time whatsoever to be playing around on a computer!

MUNCH TOOK HER FIRST STEPS!

well this was not one of them.. she is propped up nicely though! LOL

she did however take about 2-5 frankenstein-like steps on our living room carpet.

I found this particularly poignant since i had just spent the entire afternoon( frustrated) on the phone calling Pediatric Therapists and the insurance company trying to get her in for hypotonia therapy to help her walk faster! Here i am all annoyed that they are telling me that they can only get me on 4-6 months waitlists to gt into weekly therapy and then ZARA pulls a fast one on me!

She is such a little trickster!

Missy is off to Ethiopia in "2 days and a wake up"!

that is military talk... or so Matt tells me!

How surreal it is that MISSY is Baby S's mother LEGALLY in Ethiopia! What a great moment it was when she told me the outcome of her court date!

Now she is counting the seconds until she will see her daughter face to face-the first time for both of them. I will be thinking of her and her parents who are going with her and can't wait for the 4 ( count them FOUR) of them to return. It's sooo thrilling it gives me chills.

Here is the funniest video- its about 4 mins- but the ladies may enjoy it most!

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1370868150/bctid3130509001

couldnt resist posting it... sorry

She took her socks off & then climbed all the way through!

We had a fabulous time at Thanksgiving at Gramma and Grandpa Rock's home. It was so relaxing, warm and really a perfect day. Eileen and Tom were there of course with the BOYZ, and the special treat was seeing Renee back from their honeymoon...Greg even had a tan!

Tonight i was invited with Zara to the Palm by a really wonderful long time guest/friend. I had not been back on a Saturday night like that since i left- it was so generous & thoughful that Laurie and Larry (with their son Michael) invited us to join them. Funny to think i've known them for almost 8 years as they were great Sunday night guests! great seeing my old co-workers and I also saw several other customers as i left- and i think a few of them still thought i worked there! Too funny!

What a nice treat and Zara behaved pretty good- when she loosened up her throwing arm started flinging forks it was my time to depart!

Thinking of MISSY! She flys out of the country on Dec 6th to meet Baby S!

MUNCH a la Plage
waiting for the sunset

Beth has great pool which boasts a seated area with a dining table- little chily for actually sitting in the water- but Munch enjoyed the table top accomodations

Here are the newlyweds! Bob and Diana Worrall on the top of the boat!
Diana is amazing- she won a gold medal in the para-Olympics for Archery! I was so glad to be there & we all had a blast.

Bob Worrall's wedding to Diana in Naples

As we stepped aboard the excursion double decker boat, we were handed Floridian straw hats. The ceremony took place on the upper deck- they had a violinist and harpist! It was a great evening and Zara loved the jamaican-style steel drum band

playing at Joe's Crab Shack!

Above you can see family from my mother's side, Bob & Andrew Worrall, John Stark & his son Colin, as well as Andrew's girl- Anna!

Here is Ruth Stark, my mother's cousin- they all flew in from Edinburgh, Scotland!

Zara in FLORIDA

We arrived in Fort Myers on time and in one piece- well at least Zara was!  just teasing- we were great .. go our rental car and drove right to the beach!  The wedding was fabulous- more to come on that!  

here are some cutie pics with Jan - Our friend in Ft Myers!  we had a beautiful beach day.. as evident...

much love to all, write more soon, jocelyn

Days before the wedding!

REHEARSAL DINNER first

and then the beautiful church...

Sad the wedding weekend is over...

We went to see Beth before the wedding and Zara had a blast with their hamster! Then the festivities began! Laurie, Maddie (beth's kids) and Megan and Mary Rose were so

helpful with Zara and kept her from embarrassing me in church!

The party was outstanding- and after reading Beth's blog I was laughing so hard about her statement that her kids were in awe of the ladies room attendants! I forgot that Laurie came to me to say that a lady just gave her a towel in the bathroom! So funny!

It was first class service at the Manor.

Zara had the time of her life!

Pictures are coming in from all sides- I need to actually download my shots,

the wedding was spectacular! What a celebration it was! As I write...methinks Renee and Greg might actually be sitting on the beach in ARUBA!!!

Greg & Renee's wedding was beautiful

The last fews days; Lots of Excitement

Zara has enjoyed the recent fun with lots of friends- despite discovering she has been fighting a dual ear infection! We finally saw her Dr. since she seemed to have a cough for the past two weeks & now a runny nose... who knew it was the second ear infection of the
























season! She seems so good natured most of the time- it's hard for me to tell if something is really wrong. Bad mothering yet again! The good news is that she gained almost 2 pounds over the last 3+ months- so that was somewhat uplifting news.
Sunday we went to Great Falls and saw the roaring Potomac River. Uncle Mel from Maine was in town- unfortunately Aunt Gail could not make it- but we hope we managed to show Uncle Mel a good time. Zara tried very hard to say Uncle Mel several times- it was so funny b/c apparently all she hears are the "L's" and basically says lalalala.
































































Here are Cathy's kiddies Isabelle and Charlotte up near Baltimore! They were so sweet with Zara and even gave her more super nice clothes to wear! Thank you Cathy! We love the purple outfit with fluffy cuffs pictured here!
Tomorrow we are off to New Jersey for the BIG wedding! So see you all soon!

THE Bachelor Party! Zara works the crowd!

Zara partaking in some of Dada's ribs!

Suddenly seeing all the NEW JERSEY contingient descend upon DC made

Greg and Renee's wedding feel that much closer!

The energy was great; except Zara wanted more ribs! In the picture you can see Matt and his four brothers- Greg- soon to be married, Jimmy, Tommy, and Jay! Tommy Falk was there- Eileen's-(Matt's sister) husband... and so was Steve Falk, HIS brother! Greg had some cop buddies Ben & Mike. In fact, Mike was Matt's old cop partner who introduced me to Matt. John F and the Patriarch- Matt's Dad, John too!

As one can imagine, it was an unruly bunch- glad i didnt ride the metro with them!

Matt made his famous Brisket and then the crew went to the Verizon Center to

enjoy another CAPS win-- sorry Ranger fans!

Can't believe we leave for Jersey on Tuesday already!

I was up all night!

Amazing day and night- and had hoped not to get into any political detail on this blog- but i am so intrigued with the global response. Strange being in DC as well-Matt said we could hear fireworks and people cheering in our neighborhood at midnight!

I was so happily stunned-i have to admit i had my favorite candidate

yet highly doubted a win.

I found myself talking to Victoria, Anthony and in the UK at 4am as well as Aisha in Holland- the global ramifications are only just beginning to emerge. A friend i knew in Egypt who now lives in Dubai texted me,"a massive redemption".

I am in awe that so many people from around the world were watching this election and cared to the extent that they did (and do)!

We should all be proud no matter our party alliances!

Anthony told me that an Irish co-worker of his had taken a vacation day off from work so he could stay up all night to witness first hand democracy at work in the US! That story alone should make us all feel good no matter who you are and who you voted for!

I admit- I am now thrilled I have our little mini video from our historic voting experience preserved for Zara in her future!

Whatever your opinion, one can not deny the thrill of this amazing race and that we are alive to see it occur... It was just over 150 years ago we had 4 million enslaved in this country- and the first african slave was brought to Virginia in 1619.

OKAY, okay! New topic-
just check this video out if you have small kids!! amazing if we could teach our babies this!
http://www.childdrowningprevention.com/index.html

Halloween vid from our local Park's party!!

Our voting experience was very relaxed, walked up the hill to the school; shared a muffin we bought from school's bakesale and even sat on a bench for a while to watch others come and go!

Friendship Park, a 5 block walk from our house, hosts a Halloween Parade Party every year. It was a scene- packed of kiddies & no two costumes identical! They gave away free cider and cupcakes, and had a banjo player too. Granny Zarr made a suprise appearance and we saw Max and Karina there too!

Sunday Soccer day!

Somehow we made it for an 8am soccer game! (probably due to the time change in our favor- otherwise I highly doubt that you would see this pic now!)

We started the game with four men down .. but beat the odds, and won 4-0!!!! Lauren- our weekly MVP- loaned her lucky soccer cleats to our

newest player- Zara.

For those of you reading Missy's blog- she has really hit a tough hurdle- but with all of us pulling for her- i know things will come through soon...thinking of you

and baby "S", Missy!

Happy Halloweeen from our Flower Child

Here we are at Frienship Park with Max and his Dad Mark- who i have known since '69!