Sunset Atop the "Rock"

This post is an experiment in putting up pictures on this blog. The picture alongside is Sam's, taken from the top of Rockefeller Center.

Christmas Festivities

Christmas eve readings with Father John...

..a.k.a John Carney Sr. or Brian's Dad.

As you can tell certain family members could not sit still and behave for the reader or photographers.

Gazing at Daddy on Christmas morning.

Sharing Christmas loot with Uncle Johnny.

Hanging out in the City before Christmas

First was a Christmas party at

Uncle Johnny and Nicole's place.

(Afterwards at Washington Square Park.)

( Uncle Johnny was very busy

giving important lessons

on taxation, Freedom and George Washington.)

Next was a trip to the Bronx Zoo with Grandma and Grandpa! They are in the next picture, just very tiny.

Below is the Zoo House all aglow.

Then off to Rockefeller Center to see the skaters and more importantly meet some friends in town from Belgium.

And then, up up above for a view at sunset looking Downtown.

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and have an even better New Year!

Countdown to Christmas

Christmas 2004

(notice Brian holding a very tiny baby)

The rest of the snow pictures!

Well, the snow is now just about melted two weeks on, but these photos are still hanging around. We have all been very busy with Christmas preparations. Last week we got the tree up. Yesterday we were at Uncle Johnny's in the city for a Christmas brunch and today it's Christmas cookies with Grandma. What's next? Maybe some more snow hopefully? We'll see.

James, with Luke in the background making the great snowball...

As you can see their neighbor friend Dakota did most of the work!

Finally Luke helps out and James runs to the rescue.

Not quite into the yard, and James is taking a break.

For Good Liz: The front doorstep

Before the big snow last week. Then, after.....

As you can imagine the boys were completely dissapointed to have a snow day, what topped it off was that the street wasn't cleared until 3pm! It was a ton of fun. We have our own private ski slope here when it snows, they should call our street Lee Run instead of road. It was great!

(Below)From in front of the house looking up the street.

Next: Looking down the street, Brian's off to the City for work. :( They should give adults snow days too. Make me president, I'll make it official.

Some of my favorite kid pictures from Brussels...

We sure do miss Brian, Sam and the kids!The winter coats have been brought out here and we are starting to get lots of rain and gray weather. However, the Grand Place is decorated for Christmas and the all of the market stalls are selling neat things which brightens the spirit. Merry Christmas!

After the big dinner...

Pops Before the feast
























Hanging out with Lulu after Thanksgiving dinner at her and Pop's house.

Time goes fast

Happy birthday to Great Uncle Jimmy and Aletheia!

(Below: Two kings from when they were little tikes.)

Nice to see a beach at this time of the year...

(Luke and James hanging out with Uncle Johnny and Nicole at Steps Beach, Puerto Rico.)

These were taken right in front of where Brian's cousin Christa was married to her now husband Jose. It was one of the most beautiful wedding ceremonies we've been to yet. Many blessings to the very happy couple!

(Below: Same view of Steps Beach at night)

Off to Puerto Rico

I don't think so Dad...

























That's better.

More from Maine

(Blowing raspberries for Katja.)

Fun with Carlyn

Two weekends ago up in Maine...
Carlyn, Luke and James stuck in Lago Lamia. They retrieved the anchor for the raft, then forgot to set it down again, so off they went adrift! (Aletheia enjoyed the show. Two pics for those of you who wanted to see Nick too! More to come...)

(They made it! Few!)

Over here, over there.

Here's one of my favorite pictures of little Allie, taken this summer when Sam, Brian and the monsters had just moved back to NY. Yes that is my foot on her chest there. She was having a lot of fun rolling around on Lulu and Pops' kitchen floor, and I was playing with her with my foot, not standing on her.

This blog like, Sam's feelings about moving back to New York shows and interesting and wonderful spilt. Sam and of course Brian and the boys left a life and friends in Belgium in which they had adapted to new people and a lifestyle and culture different from that here, and moved back to New York after many years away but in leaving thier friends and life in Belgium they are now closer to family and other friends who had missed them and missed some of the early years of the kids.
This blog seems to represent that same dichotomy, involving friends and family from either side of the pond. I think that you are all so lucky to have such great people (myself included) both here in and over there.

How long has it been?

My camera is a bit uncooperative at the moment, so I thought I would look back and find old pics to put up. This is as far back as I found (27.7.03) Natan's second birthday, but I know we met long before that. It was even before Natan was one I think. It is hard to believe that it was so long. It makes me miss you and the boys even more!

Julie Anne

P.S. Look closely in the back. Don't we just look lovely :)

Just came across this one from July...

(Mischa and Xavier seeing us one last time in Brussels.)

I wonder, how many pictures can I put up before they close down my blog? Did I mention that this is a very picture oriented blog? :-)

More August

Playing with old Brussels pal Sam down by the promenade in Battery Park.

From August

(Contemplating the city)

Searching for a place to live was lots of fun, as you can see James was thrilled. All kidding aside, the kids were great as we tried to figure out where we were going to live. They definitely had more energy and patience than we did.

On the Staten Island Ferry

(Above: Luke and James on the Staten Island Ferry regarding Madam Liberty)

We took a ride one of the first few weeks we were back home and staying in Battery Park City. If ever you are down on this side of town never go for the touristy rides if you want to see the Statue or the skyline, the NYC secret is to take a ride for free on the Staten Island ferry! As I looked at her, for the first time I understood for a moment how so many must have appreciated that statue standing out there, I even felt as if she were welcoming us back home.

Moving back to New York

So we beat on,
boats against the current,
born back ceaselessly into the past.
F.Scott Fitzgerald

Perhaps this is a misinterpretation of what F. Scott says in The Great Gatsby, (have been thinking a lot about this book because I have only just finally read it!) but it is too true, every day we keep at things in life, keep trying to "get ahead", yet there is almost always some need for the past which definitely sometimes thwarts our daily choices. I wonder whether the past held me back too often while we were living in Brussels, at least the first few years anyway. I couldn't have read this book at a better time because once again I do find myself thinking about the past, about my Brussels past and how it has vanished into thin air, with the exception that I have many friends still there who I think of often. Memory is remarkable, mine is so vivid at the moment, even of material things like the inside of our home in Brussels, they are so clear in my mind that I feel as though I could walk straight back into it and my whole life there. I wonder how long that will linger. Nonetheless, here we are not in Brussels, and so I'm trying to learn a lesson I suppose, trying to embrace my recent past and drag it along with me just enough so that I don't forget all the great things I've learned from friends and all the wonderful places we've had the chance to venture to.

So, we are living the present and enjoying life in New York, meeting more people, (funny enough two of my friends are from Europe, one Irish and the other surprisingly is Belgian, life is funny!) Scarsdale, for those of you who know it not, is a medium sized village of Westchester just 30 minutes by train from Manhattan. It is actually not so bad a place, especially because of it's x-pat community. I think we would have gone through major culture shock if we had moved straight into a striclty american town, nothing against America, it's great, there is sometimes simply not enough diversity in small towns, and for me I think it's something I just don't want to live without. It would be like having a cook book in your kitchen with only one kind of cooking. I suppose you could savour the same thing over and over again and be thankful for it, but if you can have your pick why not be able to cook up all sorts of things?

More later. That's not a threat I hope.

Our old street...

(August 2005, Ixelles, Rue Washington )

Out of Brussels and into Scarsdale...new times.

(Left: Sitting in the front yard as Ma and brothers busy themselves decorating for Halloween, Aletheia pledges allegiance to all pumpkins. )