THE BIG ICE STORM OF 2008

I love these grand titles of weather, calling them 'EVENTS' like we actually had anything to do with them, but the reality is that it WAS quite an 'event' especially in light of losing several big branches - and our power for 3 days. 

But the visual spectacle of ice encasing EVERYTHING was very cool. 

Passage...

This picture jumped right out at me. It's from our Thanksgiving gathering this year at the Strauss home in Scarsdale, NY. 

First of all, it's really funny - always the mark of a good photograph, right? Secondly, it poignantly illustrates the cycles of life. 

Diana's grandmother Miriam (Mate) Ginsburg was 99 3/4 years old when she came to Thanksgiving dinner with her whole family around her. She looks terrific, is playfully engaged with her 5 great-grandchildren (here's she's got Charlie, who looks perfectly comfortable in her lap), and is a force of life in the family. Two days after this she slipped away in her Manhattan apartment, much to the surprise of all of us. Lucid and bright-eyed to the end, it seemed the right way to say goodbye, although not easy.  She'll be missed by all of us.

Meanwhile, the 5 kids of that generation will soon be 6. Here is Diana, 6 1/2 months on with the Bump (as our friends in the UK like to say), and Charlie getting a big kick out of his weird looking aunt.

Player to be named later....

We've got a short list of names but nothing official until after the baby comes. 

Today was amazing! This capture from the sonogram might look like the shroud of Turin to most, but to us it looks like the baby's first pictures - really beautiful!

I had no idea they did ultrasounds with 3-D imaging, but it's very cool: You can see the eyes, the lashes!, the mouth and nose almost as if the baby was right there in our arms. 32 weeks down and about 8 to go.

Next time we see our baby will be right in front of us. So far everything looks perfect.

Happy Holidays to everyone.